Getting Your ePortfolio Ready for Your ES Meeting
The Essential GP Trainee Preparation Checklist

Your Educational Supervision Review (ESR) is an appraisal. You will get the most out of your ESR if you ensure that everything required of you is in your ePortfolio prior to meeting your educational supervisor. This checklist is an aid to your preparation. It is hoped that if you complete the form in advance, your educational supervision meeting will not be dominated by checking the ePortfolio.

We realise that the ePortfolio can be bewildering, especially at first, because there is a lot in it. This form captures most of the contents of the ePortfolio, together with the Yorkshire and the Humber Deanery Naturally Occurring Evidence (NOE) recommendations, in a checklist.

The GPST has ownership and responsibility for ensuring that all the evidence is in place in their ePortfolio (as with all aspects of GP workplace based assessment). We’ve had a number of GP Specialist Trainees at ARCP panel interviews who have said “but no one told me....”: this holds no justification and it’s therefore important you understand it is your responsibility to find out and satisfy what is necessary for satisfactory training progression. This is especially important for the educational supervision meeting that precedes the annual review of competency progression (ARCP) panels.

The checklist is designed to help you ensure that your evidence is complete. It may help reduce the incidence of GPSTs coming to ARCP panels with incomplete evidence and thus earning an unsatisfactory outcome, so we offer it “in your best interests”.

It’s a long form out of necessity; there’s a lot you need to do as a GP Specialist Trainee. We suggest you save the form on your computer and plan how you’ll cover all aspects at the beginning of each of your posts. Then, if you complete it electronically and attach it as a professional conversation in your shared learning log prior to your educational supervision meeting, it should assist the educational supervision meeting.

This form is not an assessment; you do not pass or fail anything by completing this form. In particular, some of the questions refer to things that may be beyond your control so if, for example, your log entries have not been read, then this does not necessarily reflect on you, but it might be something that you’d like to discuss further with your educational supervisor.

An educational supervision meeting could not possibly cover all the areas in this checklist in great depth; therefore you can use the form to indicate to your educational supervisor which are areas of priority for review.

**New from April 2013; Revalidation. All doctors (and this includes trainees) need to be revalidated. It is essential that you understand the requirements for trainee revalidation and that all the required evidence to support your revalidation is in your ePortfolio. If you do not do this, before every ARCP panel then you may not be revalidated when you apply for your CCT.**

Also new for 2013 is some guidance about appropriate OOH evidence and requirements for posts of fewer than 3 months whole time equivalent.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Your Name
Stage of training (ST1, ST2 etc)
Review period (dates)
Purpose of review (eg ST1 interim review, or ST1 to ST2 progression review etc)
Hours worked (eg FT, 50% etc)
Posts undertaken during review period
Declarations
- Have you signed the declarations (probity, health, educational contract) for all posts covered during this review period?
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN (PDP) / Comments (include which entries you’d like to highlight to your educational supervisor)
- Have you updated your PDP? / PDP updated?
- Have you transferred identified learning needs from your learning log to your PDP?
- Are your PDP entries SMART? (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound). / PDP SMART?
SHARED LEARNING LOG / Comments (you can put dates of entries you’d like to highlight to your educational supervisor)
Have you shared all the log entries you want your clinical and/or educational supervisor to see? (If you don’t share log entries then your supervisor doesn’t know they exist, so can’t read them). / Log entries shared?
Quantitative
- Is there an adequate number of entries that reflect the learning activities undertaken in the review period? / Are there enough learning log entries?
Qualitative
- Do your learning log entries show evidence of reflection and identification of learning needs? (Not merely descriptive). / Quality of log entries
NATURALLY OCCURING EVIDENCE (NOE)
There are Yorkshire and Humber Deanery recommendations for NOE and the details are on the deanery website. These are recommended because they are an excellent way for you to demonstrate some of the competences. If you choose not to follow the recommendations then your ARCP panel will be looking for what other evidence you have for those competences. Have you done;-
- Significant event analyses (3 per 6 months)? In addition to events that occur in practice, any complaints, or lack of success in the AKT or CSA are significant events. / SEAs
- Reflection on learning from each post? / Post Reflections
- An audit, QOF reflection or project (should be started during first GP post)?One recommended in total during whole scheme. / Audit etc.
- Case study or presentation in each 6 month post? / Case studies/presentations
- Statement of leave (download from deanery website) – Required EVERY year / Statement of leave
- The requirement for a declaration of complaints has been replaced by Enhanced Form R (see under ‘Trainee Revalidation’)
OUT OF HOURS (OOH) / Please list required sessions and number completed
Have you logged the required number of OOH completed during GP posts?
The ARCP panel has a responsibility to assess 2 areas in relation to OOH.
1.  The competencies relating to the skills needed for OOH care - as defined in the RCGP curriculum.
2.  Completion of the contractual responsibilities for OOH provision (COGPED define as a minimum of 1 session per calendar month of 4-6 hours on average and BMA standard trainee contract defines as 78 hours per 12 months)
1.  The skills needed for OOH can be acquired to some extent in other situations and so where there are for organisational reasons difficulties in completing the expected total of 78 hours it is important for the trainee to complete other evidence to demonstrate the competencies which would normally be acquired in the OOH setting .
2.  OOH sessions may include an appropriate mixture of OOH as provided by the local deanery approved provider, ambulance sessions, psychiatric service sessions (crisis team), social service sessions etc. Because the availability of sessions will be different from scheme to scheme, the scheme guidance on what non-traditional services will be accepted should be included as a log entry in the e-P if there is a lack of normal GP OOH.
-  Prior to the final ST3 panels GPRs should be encouraged to include a log entry detailing the evidence contained within the ePortfolio which demonstrates competency in OOH care.
-  Extended hours attendance is not OOH work.
-  It is expected that the trainee will complete the whole of the sessions provided by their provider (i.e. if signing up for a 5 hour session attendance is expected for professionalism reasons for all 5 of these hours).
-  It is acceptable for the trainee at the final ST3 panels to be allowed to have some sessions booked. (up to 2 sessions if there are problems locally in obtaining sessions) If this is accepted by the panel there must be a system in place for ensuring that the session(s) is or are done. / OOH evidence (not required if in hospital posts)
THE EVIDENCE / What are the minimum requirements for your stage of training?* (see RCGP website) / How many have you done?
(include the dates of any entries you’d like to highlight to your educational supervisor)
Please comment on your competency progression as appropriate.
Multi-Source Feedback (MSF)
- If required, have you done a cycle of multi-source feedback and discussed the results? / MSF
Clinical Evaluation Exercises (mini-CEX)
- Adequate numbers? Do not use you peers to assess you! Must be senior level staff. / Mini-CEXs
Directly Observed Procedural Skills (DOPS)
- Where completed, have you self rated and included forms giving evidence, completed by an appropriate (senior) clinician (may be a nurse)? / DOPSs
Case Based Discussion (CbD)
- Is there a range of contexts and settings for your CBDs as required by the RCGP? (the Bradford VTS website has a downloadable CBD mapping sheet that you should complete prior to your ESR) / CBDs
Consultation Observation Tool (COT)
- Is there a range of contexts for your CBDs as required by the RCGP? (the Bradford VTS website has a downloadable COT mapping sheet that you should complete prior to your ESR) / COTs
Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ)
- If in Primary Care; have you completed the required PSQs? (remember that community and innovative posts that include Primary Care require you to complete a PSQ) / PSQ
Clinical Supervisors Report (CSR)
- Is there a CSR for each post undertaken (if in a community/innovative post you may need a CSR from each supervisor) – Yorkshire and the Humber Deanery requires CSRs from GP posts as well as hospital. / CSR
*Please remember that you are required to have the minimum evidence documented in your ePortfolio prior to your ARCP panel. This effectively means you have approximately 10 months to satisfy the requirements in each ST year. Yorkshire and the Humber Deanery guidance is that it is good practice to exceed the minimum requirements. The minimum evidence for less than full time trainees should be pro-rata for WPBAs.
SHORT POSTS / Evidence requirements for short posts
Will any of your training posts have had fewer than 3 months w.t.e. training by the time you complete them?
-  This may be as a result of going on sick leave or maternity leave, or less than full time training (e.g. doing a 4 month post at 50% LTFTT)
If this applies, then for that training to count you must ensure that the evidence of your professional development during the post is in your ePortfolio
As a bare minimum this means
1. A Clinical Supervisors Report at the end of the post is essential / CSR
2. The correct number of WPBAs for the time in post / Assessments
3. Shared learning log entries relating to the post / Log entries
4. At least one PDP entry relating to the post / PDP
OTHER AREAS
Curriculum Coverage
- Have you mapped your shared log entries to appropriate curriculum statement headings?
- You can map up to three curriculum statements to each log entry, providing it is evident from the log entry why you have mapped it that way (i.e. that the log entry relates to one of the intended learning outcomes in that curriculum statement). If a log entry relates to more than 3 curriculum statements then breaking it down into more than one entry will enable you to link it to all the relevant statements. / Curriculum coverage reflecting your learning during the review period?
Competency Self Rating
- Have you updated your self rating for the 12 competency areas? Your Educational Supervision Review cannot proceed unless this has been done.
- How should you rate yourself? It is expected that your competency self-ratings will be Needs Further Development (below, meets or above expectations) in ST1 and ST2.
- You must be Competent For Licensing to get a CCT.
- You can also be rated Excellent – remember that when this is the case that needs to be supported by what is in your ePortfolio (i.e. based on evidence, not gut-feeling). / Competency Self Ratings Complete?
- Tagging evidence to competences (from August 2013). As part of your review preparation you are able to tag up to 3 pieces of evidence for each competence. It is strongly recommended that you tag your best 3 pieces of evidence for each competence. This not only helps your educational supervisor (who knows you) but it is very helpful to guide ARCP panels to your evidence of competency (and the ARCP panel may not know you). / Best evidence tagged for each competence?
- Actions before next review. For each competence you should have an action plan to address your developmental needs for that competence. These actions should relate to your PDP (think Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timebound) / SMART action(s) for each competence?
Sick Leave etc
- How many days of sick leave or other non-scheduled absence have you had since your last review? (Do not include annual leave or authorised study leave). / Amount of non-standard absence during review period
- Has the deanery been informed of all such leave (this is very important, as it can affect your completion date; there is a leave spreadsheet on the deanery website which must be completed and uploaded before each ARCP panel) / Deanery informed of non-standard absence?
PROGRESS TO CERTIFICATION
AKT
- please include your results here, if taken
- if you have taken but been unsuccessful, have you reflected on this and developed clear plans for the future, including an SEA log entry? / AKT taken / result?
CSA
- please include your results here, if taken
- if you have taken but been unsuccessful, have you reflected on this and developed clear plans for the future, including an SEA log entry? / CSA taken / result?
CPR/AED certificate
- Please highlight which log entry (date) confirms that you hold a valid CPR/AED certificate; you must attach the certificate. / CPR/AED certificate?
- Will your CPR/AED be valid when you progress to certification? These are usually valid for three years. / CPR will be valid on CCT date?
Safeguarding
- Evidence of child protection training is not currently a requirement for the ePortfolio, but you must be aware of your responsibilities as a doctor (see GMCs Good Medical Practice) so, if you have done child protection training, add a log entry about it. / Safeguarding training?

Most of the ePortfolio and the WPBA (all of the above) are under your control and only you are responsible for their completion.