Professional Portfolio Development: Strategies and Insights

This discussion board post focuses on the development of a professional portfolio, particularly within the field of nursing. It emphasizes the portfolio's role in showcasing skills, academic achievements, and certifications to potential employers, highlighting its importance for career advancement. The post outlines key strategies, including detailed self-descriptions, documentation of academic achievements, and the inclusion of certifications and correspondence courses. It also references the use of a SWOT analysis to assess strengths and weaknesses. The post includes a response to a colleague's post, offering additional insights and suggestions for portfolio development, such as incorporating early preparation and leveraging the portfolio for future career planning and professional growth. References to relevant literature are included to support the arguments presented, providing a comprehensive overview of professional portfolio development in the context of nursing and related fields.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIO
PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIO
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIO
Strategies to Develop Portfolio:
The professional portfolio refers to the collection of the personal data and the
organization of the same, that can show case the best and the most relevant skill set and the
strengths of a person, in case of an interview and thus help in ensuring the personal growth of a
person. The professional portfolio is essential for the aspiring individuals who want to make a
career and it is essential for any field, for example, teaching, management, nursing and the like.
Especially in the field of nursing, developing personal portfolio is very important. Since there is
an increasing demand of nurses, therefore, it is important that the interested candidates must
develop personal portfolios, which will enable the organizations to gain a perspective of the
candidates who have applied for considered courses. Also, the personal development portfolio,
helps the recruiters to select among the candidates based upon the skills and further comparing
the same with other interested candidates (Wuyts, & Dutta, 2014). Therefore, there are certain
strategies that must be maintained and included by the candidates into their personal portfolio.
Firstly, the candidates must include a detailed description of themselves and a detailed
personal information must be documented. In case of academic achievements, what matters the
most is the scores in the previous academic organizations and a character analysis of the
candidate. The latter is very important to maintain the environment of the educational
organization, as well as, to make the environment better. Therefore, a character analysis of the
candidate or rather to have a peek into someone’s self (Wald et al., 2015). This is very important
to motivate other students as well.
Secondly, all the certifications and the correspondence courses that has been undertaken
by an individual must be included. The purpose, again, is same. In order to gain a preference
over the other candidates who have also applied for the similar position, and to provide the

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recruiter a detailed idea of one’s abilities, and one’s knowledge. As it will serve the best interests
of the universities, which is to create good students and to gain a market position (Wald et al.,
2015).
Colleague Post 1:
The first response post has essentially discussed about the importance and the usefulness
of the personal portfolios. On that note, the individual has rightly recognized that, in order to
develop a personal portfolio it is important to develop a SWOT analysis, which will provide the
organizational members to develop a perception of the strengths and the weaknesses of the
candidate (Edmiston, 2014). However, the person could have been more specific, regarding the
usefulness, as the person has provided a brief idea of all the considered concepts of portfolio
development.
Colleague Post 2:
The second post is entirely made upon the professional workforce and has provided a
detailed description of how must a portfolio be organized. The post has rightly recognized the
definition of professional portfolio, and has rightly identified the usefulness of the same. More
importantly, it has only considered the nursing profession, therefore has included the aspects or
the factors which can make the portfolio strong and effective (Jackson, 2017).

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References:
Edmiston, D. (2014). Creating a personal competitive advantage by developing a professional
online presence. Marketing Education Review, 24(1), 21-24.
Jackson, D. (2017). Developing pre-professional identity in undergraduates through work-
integrated learning. Higher Education, 74(5), 833-853.
Wald, H. S., Anthony, D., Hutchinson, T. A., Liben, S., Smilovitch, M., & Donato, A. A. (2015).
Professional identity formation in medical education for humanistic, resilient physicians:
pedagogic strategies for bridging theory to practice. Academic Medicine, 90(6), 753-760.
Wuyts, S., & Dutta, S. (2014). Benefiting from alliance portfolio diversity: The role of past
internal knowledge creation strategy. Journal of Management, 40(6), 1653-1674.