The creation of a pediatric residency portfolio using the CanMEDS format

Abstract

Portfolios in medical education have seen a growth in the last few years with the onset of competency based assessment. The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada have adopted the CanMeds roles to represent the various domains in which a physician should be competent. Residency programs have struggled with valid assessment tools for these various roles. The professionalism literature points to the need for ways to help the trainee develop self-reflective and self-assessment skills as these are needed by the practicing physician. Portfolios provide a flexible, multifaceted means of collecting evidence of achievement of competencies over time. We wish to develop and evaluate the use of portfolios in Memorial’s four year Pediatric residency program. All present pediatric residents will be surveyed to determine their self-assessment of their level of competence in each of the CanMeds roles. We will ask questions regarding their insight about their own level of professionalism in the workplace. We aim to develop a web-based resident portfolio in the CanMeds format. This portfolio would be flexible but deliberately designed to fit the activities and expectations of the Pediatric residency program. It will be structured in that procedures and evaluations can be captured but also with the ability to contain resident reflections and supervisor comments on resident progress. Following one year of use of the portfolios, self-assessment and acceptability of the portfolio will be reassessed. We hope this tool will contribute to resident insight.