Portfolio Assessment: A Guide for Nurses and Midwives

Trudi Cooper & Carolyn Emden

Portfolio assessment lies at the heart of best practice. It provides an excellent tool for students who need to demonstrate required competence, and for qualified practitioners who wish to remain at the cutting edge of their profession. Nurses and midwives who follow the advice in this book will be well-placed to an advance their careers as self regulating professionals - whether by a formal education or professional development.

The book provides a practical guide on how to produce a portfolio of work that meets Australian nursing and midwifery national standards of practice. It takes readers through the major concepts of portfolio assessment and turns the portfolio building process into a well-defined set of steps that relate to a wide range of circumstances.

Importantly, the book explains how to select evidence for particular circumstances and provides examples of how to use:

• Witness testimony
• Reflective learning journals
• Diaries and working notes
• Samples of work
• Videos, photographs and audio recordings

The book concludes with a checklist to ensure all aspects of the portfolio building process have been completed. Using the process described will ensure a well-presented portfolio that accurately reflects your competence as a professional nurse or midwife.

Authors

Associate Professor Dr. Trudi Cooper

Trudi Cooper lecturers in Youth Work Studies at Edith Cowan University. She has been involved in the professional education of practitioners for many years. Before lecturing for Edith Cowan, Trudi gained substantial and varied field experience, over 14 years, as a practitioner, trainer and lecturer in community and youth work in the UK. Trudi has undertaken research into the use of portfolios as an assessment tool, and has been extensively involved in curriculum development for basic, advanced and specialist training courses in the Community and Youth Work field.

Dr. Carolyn Emden

Carolyn Emden is Scholar in Residence in the School of Nursing & Midwifery, The Flinders University of South Australia. She has held a longterm interest in student learning and is currently involved in advancing student progress through academic counselling and promotion of student scholarship. Special interest areas include career development through flexible learning and writing for publication. Carolyn has extensive experience as a nursing academic. She is a registered nurse and holds a Masters Degree in Education from Deakin University and a PhD from LaTrobe University.

ISBN: 1 876394 06 4