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UCL Medical School News
UCLMS Medical Education Conference - Transitions in Medical Education
May 07, 2013 09:15AM
Booking has now opened for our third Medical Education Conference on the 12th June 2013!
Read more...UCLMS Seminar: 'Practicing professionalism in an age of digital social networking': exploring the digital divide
Mar 22, 2013 12:18PM
Dr Scott Rice – Practicing professionalism in an age of digital social networking: exploring the digital divide
Read more...UCL Medical School Hubs
Mar 22, 2013 12:17PM
We’re very pleased to announce that the first stage of a major estates upgrade for UCL Medical School is now underway. The upgrade is designed to develop Student HUBS and enhanced teaching space at each of our 3 main campuses. Plans and progress will be published on the UCLMS website as the projects develop at each site.
Read more...NHS Change Day: do something better together
Feb 15, 2013 16:54PM
NHS Change Day will take place on 13.03.13. It will be one day during which the collective energy, creativity and ideas of thousands of NHS staff, and those who support the NHS, in all areas of work and right across the country, will demonstrate how one simple action or new idea can make a difference and improve care for patients, their families and their carers. The team behind NHS Change Day are asking people to make pledges of an action or idea. You can see our pledge on the NHS Change Day pledge wall .
Read more...Speak Up! The 2013 National Student Survey seeks your views
Feb 12, 2013 10:26AM
Speak up!
Read more...Year 4 ePortfolio
What should I put in my ePortfolio?
Meeting your module supervisor or personal tutor
Reflective practice and other features of ePortfolio
How will my ePortfolio assessed?
What is an ePortfolio?
The ePortfolio is a collection of documents providing evidence of learning, achievements, and personal and professional development. The MBBS course is supported by a portfolio throughout the programme. A portfolio is a place for you to reflect on and describe your learning and to collect and structure evidence of your achievements, competencies and your ability to reflect on practice. All doctors now have to maintain a portfolio during training and for revalidation, and so we hope this will prepare you for your postgraduate professional life. It should also help you prepare for writing application forms such as the Foundation Programme application.
ePortfolio at UCL
In the past students collated a paper portfolio but from 4th year onwards, all students will now start using the NHS ePortfolio. This is the ePortfolio that is used by most Foundation schools. Foundation doctors have said that one of the things that they found most difficult when they started working was learning how to keep the ePortfolio at the same time as learning their new role, so we hope that by getting used to the ePortfolio as a student, you will find this transition easier.
Accessing your ePortfolio
Access your ePortfolio at www.nhseportfolios.org
ePortfolio is used by many trainees including all Foundation trainees in London. You shouldn't have any problems with NHS Trust firewalls preventing access, but if you do, please contact us to let us know.
Please note that ePortfolio works best with the web browsers Firefox and Safari, and less well with Chrome or Internet Explorer.
ePortfolio does not yet have an app or a phone-friendly website - but these should be coming soon!
What should I put in my ePortfolio?
Your ePortfolio is the main place where you will enter assessments and records of learning for 4th year.
The following elements should be directly entered on to ePortfolio over the course of the year:
- 4 reports from meetings with your Personal Tutor
- 3 End of Module reports
- 15 supervised learning events (SLEs)
- 2 mini-PAT exercises
Some modules use placement report forms. These are designed to give tutors from different elements of a module (for example a GP placement) a chance to feedback their assessment to the module tutor, and may help to determine your overall module grade.
You should upload these elements to your Personal Library
- Tutor feedback from your cancer project
- Tutor feedback from your reflective practice essays, or evidence of your participation in a Balint group or student psychotherapy scheme
- Tutor feedback from your drug project
- Scanned signed procedures card.
You should upload your IoM and formative SBA results to the reflective logs section, which has a specific form for exam results.
The ePortfolio is quite flexible and your Personal Library can be used to store other documents which aren’t compulsory for fourth year assessments, but which you think demonstrate your professional development or show evidence of other activities and achievements. For example, this might include certificates for attendance at extracurricular events, feedback from teaching you’ve given, audit, research, or anything else that you think is relevant.
Supervised Learning Events
Supervised learning events (SLEs) include Case based Discussions, Clinical assessment EXercises, and Case Note Reviews. These assessments are designed to give you feedback on your performance, and in particular to give you specific tips or ideas to improve your clinical skills or knowledge. SLEs are a new format so your
teachers may initially be unfamiliar with them. They replace work-based assessments, and you may still hear teachers refer to these as work based assessments. SLEs are deliberately designed not to be graded, as the focus should be on giving you feedback about how to improve.
In each module you must complete at least 5 SLEs:
Two of these should be Clinical assessment EXercises (CEX), also called miniCEX.
Two of these should be Case based Discussions (CbD) or Case Note Reviews (CNR). Case Note Review does not have it's own form but is recorded on a CbD form.
In the ePortfolio, you will also find two other forms, Developing the Clinical Teacher (DCT) and Directly Observed Procedures (DOPs). These forms are used by Foundation doctors, and are not compulsory for you to use. However, you are welcome to make use of them if you wish, but they will not count as an SLE for your UCL assessments.
The Clinical assessment EXercise is a snapshot of the student-patient interaction. The assessor observes an aspect of your interaction with the patient - an observed history, examination or discussion with a patient, depending on the firm/module. The assessor can then make a judgement of your clinical skills, attitudes and behaviours, and give you some feedback to help you improve. Ideally, each CEX should represent a different clinical problem, and you should try to cover a range of different areas during the year.
The Case based Discussion should be used to have a focused discussion around a patient you have seen; the patient is not normally present during the discussion. You should select a patient you have clerked and know well. The discussion will start from your clerking and should assess your clinical decision making and the application of your medical knowledge to the care of the patient. The discussion might include the investigation, management and treatment plans for the patient, and the ethical and legal framework of practice. You can choose the timing, case and assessor but normally a consultant or GP should be the assessor for at least one CbD in each module.
The Case Note Review allows the clerking to be assessed without you being present and is designed to be used in firms who cannot ensure that an assessor is always present to assess a student in person. You should produce anonymised, handwritten, contemporaneous notes on hospital paper, as if they were going to be filed in the patient’s record. You should include a differential diagnosis, management plan and your reflections on the case. CNRs should be recorded on a CBD form.
Do not write an essay, or spend hours polishing and typing up your notes! The aim of the CNR is to assess your written communication as if you were a doctor working on that firm - you will certainly not have time to polish or retype your notes when you are a doctor. Use the time instead to read around the case.
Directly Observed Procedures assessments are used to give your feedback on a procedure that you do, such as cannulation or catheterisation. The main place for you to record these procedures is on your Procedures Record Card. This form is not a compulsory part of the UCL ePortfolio, so does not count towards your total of five SLEs per module, but can be used to seek and record feedback on your procedural skills if you choose. For example, you may want to use this form if you perform a procedure which is not on the Procedures Card.
The Developing the Clinical Teacher form is used to give feedback on a teaching event. This could be any form of teaching which you have done, including giving a presentation to your group or teaching more junior students. This form is not a compulsory part of the UCL ePortfolio, so does not count towards your total of five SLEs per module, but can be used to seek and record feedback on your teaching if you choose.
You can ask any clinician who is an FY2 or more senior to complete these forms, although your firm teachers may specify who will complete them. You are responsible for organizing the time and assessor; there is dedicated time in your module timetable during which you are expected to clerk and present patients for assessment.
How to... record an assessment immediately when the assessor is present
- Log in to your ePortfolio account
- Select Forms, then Supervised Learning Events from the bar across the top
- Select Add New Assessment
- Select Create next to the type of form you want to create
- Complete the form with your assessor. Once you have saved the form you will not be able to make any changes.
How to... send a ticket for an assessor to complete the form later
- Log in to your ePortfolio account
- Select Forms, then Ticket Requests from the bar across the top
- Select Request New Assessment
- Fill in all the required details. You will need to know your assessors email address in order to send them the ticket.
- When the assessor receives the email they should click on the link to complete the form.
- You can remind someone about an assessment if it has not been completed after seven days. Select Send Reminder next to the ticket you want to remind them about.
You will be able to access the form and see the feedback the assessor has given you immediately.
Tips for getting the most out of supervised learning events
Plan ahead
Think about when you are going to do each assessment and who you are going to ask to assess you. Remember that Foundation Year 1 doctors cannot complete forms for you, so you may need to plan to do assessments when you know you are going to be working with a more senior doctor.
Ask in advance
Ask the person you want to assess you before the procedure, discussion or examination so that they can give you some instant verbal feedback on your performance, as well as completing the SLE form. Don’t wait until three weeks have passed before asking someone to do a CbD about that patient you saw together - they may not be able to remember the case and will probably refuse!
Expect to learn from them
There is cynicism among many junior doctors about SLEs. If you treat them as a tick-box exercise, then that’s what they will become; a chore to be completed without any benefit to you. If you treat them as a learning exercise and expect to learn from them then you will. You should try and spread out the SLEs during your attachment - doing them all in the first week to try and get them out of the way is not the best way to learn from them.
MiniPAT
The miniPeer Assessment Tool or miniPAT is designed to gather feedback from a group of your fellow students. You will select a group of colleagues to rate your clinical and professional skills, and provide free text comments. You will also need to rate yourself in the same categories. The feedback will be anonymous. During the year, you need to complete 2 miniPAT evaluations, one during your second module and one during your fourth. You will receive further instructions about these nearer the time.
Procedures card
The procedures card is an important record of the clinical procedures you have learned and performed. It is a guide to how much experience we think you should get in these procedures in your fourth year - but don't stop just because there's no more room on the card! At the end of the year, you should scan and upload your card to your Personal Library. There are scanners in the Royal Free Hospital library, and the Christopher Ingold cluster room at Bloomsbury. If you lose your card, you should contact Karen Picken (k.picken@ucl.ac.uk) as soon as possible to get a replacement.
Meeting your supervisor or personal tutor
At the end of each module you must meet with your module supervisor to review your work and attendance during the module, and review your ePortfolio. Your supervisor will then give you feedback on your performance and complete an End of Module report form. The End of Module report form is recorded in your transcript, and forms part of your UCL permanent record. (We do not keep a record of all the other elements of your ePortfolio).
Similarly, when you meet your personal tutor, you should record details of the meeting on your ePortfolio.
How to... record a meeting with your Personal Tutor
- Your tutor will need to log in to their own ePortfolio account
- Select Trainees from the menu across the top
- Find the correct name from the list of trainees and click on it
- From the new menu on the left hand side, select Forms and Supervision/Meetings
- Click on Add New Meeting
- Click on Create to complete the form for that meeting.
How to... record an End of Module report
1. Discuss with your supervising consultants who is the most appropriate person to complete the End of Module report.
2. Log in to your ePortfolio account
3. Select Forms and then Ticket Requests from the menu across the top
4. Click on Request New Assessment
5. Select End of Module Review, and complete the required information to send a ticket to the agreed supervisor. You will need to know your supervisor's email address in order to send them the ticket.
6. When your supervisor receives the email they should click on the form to complete the form.
7. You can remind someone about an assessment if it has not been completed after seven days. Select Send Reminder next to the assessment you want to remind them about.
Reflective practice logs
This section contains forms that you can use to record your activities during an attachment, and your reflections on patients or incidents you encounter.
You can also use this section to record any audits, research, publications or career plans.
Personal library
You have 40MB of space in your personal library. You will need to upload
- Tutor feedback from your cancer project
- Tutor feedback from your reflective practice essays, or evidence of your participation in a Balint group or student psychotherapy scheme
- Tutor feedback from your drug project
- Scanned procedures card
You can also use this space to upload any other documents which you think help demonstrate your learning during your placements, for example anonymized clerkings, results from an audit, evidence of relevant extracurricular activities etc. You must not enter any patient identifiable data in documents in your Personal Library or Reflective Logs. Please do not upload your cancer patient's consent form.
Assessing your ePortfolio
The maintenance of the portfolio in your MBBS course is mainly a formative, self directed exercise. Many of the individual elements of the portfolio will have been assessed or discussed before being included in your ePortfolio. However, your Personal Tutor and Module Supervisors will review your ePortfolio at or before their meetings with you and will use it to help monitor and guide your learning. At the end of year examinations, one of the Year 4 teaching team will review it and ensure that it has reached the required standard and that you are keeping a worthwhile and complete ePortfolio.
It is difficult to rigorously and consistently assess a very personal ePortfolio other than ‘satisfactory/suitable for progression’ or ‘not satisfactory/not yet suitable for progression’. This status of ‘satisfactory’ will therefore encompass a wide range of portfolios and we would expect the vast majority of ePortfolios to achieve this status. If your work is unsatisfactory you will receive detailed feedback on the deficiencies and will be expected to bring your work up to the required standard in a reasonable time frame. Very occasionally a reviewer will see an ePortfolio that is outstanding in some way compared to others, and this will be reflected in the assessor’s feedback. For example, this might be a student who has engaged extensively in original work or research or who has presented a portfolio that suggests a level of engagement with professional development that goes well beyond what we would expect of a student at this stage.
FAQs
My profile has the wrong year, wrong site or other piece of misinformation.
Contact Karen Picken (k.picken@ucl.ac.uk) who will be able to change this information for you.
My supervisor doesn’t have an ePortfolio account.
All supervisors of medical students should have been given ePortfolio accounts. If they have forgotten the details of their account or a new supervisor needs an account, they should contact Karen Picken. Assessors do not need an account if you are sending a ticket request.
My Personal Library is full.
You have 40Mb of storage space in your personal library. This limit is set by NES, the creators of ePortfolio, and is not negotiable. If your library is full then you may need to delete some items, or shrink files by converting them to a different format.
The ePortfolio site is very slow, or has frozen.
At certain times of year the ePortfolio site tends to slow down a lot as many doctors in training are trying to upload information for their annual assessments. There is very little we can do at the Medical School to improve this. However, we would encourage you to update your ePortfolio regularly to avoid getting caught up in a last minute rush.
My consultant will be away for two weeks so I can’t get my end of module report completed on time. What should I do?
If you do know that your supervisor will be away on your last week, you should discuss about this with your supervisor and either arrange to have a review at an earlier time, or have it done with a named deputy.
How much do SLEs “count”?
SLEs are formative tools and thus we are interested in the total number completed – the comments by your supervisors are solely for your benefit. You need to do a minimum of five SLEs per module, and each module will specify what you need to do. However, you are encouraged to do more than the minimum for your benefit.
Will I be in trouble if I don’t do the minimum required SLEs or submit all my end of module reports?
The end of module reports, SLEs, and training record cards are important components that make up your in-course assessment and they must be completed. Non-submission of a complete portfolio is a serious academic matter and will place you in group 2 (failure) at the exam board meetings and your exam results may be withheld.
