Guidance provided to HSST trainees recommends that this could take the form of:
- A list of skills and attributes you would be expected to be able to demonstrate on day one of your new role as a Consultant Clinical Scientist. It would make sense to derive this list and plan with reference to the HSS Standards of Proficiency against which submissions the e-portfolio will be mapped. You may develop a list of, say, 20 key and daily deliverables for a consultant clinical scientist in your specialism (for inspiration, perhaps look at the job descriptions for consultant posts). You may then wish to split this list by the year of training by which you believe each skill or competence is achievable; or identify whether that deliverable represents a common thread throughout the whole training period.
- A matrix that specifies your intended development milestones by some key themes in your training. These key themes may include academic development, professionalism, clinical skill and scientific understanding, for example. Again, you may wish to derive your themes from the domains and standard titles contained in the HSS Standards of Proficiency. The table below shows an example of how some milestones may be specified for development of research skills. The work that is done to achieve these milestones should be submitted in the e-portfolio and mapped to the relevant HSS Standards of Proficiency. The milestones in the table below show a clear incline of challenge that is appropriate for HSST (although they may not be achieved in such a linear fashion as is presented here. The achievement of each milestone would create a wealth of evidence that can be recorded in the e-portfolio to demonstrate progression.
Possible milestones for research skills and competencies
| Year | Milestones | E-portfolio |
| 1 | Understand the framework for academic and professional development in my specialty. | Develop and upload a map of the most relevant websites, conferences, online discussion groups, journals, networking opportunities, congress meetings etc. |
| 2 | Submit to the annual congress/conference an abstract for a poster presentation based on work submitted for the Professional Doctorate module ‘Professionalism and Professional Development in the Healthcare Environment’. | Upload abstract, and PDF of poster. |
| Begin an outline for a paper for publication. | Write reflective piece on own performance at conference. | |
| 3 | Submit to the annual conference an abstract for a 10 minute oral presentation. | Upload PowerPoint presentation and presentation notes. |
| Ask colleague to complete a feedback evaluation form on my performance during oral presentation. | Complete reflective piece on own performance, including questions asked and thoughts about my responses.
Upload feedback evaluation and thoughts and actions for improving weaker areas. |
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| Develop the ideas for and set up a ‘journal club’ with colleagues; aim to read and critique one paper a month. | Upload a list and written critique of the papers read for the journal club. | |
| 4 | Present an oral presentation. | Upload presentation and notes. |
| Submit a co-authored outline for a pre-conference workshop. | Upload pre-conference workshop abstract and any accompanying materials. | |
| Present a seminar at another centre in my region, and request completion of an evaluation. | Upload seminar presentation and notes; write reflective piece based on evaluations. | |
| 5 | Contact conference organiser and offer to chair a symposium at the annual conference. | Upload all evidence relating to symposium, including agenda, questions and answers, speaker biographies that were used to introduce speakers. |
| Co-author a paper based on FRCPath Part 2 project or Professional Doctorate thesis. | Upload draft paper and plan for publication (target journal, timeline etc). |