E-Portfolios in Nursing: A Tool for Professional Development and Career Growth

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Section 1:
An e-portfolio or an electronic portfolio can be defined as an online resource that
stores, records and archives important learning material, artefacts and reflection records for
the benefit of an individual learner (Nielsen, Pendersen & Helms, 2015). E-portfolios
therefore serve as examples that reflect professional and personal growth (Nielsen et al.,
2015). E-portfolio is also known as a digital portfolio or an online portfolio. As mentioned
by, Karsten et al. (2015) it forms a collection of the electronic device that helps in the process
of assembling and managing information stored by the user on the web. The assembled
information might comprise of electronic media such as images, blog entries, hyperlinks,
multimedia graphics or texts. Electronic portfolios critically demonstrates the ability of the
user to showcase self-expression. A stated by Green et al. (2014), e-portfolios can be
compared to dynamic portfolios that highlight the personal achievements of the user and can
be modified with the progression of time. It can be stated in this regard that e-portfolios serve
as learning records that represent the actual evidence and level of achievement gathered by
the student. In addition to this, it should also be mentioned that the learning records presented
within an e-portfolio depict the learning plan. According to Feather and Ricci (2014), a
learning plan can be defined as an academic tool that aids individuals to critically enlist
communities of interest and organizations to pursue higher education and certification
courses. Therefore, it can be said that the level to which an individual learning environment is
capable of capturing and displaying a learning environment could also be considered as a
miniature version of an electronic portfolio. According to Eynon et al. (2014), it has been
mentioned that e-portfolios present examples of evidence-based practices that aids in
planning a career path for future professional development and professional experiences.
Studies mention that E-portfolios are similar to traditional portfolios and facilitate

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individual’s perception and critical reflection on their learning experience. This helps in the
promoting awareness about learning strategies and needs and accordingly design academic
and professional goals. According to Collins and Crawley (2016), it has been mentioned that
an electronic portfolio is similar to a traditional and paper-based portfolio. However, the use
of electronic portfolios have been associated with stronger and better learning outcomes.
According to Chang et al. (2017), electronic portfolios have been characterized under
three categories that include developmental portfolio, assessment portfolio and showcase
portfolio. A developmental e-portfolio has been typically compared to a portfolio that
highlights the advancement of the skills and abilities of the student within a stipulated period
of time-frame. The developmental portfolio serves as a communication platform between the
student and the tutor. On the basis of the developmental portfolio, the tutor accesses the level
of academic progress and performance of the student within a particular domain. As stated by
Bulman and Schutz (2013), a showcase portfolio emphasises upon the work-based experience
and skills of an individual within a particular work domain. This type of e-portfolios widely
find their application to assist employers to recruit experienced employees for a particular job
role. As mentioned by Andrews and Cole (2015), a career portfolio is a type of showcase
portfolio that is used by the employees to seek employment for a specific job role. It
highlights the educational qualifications, skills and professional experience gathered by the
employees while working in different organizations. Most of the e-portfolios are a mix of the
three types of e-portfolios discussed above. In such cases, the resulting e-portfolio is known
as a hybrid-portfolio.
Electronic portfolios find their application in a wide range of domains that include the
following (Chang, Lee and Mills, 2017):
 Academic institutions such as schools and colleges
 Applying for higher education in Universities

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 Continuing the process of professional development
 Applying for job-opportunities or publishing professional advertisements
 Applying for psychological therapy groups
 Conducting an assessment
 Approving an accreditation
 Recognition of the process of prior learning experiences
E-portfolios find extensive application in the field of the education sector. It should be noted
in this context that the e-portfolios managed by the students provide them with an opportunity
to organize, archive and display the learning goals and the associated academic progress
(Feather & Ricci, 2014). Also, the electronic format of the record helps the assessor to
critically evaluate the portfolios of the students over the internet or on secondary memory
devices such as CD-ROM, DVD or Zip disk. The popularity and increased demand of the e-
portfolios within the educator sector can be attributed to the associated advantages over the
traditional portfolios. The advantages can be accounted as the continuous communication
process that allows the instructor to review and provide a feedback in an asynchronous
manner (Green et al., 2014). Also, it provides an opportunity to the students to reflect upon
their practical experiences and that serves as the meaningful purpose to create the portfolio. It
should be noted in this regard that the e-portfolio of a student is shred with a prospective
employer in order to critically record the achievements acquired in an academic program and
the ability to acquire the learning goals. The two domains that extensively encourage the
students to create an e-portfolio are the Nursing and the Education department. In most of the
developed Nations, it is expected that the nursing students must create an e-portfolio in order
to apply for specialization training and to assume the role of advanced nursing practitioners
(Nielsen et al., 2015). Also, pre-service and fresh teachers are required to create e-portfolios
in order to gather teaching certification and licensure. E-portfolios used by the students are