Nursing E-Portfolio: Career, Skills, and Professional Development

This document details the creation of a nursing e-portfolio, a digital space used to store materials such as text, images, videos, and sound, primarily for showcasing professional skills, experience, and development. The assignment explores the purpose of an e-portfolio in nursing, emphasizing its role in supporting learning through personal development plans, workplace assessments, and reflection on clinical events. The project covers identifying appropriate e-portfolio platforms, including their features and capabilities for managing files, structuring work, and facilitating reflection. It outlines the materials and artifacts to be included, such as lab reports, clinical works, certifications, and self-reflections, and explains their relevance to career advancement. Furthermore, the project presents a timeline for completion using a Gantt chart and references to support the information provided, highlighting the e-portfolio's significance in presenting professional abilities to prospective employers.

E-Portfolio for Nursing

Table of Contents
Purpose of developing e-portfolio.........................................................................................................2
Identifying an e-portfolio platform........................................................................................................2
Materials/artifacts that will be collected................................................................................................3
Relevance to the career development....................................................................................................4
Timeline for completion........................................................................................................................4
References.............................................................................................................................................6
1

Purpose of developing nursing e-portfolio
An e-portfolio is a computer mediate or digital space used to store materials consisting of
videos, sound, images, and text. It is mainly used for transferring images and text into the
electronic form. The main purpose of the developing nursing e-portfolio is to support
learning by providing an ongoing personal development plan, a record of the appraisal
discussions, workplace assessment and reflection on the clinical events. It has provided an
opportunity to compile all the paper-based records of achievement and convert it into the
electronic portable document format files in order to submit through the online portal
(Anderson, Gardner, Ramsbotham & Tones, 2017). All the professional development
documents can be kept by the nurses in a shoebox. It is considered to be safe from the natural
disasters, electronic disasters like viruses and allows backup the files. It provides a platform
for self-reflection. Reflection in nursing plays a significant as it brings together theory and
knowledge with clinical actions or practice. Knowledge is considered to be developed
through the processes of theoretical and scientific information. Reflective theory determines
that without appropriate support it is not easy to understand when an individual does and
consider the most appropriate option as per the situation (Umass, 2019). Reflective thinking
allows understanding the situation, making assumptions and providing significant
information. The reflective learning theory is considered to be a useful approach for the
clinical practice because it recognizes that individuals make senses of their learning through
considering and applying the impact of their actions.
Identifying an nursing e-portfolio platform
The e-portfolio platforms that can be used by nurses include the search facilities for
managing the files and templates for structuring and presenting the work. Nursing e-portfolio
platform would be used for describing the software programs in order to support the activities
2

of online portfolios. Nursing e-portfolio program consists of an array of components. It is
being found that there is a wide range of e-portfolio software platforms (Andre & Heartfield,
2011). The computer programs are being designed for supporting the electronic storage,
construction and displays different portfolio components. Individuals would be able to access
the programs and each program may not or may consist of specific components. Nursing e-
portfolio platform provides a repository/convenient space for saving the work in an efficient
space form (Ohlsson & Borg, 2010). The platform allows storing the information on the
computer. The use of integrated journals, blogging, and other related activities for reflecting
upon the personal skills and achievements can also be carried out.
Materials/artifacts that will be collected
The nursing e-portfolio would consist of all the documents and materials which will show
personal skills, experiences, and developments. The nurses can include materials such as lab
reports, clinical works, critical project accomplishment, and completed tests. Apart from this,
3

other material evidence that can be included is an academic accomplishment and learning
progress including certifications, honors, self-reflection, and another achievement. It should
also include digital archives, websites or blogs, and presentations (Hannans & Olivo, 2017).
Relevance to the career development
Nursing e-portfolio provides significant information which supports the career of individuals.
The nurses would be able to display their professional skills, experiences, knowledge, and
achievements in an appropriate manner. The documents can be included in an electronic
format which can be transferred easily through different modes. The nurses can use the e-
portfolio for showcasing abilities and skills to the prospective employers (DeLaune &
Ladner, 2011). Career e-portfolios can be created for showcasing strengths, qualifications,
and clinical skills. The nurses can include files, images, text, audio, video, links, blog entries
and multimedia. The creation of a digital portfolio for a particular job can assist to
demonstrate the professional capabilities and enables to attract the employers (Elcock, 2013).
E-portfolio also allows demonstrating effectively innovative ideas, highlighting major
projects, experience, and coursework, representing the candidate in a professional manner,
presenting work examples and showcasing the learning of the candidate. E-portfolio does not
replace cover-letter or resume rather it enhances nurses by servicing a way to support, extend
and supplement the resume. It provides employers the ability to learning much about the
candidate in an appropriate manner.
Timeline for completion
Gantt chart will be created in order to categorize the tasks which need to be carried out within
a specific deadline. It will depict the tasks which need to be accomplished for ensuring the
development of an appropriate e-portfolio.
4

1 April 2 April 3 April 4 April 5 April 6 April 7 April
Creating and
designing a e-
portfolio
platform
Selecting
materials
Implementing
the design
Adjusting
and testing
Final
development
of e-portfolio
5

References
Anderson, D., Gardner, G., Ramsbotham, J., & Tones, M. (2017). E-portfolios: developing
nurse practitioner competence and capability. Retrieved from
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d003/c4e03b5119556848d16b3dd613177827c88e.pdf
Andre, K., & Heartfield, M. (2011). Nursing and Midwifery Portfolios (4th ed.). Sydney.
DeLaune, S., & Ladner, P. (2011). Fundamentals of nursing (3rd ed.). Clifton Park, NY:
Delmar Cengage Learning.
Elcock, K. (2013). Nursing and Health: Portfolios and Reflective Practice – Survival
GuideNursing and Health: Portfolios and Reflective Practice – Survival Guide. Nursing
Standard, 27(29), 30-30. doi: 10.7748/ns2013.03.27.29.30.b1483
Hannans, J., & Olivo, Y. (2017). Craft a positive nursing digital identity with an ePortfolio.
Retrieved from
https://www.americannursetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ant11-Digital-
Identity-1017a-1.pdf
Ohlsson, H., & Borg, H. (2010). Career development (4th ed.). New York: Nova Science
Publishers.
Umass. (2019). e-Portfolio. Retrieved from
https://engineering.umass.edu/sites/default/files/careercenter/resources/e-portfolios.pdf
6