ePortfolio
You may find our ePortfolio induction video helpful:
The ePortfolio is your main training record as a IMT trainee, obtained after enrolment with JRCPTB for the training programme. It contains the curricula for signoff, areas for personal development plans (PDPs), records the details of your appraisal meetings, logs workplace based assessments, and provides space for reflective practice and a personal library. Some areas are restricted for trainee access alone, others for trainer access alone.
The ePortfolio helps you to plan and develop your learning throughout IMT to attain the competencies defined in the curriculum. Development of the e-portfolio is the trainee’s responsibility and you should keep it up to date on a regular basis and not leave the completion of it until you have the deadline of an ARCP. It is also the trainee’s responsibility to present their ePortfolio to their educational supervisor on a regular basis for appraisal of the evidence of competencies. Do not expect your Educational Supervisor to spend hours the day before your ARCP, little and often is better.
E-portfolio is simple to use and navigated using the drop-down menus. The best way to learn to use it is to practice and it should not take you long to be fully competent. However, if you come up against any difficulty it has a help function, accessed via the top right of it's website. If this doesn't address your question your RCP Tutor or JRCPTB will be able to help.
If you find you are unable to write in any section (denoted by a red X) this is because you do not have access for this task. For example you will not be able to write your own end of placement appraisal! This must be completed through your supervisor’s log-in by your supervisor personally.
A comprehensive guide to using the ePortfolio is available from the JRCPTB.
Competency attainment is demonstrated by "linking" evidence to the appropriate curriculum item in the ePortfolio. Appropriate evidence to support attainment of a curriculum item may include workplace-based assessments, reflection on learning events or teaching sessions, course certificates and evidence of e-learning. It is not necessary to make many links against each curriculum area – 2 or 3 pieces of quality evidence is better, eg copies of feedback following a teaching session you have given.
Each curriculum item has a description of appropriate types of evidence and different levels described. This can be viewed by clicking the "i" button next to each curriculum item although a ‘rule of thumb’ is that you have achieved a competence if your supervisor thinks you are at a level ready to progress to ST3 in that area.
Each curriculum competence should be signed off by a trainees clinical or educational supervisor but prior to this the trainee should complete a self-assessment of that item against the different levels listed. This is done by clicking the "pen" button next to an item. In the trainee's self-assessment they should ideally describe why they think the evidence provided suggests the level of sign off identified.
General guidance given to supervisors includes:
- A trainee should not be signed off for a competence if they do not have sufficient evidence associated with that competence
- For most curriculum areas trainees will be expected to have 2 or more appropriate pieces of linked evidence but one piece of evidence is sufficient if it demonstrates a competency has been properly explored.
- A trainee should not be signed off for a competence if it is felt more experience is needed or more evidence needs to be collected to attain the desired level.
In order to gain access to e-portfolio and to be awarded a certificate of completion of IMT, you must enroll with JRCPTB which will incur a charge. Instructions for this are found on www.jrcptb.org.uk. You will receive an email from JRCPTB with an invite to enroll; do not attempt to enroll until you have received this invite as the system will not be ready for you until then. If you have not received an invite within the first two months, then please contact JRCPTB on ePortfolioteam@jrcptb.org.uk . We have been advised that your e-portfolio account will be frozen if this is not completed within the first 3 months of your start date.
Once you've logged onto the ePortfolio for the first time, please update your personal details to contain an up to date email address that won't move when you change hospitals, and a phone number.
Clinics are a rich resource for learning, allowing you to hone your skills in history taking, compiling differential diagnoses, and practicing examination skills. As an IMT trainee you are required to attend 80 clinics over three years. It is appreciated that there can be barriers to attending clinics regularly - a list of 'top tips' has been compiled which you can access here. Please discuss this with your Clinical and Educational supervisors, and if you experience any issues in acquiring clinic time, please discuss this with them at the earliest opportunity.
Clinic attendance can be recorded using the "template for recording procedures and clinics" which can be downloaded from the JRCPTB website. This has to be uploaded to your ePortfolio prior to ARCPs and should be accessible to your supervisors to aid them in writing their reports on you.
It's expected that you will experience a variety of different clinic settings and this should be reflected in your clinic log.
General guidance on what constitutes a clinic includes:
- At least 2 patients
- The trainee consulting with the patient themselves (rather than purely "sitting in")
- The patient is "ambulatory" which would include day ward work.
Reflection is an important tool which can help us make sense of, and develop from, experiences that we have had in our everyday working lives. It can take time to hone this skill, but when performed well it has many benefits:
- Learning about what went well, and not so well
- Developing ourselves professionally
- Developing ways of coping when traumatic events happen, particularly in healthcare
- Utilising reflections as templates for discussion and demonstrating personal growth
The 'Reflective Practitioner' is a very useful resource to help with this skill, you can find it here.
The ePortfolio has templates which you can use to reflect with, and you can utilise whichever template fits best with your experience. It also gives you a way to link to non-assessed experiences to curriculum items. You can access this by clicking on the ‘Reflection’ tab on ePortfolio. You can reflect on:
- Interesting cases
- Clinical events
- Formal teaching and courses you have attended
- Learning during attachments
- Your own management or leadership experiences
As reflection can be a very useful tool we can all learn from together, we would like you to send in your reflections so that we can present a selection for everyone to share and discuss together. This is completely anonymised and reflections will be edited and ‘themed’ over the coming months. The e-mail address to post these to will follow soon!
Once you're registered with the ePortfolio system and able to logon, we suggest you carry out the following initial tasks:
1. Check your details are correct and enter demographic details that have not been entered.
This can be found by clicking the profile menu and the "Personal Details". If you discover that your educational supervisor is different to that recorded in the e-portfolio please inform your RCP Tutor and when a new supervisor has been allocated ask the IMT Programme Coordinator to update your e-portfolio with the correct details. Important details to update include email and phone numbers and it is useful to upload a photo of yourself so that assessors who you may have worked with less frequently can better recall your assessment.
2. Sign your Declaration of Probity and Health under profile menu/"Declarations and Agreements". These need to be signed at the beginning of each IMT year when you first log onto e-portfolio. All doctors must have integrity and honesty and must take care of their own health and well-being so as not to put patients at risk. This is clearly set out in Good Medical Practice (GMP). You must read the relevant sections of GMP before completing the self-declarations for health and probity.
3. Check that your relevant certificates are entered by clicking profile menu/"Certifcates and Exams" and "College Exams/Certificates". These must include ALS and MRCP but the list is not exhaustive. The trainee can enter these to be confirmed later by their supervisor. All parts of MRCP must be verified by your supervisor in the curriculum area of your portfolio. The JRCPTB now upload MRCP results into the College Exams/certificates area of the e-portfolio. You are advised not to fill up this section with certificates from online learning modules, but keep it for professional qualifications and mandatory courses. You can enter certificates from online modules into your library and use reflective practice in order to use these to link with the curriculum.
