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It is normal good practice to have staff appraisals carried out by employers to ascertain your effectiveness or otherwise. In addition you can perform your own needs analysis and identify your learning needs.

Having identified them, then consider how you can accomplish the required develop- ment. Document this process and you have an item for your portfolio eg. your first aid certificate will need to be renewed this year. Which courses are available? Which looks best suited to your needs? Is there one readily available to you? What does it cost and can you get help with these costs? For how long is it valid?

This last question also leads you to reflect on the whole process at a later date and re-evaluate your progress. Write this all down and you have another item for the portfolio and a projected CPD.

SWOT analysis SWOT analysis can be a useful tool to identify progress in gaining development and addressing areas you find difficult to improve or alter.

Write down the headings of: ● Strengths ● Weaknesses ● Opportunities ● Threats

Then assess your own attributes for the situation you have highlighted. This process will identify the areas for action and also assist in decision-making. Summarise the task by writing your list of actions and enter these into your portfo- lio. Revisit the portofolio entry regularly and enter comments on progress.

Example: Situation highlighted - “I want to attend the next Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006 as a physiothera- pist”.

Strengths ● Chartered physiotherapist with post graduate qualification in sports medicine ● Experience with hockey at club, district and national level ● Good people handling skills ● Team player

Weaknesses ● Time keeping

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● Lack of multi-sport experience ● Poor massage skills ● Lack of confidence

Opportunities ● Attend time management course ● Contact Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Sports Medicine ● Attend approved Sports Massage course ● Enlist mentor help (formal or informal)

Threats ● Number of other more knowledgeable physiotherapists involved ● Costs in time and money ● Getting time off work ● Being over awed by stronger characters

Actions needed A - Make contacts with Commonwealth Games and shadow already involved physiotherapists B - Find out about and arrange attendance at time management and massage courses C - Get multi-sport experience D - Identify and contact appropriate mentor

Action plan A and D first and use A and D to identify appropriate B and C.

Make sure you write all of this in your portfolio, re-visit regularly and enter updates.

Attendance at courses Before you attend any taught course, study the course aims and objectives. Write down what you hope to achieve by attending this course. Compare this with the course aims and evaluate if the two are compatible and will allow you to achieve the desired result.

Be sure to plan how to attain the best result from your attendance at any course. Courses can be expensive not only in fees for attendance but also in locum fee costs and your own time and travel. Always fill in the evaluation forms at the end of courses and take a copy of this evaluation to put in your portfolio.

Once you have attended a course be sure to again evaluate your learning, note what you achieved and highlight any fur- ther learning needs. Remember courses do

not have to be limited to only clinical content to count as CPD. You may well need and benefit from attendance at IT courses, use of the internet, time man- agement or stress handling and all of these are relevant to your occupation and will count as CPD.

If all else fails on finding appropriate courses ask around and often it is possi- ble to identify a group with the same needs as yourself and then find the per- son or organisation to provide the course you want.

Case studies Case studies need not necessarily only deal with the management of a patient. They can study the provisions of services, support staff effectiveness, or the study of an education programme. These studies are your reflections of a case in which you have been involved.

It is always wise to work out a format for the individual study and write down the headings prior to starting the real work.

Start off with a brief introduction to this particular case, and then give an analysis of the problem. Go on to discuss and briefly assess any involvement by any other staff member and note the impact of these interventions in your manage- ment of the case.

Your critical appraisal of the intervention and the changes you would implement in future in the light of the knowledge gained are the crucial part of each case study.

The final part of the study should be a summary with recommendations for improved future practice.

There are important points to be remem- bered when making a case study of patient management. You must respect patient confidentiality and that of any other involved staff. There is no point in laboriously writing down every single detail of each patient contact or copying each detail from treatment notes.

Limit yourself to a word count of say 1000 per study, use headings and remem- ber to note outcomes. It is also very worthwhile to revisit your case studies at a later date, and re-evaluate your actions and subsequent practice in the light of