The portfolio is “a strictly personal tool aimed to promote a wider awareness of one’s own skills, potential and aspirations, in order to develop a personal, social and professional project for life” (Pellerey 2004). The portfolio is acknowledged as essential also for the nurse as it enables them to define their individual professional abilities and to promote their professional development. It allows, in particular, a skill-evaluation, encouraging the ability to think, to analyze and trace back one’s own skills, as well as the ability to plan and organize. In the professional worker it can develop the awareness of his/her resources dealing with the working context, it can display the educational needs, orientate towards lifelong learning, and it helps self-education.The analysis of the data showed that the portfolio is a useful tool, that filling it in encourages the reflection upon one’s own professional experience, the self-evaluation of one’s own skills, it allows to observe step by step the abilities gained and to foresee their development. The portfolio makes the nurse aware of his/her professional path and it allows to plan the one to undertake, through reflection. This is particularly perceived by expert nurses. The novices actually state that the portfolio is a useful tool especially to single out the abilities learnt in the training. Both novices and experts agree in saying that the portfolio helps fostering the culture of educational needs definition, it orientates towards self-education and lifelong learning. Filling in this form has shown some negative aspects, as it is perceived as a laborious process that makes one live again some emotionally demanding experiences, anyway these difficulties didn’t stop the nurses from filling it in. Considering the difficulties the participants found filling in the portfolio, it would be advisable to use some “guidelines” that would make it easier, as suggested by many authors (McCready 2007). The findings of this experimental study, even if limited by the low number of participants, foresee its systematic use in Intensive Care.
The portfolio as a tool of professional development in Intensive Care
CUNICO, Laura;
2008-01-01
Abstract
The portfolio is “a strictly personal tool aimed to promote a wider awareness of one’s own skills, potential and aspirations, in order to develop a personal, social and professional project for life” (Pellerey 2004). The portfolio is acknowledged as essential also for the nurse as it enables them to define their individual professional abilities and to promote their professional development. It allows, in particular, a skill-evaluation, encouraging the ability to think, to analyze and trace back one’s own skills, as well as the ability to plan and organize. In the professional worker it can develop the awareness of his/her resources dealing with the working context, it can display the educational needs, orientate towards lifelong learning, and it helps self-education.The analysis of the data showed that the portfolio is a useful tool, that filling it in encourages the reflection upon one’s own professional experience, the self-evaluation of one’s own skills, it allows to observe step by step the abilities gained and to foresee their development. The portfolio makes the nurse aware of his/her professional path and it allows to plan the one to undertake, through reflection. This is particularly perceived by expert nurses. The novices actually state that the portfolio is a useful tool especially to single out the abilities learnt in the training. Both novices and experts agree in saying that the portfolio helps fostering the culture of educational needs definition, it orientates towards self-education and lifelong learning. Filling in this form has shown some negative aspects, as it is perceived as a laborious process that makes one live again some emotionally demanding experiences, anyway these difficulties didn’t stop the nurses from filling it in. Considering the difficulties the participants found filling in the portfolio, it would be advisable to use some “guidelines” that would make it easier, as suggested by many authors (McCready 2007). The findings of this experimental study, even if limited by the low number of participants, foresee its systematic use in Intensive Care.
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