1

Ongoing Comprehensive Portfolio Development

An essential component of the Nurse Anesthesia DNP program is documenting scholarly
activities achieved during didactic coursework and advanced clinical practice. The DNP student
assumes an expanded scope of practice for patients; provides leadership to foster intra-
professional and inter-professional collaboration, demonstrate skills that promote a culture of
evidence, and apply clinical evidence-based investigative skills to evaluate healthcare outcomes.
Students must demonstrate the ability to write professionally and influence health policy.
Clinical experiences can include a wide variety of sites where the DNP student provides patient
care or achieve additional competencies for the practice doctorate. All encounters in direct care
are logged into an online tracking Typhon system. Accordingly, the program provides hours in
autonomous practice, leadership, practice inquiry, and policy query as part of
the of professional preparation for the practice doctorate .Gaps in clinical experience and
professional growth to meet DNP competencies are identified at regularly scheduled conferences
with the assigned clinical faculty adviser.
Comprehensive Portfolio: Students are expected to develop a professional portfolio. The
development and maintenance of a professional portfolio reflects students self-responsibility in
their own learning, actively constructing how competencies are met, while faculty provide
guidance, teaching and mentoring. The DNP academic professional portfolio will include:
Comprehensive clinical and procedural log (Typhon online tracking system)
Clinical evaluations
Off-site preceptor evaluations (Online in Typhon)
Current and updated resume/curriculum vitae
Scholarly activities (e.g. abstracts of M&M presentations, CE certificates for
educational offerings, publications, participation in community events, letters of
participation as guest lecturers, course scholarly writing projects/assignments, etc...).
Samples of your work and should be chosen to best reflect the content and quality of
your work in a given subject. Include both submitted scholarship and feedback from
the instructor regarding the submission.
Capstone your final component is the completed Capstone; in essence, the capstone is
a demonstration of your ability to integrate your disparate subject area in a
meaningful way, and should be considered the culminating piece of your portfolio

All students are required to fulfill all the required competencies and demonstrate
performance objectives. Many of the DNP competencies are met within the DNP program
core didactic courses. Others are met during simulation and assigned clinical experiences.
The eight DNP essential competencies are outlined below. Students will submit the scholarly
documents compiled in a portfolio computer-based folder to their advisor during each
semester. Introduce each submission with a caption briefly describing its main idea or
contents. Clearly label everything in your portfolio. Though not a unique component, the
overall clarity, unity and fluidity of presentation in your portfolio will be considered in its
final grading. File each of the required portfolio submissions within one of the following
categories which will assist you in identifying how you have met and achieved the required
DNP essential (http://www.aacn.nche.edu/publications/position/DNPEssentials.pdf:).

The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice (October 2006)
I. Scientific Underpinnings for Practice
2

II. Organizational and Systems Leadership for Quality Improvement and Systems
Thinking
III. Clinical Scholarship and Analytical Methods for Evidence-Based Practice
IV. Information Systems/Technology and Patient Care Technology for the Improvement
and Transformation of Health Care
V. Health Care Policy for Advocacy in Health Care
VI. Interprofessional Collaboration for Improving Patient and Population Health
Outcomes
VII. Clinical Prevention and Population Health for Improving the Nations Health
VIII. Advanced Nursing Practice

Before you begin working on your portfolio, it is important to understand what a
portfolio is and how it can benefit you, not just as a student, but also as a developing professional
and life-long learner (Huba & Freed, 2000). It is also important to understand the portfolio both
in the context of the curriculum and your professional development. While the portfolio is a
benchmark assessment of your program progression, it is much more than that in the context of
your career. The portfolio does not begin with your entry to the program. When you entered this
program, you already possessed a spectrum of skills, knowledge, and abilities. As a student, you
will accumulate more skills, knowledge, and theory, and you will continue learning as a
professional after you leave the program. Development of a portfolio offers an opportunity for
you to integrate your current knowledge with what you learned during your doctoral program. At
the same time, the portfolio provides a framework for your reflection, self-assessment, and future
professional development. In essence, the portfolio provides the opportunity for you to tell the
story of your academic progress and advancing clinical practice. The portfolio is a tool which
assists you in deepening your learning (Barrett & Carney, 2005).
Additionally, organizing your work into a portfolio allows you to shift your self-
perception from one of a student who must perform in accordance with program- instructor-
stated criteria to one of a learner who is attaining specific self-determined goals (Klenowski,
2002) and meeting national standards for the profession. The portfolio process includes the
identification of your strengths, needs, and goals. It provides a place for collection, reflection,
and feedback, and, most importantly, evidence of your progress and competence. As a
professional, you are expected to be self-directed, inquisitive, and aware of trends and research
in the field. The portfolio anchors you in processes that can assure professional growth
throughout your career (Doel, Sawdon, & Morrison, 2002).
Because the portfolio is largely student-directed, the learner is free to demonstrate
creativity and artistic design that are not generally allowed by certain types of testing. The
process of choosing evidence for inclusion in the portfolio requires students to reflect in order to
integrate classroom learning and experience with national identified standards. The portfolio
provides the instructor greater insight to the students understanding and application of concepts
to professional practice (Schulz, 2005; Stefanakis) as the basis for assessment. The use of
metacognitive skills (Klenowski, 2002) and the context of classrooms, projects, practicum create
a learning environment rich in opportunities for dialogue and further enhancing the reflective
educational process inherent in portfolio development (Shulz, 2005). There are many definitions
of portfolios covering everything from portable collections of pictures to the case used to carry
them. Students in the program need only be concerned with one type of portfolio the:
Comprehensive Portfolio. Your advisor and instructors can answer questions related to evidence
3

to include in the portfolio. You will find your progression through the curriculum more
meaningful to you as a learner if you can visualize how the various aspects of the curriculum are
integrated as a whole. At the beginning of each course, spending time thinking about the
information that provided and how it will increase your learning as a qualified nurse anesthetist
professional.
References

Barrett, H., & Carney, J. (2005). Conflicting paradigms and competing purposes in
electronic portfolio development. Retrieved August 17, 2007, from
http://electronicportfolios.com/ portfolios/LEAJournal-BarrettCarney.pdf

Doel, M., Sawdon, C., & Morrison, D. (2002). Learning, practice and assessment:
Signposting the portfolio. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley.

Huba, M. E., & Freed, J. E. (2000). Learner-centered assessment on college campus:
Shifting the focus from teaching to learning. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Klenowski, V. (2002). Developing portfolios for learning and assessment: Processes
and principles. London: RoutledgeFalmer. .

Schulz, K. (2005). Learning in complex organizations as practicing and reflecting.
Journal of Workplace Learning,17(8), 493-506. Retrieved July 7, 2007, from
ProQuest Educational Journals.

Stefanakis, E. H. (2002). Multiple intelligences and portfolios: A window into the
students mind. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.