Purpose of PDP

Answered

John Moore

18 July 2017 09:27

I attended the portfolio workshop earlier in the year and remain slightly confused as to the purpose of the PDP. The impression was given that a PDP and it's objectives should seek to link to all curriculum items, so when evidence is linked to a PDP objective it then links to a number of curriculum items.

This appears to me to remove the purpose of linking directly to curriculum items, and also the personalised nature of a PDP. If the PDP can cover the whole curriculum, why do we need both? I think the guidance we should be giving trainees is to create a PDP that is very much individual and separate from curriculum items instead of closely aligning it to existing curriculum items. By example, in my second CT1 post I had specific PDP items relating specifically to my role in an old age day hospital. My first CT1 PDP had generic items such as improve diagnosis, act as as a responsible professional, etc.

There doesn't seem to be a consistent approach that both trainers and trainees are aware of in regards to the PDP and it seems like the utility of this will be reduced until this is clarified.

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  Simon Bettison

  25 August 2017 13:32

  The purpose of the PDP is twofold, firstly it is to assist in the formative learning process. It allows supervisors and trainees to discuss individual learning needs and document them in the form of Learning Objectives.

  The second purpose is to encourage creation of learning objectives that are specifically geared towards evidencing competency. The system encourages trainees to link learning objectives to curriculum competencies. One of the benefits of doing this, is that you can subsequently map activities to your PDP Item via these linked competencies and that this is then automatically reflected in your curriculum coverage.

  We understand that sometimes activities may evidence competencies that are not specifically covered in your current PDP. To support this kind of opportunistic learning we also allow for mapping directly to the curriculum.

  If you wish, then you can choose not link your PDP Items to the curriculum. In this case you could simply map all activities directly to the curriculum.

  As you have identified, people use the portfolio in different ways and so we have tried to design the system to accommodate this.

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