The Portfolio Online team want to reach as many end users as possible with their news, updates and tips about the electronic portfolio for psychiatry trainees, so not only can you find us on Twitter @PortfolioOnline, get updates and news from out PO feed https://pofeed.uk, we now also have a Facebook page @portfolioonline.co.uk.
Form R has arrived in Portfolio Online and can be piloted by trainees and deanery staff in the northeast. A Form R has two parts, Part A and Part B, which trainees can complete separately and store in their portfolios thanks to the multi-user form feature. A step-by-step guide is already in place and can be found in the Portfolio Online knowledgebase: Complete a Form R.
The accounts we provide on Portfolio Online for those following the CESR (Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration) route are under review and registration for new CESR accounts will be suspended from the 9th of March 2019. Those who already have an online CESR portfolio won't be affected and can continue to use Portfolio Online as before. More information about CESR can be found on the CESR page of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' website.
If you've noticed this little icon next to some of the fields in an online document recently, it's new! The clipboard icon next to a field in the online portfolio is an indicator that the field, when completed or edited, will update other areas of a trainee's portfolio. In this way, personal details & important numbers in a trainee's portfolio are syncronised throughout Portfolio Online.
Sarah Bettison from the Portfolio Online team with be joining Dr Abdul Raoof, Director of Medical Education EPUT & Chair of the Eastern Division of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, to deliver training to Clinical Supervisors, Training Programme Directors and other Trainee Leads in the use Portfolio Online. Key areas of focus will be how the system can be used to support a trainee’s educational progress, oversee clinical work and manage specialty training programmes. To find out more or to book your place, see the page on Portfolio Online Training on the Royal College of Psychiatrists' website.
In the latest version of portfolio online we’ve made a number of improvements that we hope will improve your experience. In this release we’ve been focusing on improving layout of user interface and making more information available in order to reduce the number of pages you have to navigate.
The portfolio card is a quick snapshot of the portfolio. It still has the “coverage summary” bar that shows curriculum coverage for the current folder. Now you can also see current placement details too. We’ll also highlight missing information to help ensure everything is up to date.
New Buttons on the left hand side of the card let you quickly toggle different ‘panes’ into view
For example clicking on ‘details’ allows you to see information without having to navigate into the portfolio itself.
And the ARCP gives a quick heads up on previous/scheduled ARCP. We’ve got more planned for this particular pane so watch this space!
Portfolio Page
The Portfolio Overview page has been entirely redesigned to make it much clearer where you are in the system, and make it more consistent with other screens.
Folders have now been given their own tab in the portfolio to make it easier to view and manage them. You can view coverage and post details across all of your training levels in one place.
These structural changes in the site layout also pave the way for a new “Progress to CCT” view which is under development. This will start to aggregate all the requirements for ARCP in one central location so that any gaps can be easily identified.
In conjunction with Curriculum Coverage this will provide trainees, supervisors, ARCP panels easy access to the core information they need to to formulate future training needs, and evaluate progress.
Activities, Assessments, Reviews
When searching for activities, assessments or reviews the results now contain much more detail about the activity, which should again reduce the need to click into the activity itself to see information.
We are always seeking to improve usability by reviewing what information is displayed where in the system and how users search and filter portfolio contents. So please continue to submit suggestions to help us deliver the features that you want.
You can always find out more details about all our updates in the POFeed Changelog
Some people have raised concerns over call charges for the current support number. To address these concerns we have now set up a freephone number 0800 987 1008 that people can use to contact us.
We will continue to operate the existing 0844 number for now, but we plan to retire this eventually. This is likely to coincide with a move to a new support platform "Zendesk".
If you' like to read more about the background to this, and why we have made this change please read on!
Background
When we install purchased the 0844 number we did so on the understanding that it was a “Fixed Rate non geographic number” with a flat rate. This number was charged to at 5ppm with the option for us to choose a surcharge of anything up to 5ppm, which would go to us.
We chose not add anything and stuck with the flat rate of 5ppm. Since 2009 we have never generated any revenue from support calls, and we do not intend to.
At this time it was prohibitively expensive to run a freephone number and this seemed to be one of the cheapest next best options that did not discriminate nationally, or between landline/mobile users. However this changed.
Since OfCom's deregulation of telecoms around 2009, costs have on the whole fallen for many services, but at the same time there has been a great deal of confusion introduced to consumers around call charges.
We took advantage of the savings that could be made using VoIP technology, by migrating the 0844 number to a different service provider. However we did not expect to find that we were no longer able to guarantee a rate to our callers. The cost of the call was now made up of a "service charge" (which we knew to be 2ppm) and an "access charge" by the telco used to make the call. The access charge was entirely at the discretion of the other telco (of which there are now many) and could be anything from 7ppm to 45ppm!
Our call charge then became effectively 2ppm + your service provider fee. Which led, understandably, to concerns about our number. We hope that the introduction of the 0800 freephone number addresses these and demonstrates our commitment to support our end users.
The latest version of the Curricula (August 2016) is available on RCPsych and GMC websites and is live on Portfolio Online.
This update comprises of moderate changes, specifically related to the numbering of ILO’s, and is not an extensive or deliberate content re-write. As such it impacts immediately, new and current trainees alike. Going forward the online supervisor forms will soon be dynamically generated, based on the curriculum, and will be rolled-out as part of the next update.
For further information, feel free to contact Dee Noonan
We recently made an update to the system that adds support for "Revalidation Officer" access. This is a school based role, that lets a person view all of the ARCP documents for trainees in the specified school.
If there is someone in your school that needs this access then drop us a line at support@portfolioonline.co.uk for more information on how to get this setup.
(NB: Originally we had called these 'Revalidation Managers' but have subsequently updated the name of this role.)
