Engagement with a professional portfolio is part of every profession these days. In clinical training, every specialty has its own requirements for managing and maintaining a professional portfolio. Due to my own experiences as a surgical trainee I used ISCP. However, the advice below can be applied to any of the portfolios, in any other clinical specialty.
ISCP is the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme, the online surgical portfolio for surgical trainees from Core Surgical Training (CST) all the way through to Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT).
It was developed by the Joint Committee on Surgical Training (JCST), which works on behalf of the surgical Royal Colleges of the UK and Ireland. ISCP was developed to promote and ensure the highest possible standards of surgical training. The framework and curriculum within is GMC approved and is updated every few years, so it’s important to keep up!
ISCP allows trainees to record their achievements in line with the requirements of the curriculum and their training programme. These achievements are then part of the portfolio of evidence presented annually at ARCP (Annual Review of Competence Progression), which determines whether progress is continuing appropriately, and offers a chance to focus training and the support needed.
The ISCP Portfolio Has Several Parts
- AES (Assigned Educational Supervisor) meetings — three meetings which occur at the beginning, middle and end of the rotation. This allows objective setting at the beginning, an assessment of progression and identification of areas for development, and a final review of activity with sign-off.
- WBAs (Work Based Assessments) — one-to-one assessments carried out after an interaction/event, ideally with a senior in a consultant-level role. These include:
- Case Based Discussion (CBD)
- Procedure Based Assessments (PBAs)
- Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS)
- Mini Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX)
- Assessment of Audit (AOA)
- Observation of Teaching (OOT)
- MCRs (Multi Consultant Report) — a facility designed to get a competency-based review of a trainee by multiple consultants within a department, based on key activities such as managing inpatients, outpatients, theatres, etc.
- Portfolio — a section to upload all activities you’re involved in, including exam passes, research publications, posters/presentations, etc.
- Journal — a chance to document your reflections. It’s important to be careful about what you document. Personally, I kept my most significant reflections on my laptop and would acknowledge them on the ISCP journal; if they were ever needed I’d let them be read on my computer, but would avoid sending copies or sharing them. This is purely a personal view — I’d encourage you to seek advice and make your own mind up about how you want to proceed.
- Logbook — to log your surgical activity.
For more information on ISCP, click here.
To maximise your gains from ISCP it’s vital you sign up early, stay organised, and are familiar with what’s required from you. It’s also important to update it regularly as you go along, not just in the weeks before ARCP!
One final point: ISCP is a mandatory requirement of the job, so the fee you pay for it is tax deductible — small consolation, but better than nothing.