Charting the competency-based eportfolio implementation journey

Abstract

As health professionals, nurses are responsible not only for staying abreast of current professional knowledge to provide effective care but also for managing their own career, professional growth and development. Nurse educators have acknowledged that eportfolios provide a means through which nurses can record and provide evidence of skills, achievements, experience, professional development and on-going learning, not only for themselves, but for the information and scrutiny of registration boards, employers, managers and peers. Recognising that practices to support these activities that foster 21st century learning should ideally start during their student years, the authors explored eportfolios as a valuable learning device for on-going personal and professional development for fostering students’ lifelong learning and enhancing continuous personal and professional development. This paper describes the critical success factors for successful implementation of the Google Sites Practice eportfolio embedded in the three-year BSc(Hons) Nursing Programme in Malta. Evidence-based practice of successful eportfolio implementors was examined and their methods adapted to ensure the initiative had a sound foundation and fit for purpose. The authors argue that to be successful, eportfolio implementation must primarily be strategic, holistic, supported and have senior management buy-in and secondarily, have a robust tool, good pedagogy, and skilled and enthusiastic staff.