Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are entirely our own and not necessarily those of our employer or any other occupational therapist.

Wednesday 29 April 2009

CPD, Portfolios and Practice Educators


Hello to all our practice placement educators who attended this afternoon's meeting here at the university. It was good to meet you all (and to see some familiar faces - can it really be that long ago since you were students here!!!). Hopefully you have been stimulated by some of the projects and research opportunities we talked about - I know Viv will be sending out emails with the list attached so that you can also share the ideas with your colleagues - and who knows we could be collaborating on some very interesting yet diverse projects.

In terms of the CPD session I led, the key points to remember are:
1. Follow the HPC standards closely
2. If you are chosen for the audit in August this year you will need material from August 2007
3. If you have no material at all - start now - you will then be ready for the audit in 2011
4. If you are chosen you will need to write a profile
5. The COT and HPC have agreed exemplars for profiles for educators, managers and practitioner that you can use as a guidance
6. The HPC also have a very clear list of what CPD activity could be and what might consitute evidence


After demonstrating my own online portfolio (it's not quite ready to be openly linked at the moment - but those eagle eyed of you may have spotted the URL this afternoon and may want to visit. Watch this space as I shall link it through soon) it was interesting to consider some of the issues around public vs private profiles and what decisions might need to be considered before engaging in this. As was mentioned there are a number of software platforms that can be purchased for developing and maintaining a portfolio on line. I chose to use wikispaces for mine and have been influenced very much by Sarah Stewart (NZ ) here she writes about her experiences of developing an eportfolio. .
If you are interested in online presence and profiles then you might be interested to read a previous blog post of ours on professional blogging and also Sarah's Musings on the subject where she considers some of the aspects touched on this afternoon.

Anyway, hope you gained something from this afternoon - maybe you'd like to add a comment or even a reflection at the end of this post (if you're not sure here's a link that might help) - it'll all go to evidencing your CPD (networking with peers, reflection, developing online identity etc etc!!)

9 comments:

Sarah Stewart said...

Thank you for the mention-I would love to hear what people think about having open ePortoflios, esepcially in view of concerns about privacy & security.

Angela said...

Hi Sarah - I have days when I want to throw caution to the wind and link it everywhere and others where I feel like deleting it and keeping it sacred. I think when people are shocked that I have one I begin to question why - then I just think about all the things you have reflected on and in fact most of the info contained within is in the public domain in one form or another. I have taken the plunge and linked it through my LinkedIn network - am almost ready to link through my blogs - need a bit more of a push I think on that one.

Anonymous said...

Good post! In NZ our eportfolio's are currently contained within our OTBoard's website, password protected, and secret except to our supervisors and 'third party' signatories.
I don't like the interface, and don't put very much on there - partly because I spend so much time reviewing and reflecting via my blog that I don't want to duplicate, but also because it seems quite limiting.
I have no qualms about 'wondering' outloud/in public about my practice, and my profession, I think it's healthy and allows me to have input from across a range of spheres. But I can understand how some practitioners wouldn't like this.
One question is - how much time do you spend documenting your reflections? Does documentation capture the important aspects of reflections?

Joanna said...

Hi all,

I am an Australian OT and will be visiting the UK in December/January 09/10. I am keen to attend some PD events whilst I am there and am having trouble finding information about what is on at that time (if anything). I am hoping that someone may be able to advise me of events that will be happening - Thanks very much.

Angela said...

@ Joanna - hello and thanks for visiting our blog.
I am sure that there will be events happening during the time of your visit - it may be that it is a little to early to be advertising these at present.
Have you contacted COT -our UK Professional Body who frequently run CPD events (www.cot.co.uk)? I'm sure they will be able to help - also - of you are on Facebook you could ask occupational therapists who may work in the locations you are intending visiting if they know of any events.
Good luck and hope your visit is enjoyable and successful.

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HPC CPD Online said...

I think an eportfolio of any description is a fantastic idea and I can't understand why anyone would be shocked that you have one Angela? Surely their is nothing to hide in your eportfolio and is something you should be proud of and demostrates how committed you are to your job and personal development.