A professional portfolio template is available here which meets the minimum requirements for APC renewal by CPRB. A portfolio is the property and responsibility of it's owner, and may be organised differently or contain more than the following elements.

The portfolio can be kept as a hard copy paper format, saved electronically in folders, or in purpose designed portfolio applications, according to personal preference. However it is kept, it must be made available on request to CPRB. The elements of this portfolio are:

1. Curriculum Vitae
2. Professional Declarations
3. Professional Society Memberships
4. Annual Practicing Certificates
5. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Activities

To download the portfolio template click here: Portfolio template CPRB

Learning Outcome Forms and Reflective Learning

CPRB utilizes a "Reflective Learning" model for assessing CPD. We no longer use an attendance model (where multiple points are awarded for attendance), but instead require registrants to say what they actually learnt from an activity. The action of re-visiting an educational activity at a later time and reflecting on what was learnt, gains a single CPD credit.

CPD is demonstrated via completion of learning outcome forms (aka CPD form), whereby registrants briefly reflect on the learning that occurred and demonstrate the learning outcome of the CPD activities they engage in. A one page summary describing the type of activity, date, and learning outcome should be kept for CPD activities where relevant learning occurred. 

Click here to download a blank form: CPD Learning Outcome Form

Minimum requirements

CPRB has mandated a minimum level of learning activities in order for continuing issuance of an APC, however we encourage registrants to engage in reflective learning as often as possible. Learning should be directly related to your scope of practice. CPD should be appropriate for your level of experience in it's relevance and complexity. 

The minimum requirements are:

• 1 Activity per year from Group A: Workplace learning
• 1 Activity per year from Group B: Structured learning
• 1 Activity per year from Group C: Self-directed learning
• A minimum of 18 activities over a 3 year period

Click here to download the activities list: CPD activity table

CPD Groups

It is important to partake in a variety of learning activities, some in groups, some self directed, some structured.

Group A is Workplace learning. In general this happens in your workplace and involves or is provided by your own colleagues. Examples:

• learning that occurs in your workplace in the course of everyday work
• in-house presentations or in-service training
• reviewing incidents or events
• where you perform a clinical audit in the workplace to assess a part of your service
• where you review a peer against a set of professional standards
• where you are shadowing a colleague to learn a new skill, on a workplace visit or rotation

Group B is Structured learning. In general this is educational content provided by external sources such as a course, conference, webinar or seminar that others could also attend, and tends to be passive learning e.g. mostly listening. They can be attended in person or found online, so not being able to physically attend a conference is not accepted as an excuse from group B activities. Examples:

• external seminars, workshops or lectures 
• specialist or multidisciplinary conferences 
• completion of an online course
• lectures attended as part of a qualification
• learning acquired while you develop a training course for others

Group C is self directed learning. In general you choose the content and it is completed individually, not in a group. It relates to your own learning, not what others learnt from you, e.g if you prepared and delivered the same presentation 3 times, and learnt nothing new on the 2nd and 3rd time, you can only use the preparation of the talk as one learning activity, and you would need to state what new information you learnt. 

Group C examples:

• reading and reviewing a journal article
• reading and reviewing an online article
• peer review of someone's research paper or article
• learning that occurred preparing a case study, presentation or teaching session
• undertaking and presenting your own research, or research undertaken in a group
• learning that occurred while mentoring or supervising a student

Practicing in dual scopes

New to practice

New graduate / newly employed in the field / students / trainees who are registered are required to begin a portfolio and engage in reflective learning. They are not exempt any of the portfolio requirements while training. Lectures attended or assignments can be used as group B or group C activities and a CPD form should be completed. Chose activities that apply to your developing practice.

Parental leave / Part time employees

You are not required to undertake CPD while on parental leave, but as the minimum level of activities is low the board expects a catch-up period of learning to occur when you are back in the workplace. You need to show you are on track to achieving 18 activities over 3 years. The same minimum of 18 over 3 years applies to part time employees - there is no pro-rata system.

Click here for a step by step guide to uploading CPD: How to log CPD

Overview: Upload CPD for auditing:

• Login to this CPRB website via the Login page.
• Go to your CPRB profile 
• Check your CV is up to date in your CPRB profile.
• Check all your details are completed and correct.
• Click on the CPD tab. 
• Create a CPD period for each of the 3 years to be audited.
• Upload CPD forms and the related evidence into each CPD period by date of activity, selecting if an A, B, or group C activity each time.
• Each activity is worth 1 credit - only enter 1 credit per upload.
• There are separate upload boxes for the CPD form and the related evidence. If the activity does not have an evidence, the CPD form must be signed by a supervisor. There is a tick-box to select if the form is supervisor validated.

Uploading a Paper-based Portfolio 

You will need to scan each activity and evidence to PDF format, for uploading into your CPD tab.

Uploading an E-Portfolio

Upload individual files directly via the CPD tab of your profile.

When do audits occur?

A portfolio can be requested for auditing at any time by CPRB. Some groups schedule regular audit timeframes of 3 years. Others audit names selected at random. If a practitioner is selected for audit, 3 months notification and a 1 month reminder is given via email.

What is audited?

The CPD section of the portfolio is audited. An up to date CV is required for auditing, so the auditor can assess your role and responsibilities accurately to see that your CPD relates to your role.

You do not need to provide other elements such as professional society receipts or APC certificates as CPRB already has access to these.

How to provide CPD documents for auditing

CPD forms and evidences must be uploaded directly to your CPRB profile, under the CPD tab.

Log in with your email and password to access your profile, and click on the CPD tab to get started.

Overview: Upload CPD for auditing:

• Login to the CPRB website at www.cprb.org.nz with your email and password.
• Go to your CPRB profile 
• Check your CV is up to date in your CPRB profile.
• Check all your details are completed and correct.
• Click on the CPD tab. 
• Create a CPD period for each of the 3 years to be audited.
• Upload CPD forms and the related evidence into each CPD period by date of activity, selecting if an A, B, or group C activity each time.
• There are separate upload boxes for the CPD form and the related evidence. If the activity does not have an evidence, the CPD form must be signed by a supervisor. There is a tick-box to select if the form is supervisor validated.

Notify the portfolio Officer 

When you are ready for auditing, select submit to finalize each CPD year, then click 'I am ready for Audit' to notify the portfolio officer.

Audit Outcomes

1) Passed - your portfolio is considered satisfactory. Feedback with suggested improvements may be provided. No further action is required on your part.

2) Further documents required - insufficient CPD, missing documents or incorrectly submitted documents may be requested to be re-submitted. A timeframe for re-submission of documents will be given. You must provide the documents requested in that timeframe.

3) Re-audit - if your portfolio is below standard, you will be given specific feedback. You will be required to re-submit your portfolio for auditing the following year.

Extensions

In extenuating circumstances, you can formally request one extension to the date for auditing or providing extra documents. This should be made in writing to the Portfolio Officer at portfolio@cprb.org.nz and will be discussed with the relevant board member.

Failure to respond to an audit

If you do not provide any documents for auditing or re-auditing after 5 working days of the final submission date, and have not been granted an extension, your APC may be withdrawn. The public register will be updated to reflect the change in APC status to 'Lapsed'. Your clinical supervisor and employer will be notified and you will be unable to renew your APC until a satisfactory plan is made to undertake CPD and reschedule an audit.

The following exemplars of CPD learning forms are provided to give registrants an idea of the level and nature of information to be provided.

Remember, you are providing a summary of "what you learned", in essence repeating the information you learned with the activity.

You are not:

• describing how many hours or CPD points an activity was awarded by another authority
• showing complete powerpoints or articles written by someone else as your learning (the first page can be used as your evidence, but not the learning outcome).
• making general statements with no specific learning e.g. "I learned a lot about..." or "it was really interesting" - these are not learning outcomes.

Exemplar 1 - Conference presentation - Physiologist Exemplar Group B

Exemplar 2 - Quality Care Workshop - Physiologist Exemplar - group B

Exemplar 3 - Article review - Physiologist Exemplar type C

Exemplar 4 - Research for presentation - Physiologist Exemplar - group C

Exemplar 5 - Case review - Physiologist Exemplar - group A

Exemplar 6 - In-house lecture review - Technician Exemplar - Group A

Exemplar 7 - Article review - Technician Exemplar Group C

NO patient identifiers: Ensure that no documents in your portfolio, in particular presentations or case studies contain the name of any patient under your or another health professional’s care. All patient identifiers must be deleted or covered.

NO staff identifiers: Where possible do not identify any other health professional without their written permission, or use a reflection of an incident or event to bring any other health professional or profession into disrepute.

Organise CPD by calendar year

Set up a calendar year ending Dec 31st for each year encompassing the audit period. 

e.g. your audit is scheduled for April 2023. Set up years ending 31st Dec 2023*, 2022, 2021, 2020 and upload CPD in the year it occurred. The CPD audited will be from April 2020 to April 2023.

* historically some physiologists kept CPD in July-July years under the old system. They can continue to do this if they have a strong preference, but it is not recommended as it makes things confusing for all involved.

A, B Cs:  Within each year, group the types A B and C forms separately from each other. An activity can only be for one group  – not multiple groups.

CV: Update your CV annually, and upload to your profile.

Upload: Upload CPD documents to your CPRB profile in the CPD section at any time. it will make a portfolio audit less stressful if most of the work is already done.

Evidences:

• Keep with CPD form: File or scan evidences such as certificates and store with the related CPD form.
• No evidence? Get it signed: If no evidence can be provided, you must have your clinical supervisor sign the CPD form.
• Powerpoints – shrink!: For evidence of powerpoint presentations you created, print to PDF with 6 slides/page. Do not send  presentations made by other people.
• Only 1 evidence needed: One type of evidence is sufficient, e.g. for a conference attendance either an attendance certificate, OR a program, OR a registration receipt is sufficient – not all 3.
• Keep it secure: Do not file bank account statements identifying your account number. Do not keep flight details and bookings, or accommodation receipts in your portfolio.

Dual Portfolio uploads?

When uploading your CPD to your profile, make the first word of the title the name of the portfolio it pertains to.

Here is an example from someone with a dual portfolio in Respiratory and Sleep. The Auditor can clearly see which entries are for the Respiratory portfolio, which are for the Sleep portfolio and which pertain to both portfolios.

example of Dual portfolio CPD

When choosing how to store your portfolio documents, keep in mind how easy it will be for you to upload these documents to CPRB if you are audited. Each CPD form must be in PDF format, and is uploaded individually, with a second upload box for the related evidence. A CPD upload box looks like this:

example CPD entry

Your decision may depend on what technology is accessible to you, for example, do you have easy access to a document scanner or a photocopier scanner? If so you may prefer to store documents electronically. If not, it may be better to store in paper form in a folder, and only scan them at the time of audit.

Choose a storage method that is both convenient for you as you collect forms, and convenient when you need to share the documents with CPRB.

Portfolio documents must be able to be uploaded as PDFs to the CPD section of your CPRB profile. Do not store documents as photo files like jpeg, png as these can easily exceed the file size limit and be unable to be uploaded or viewed.

You can upload documents to your CPD page of your profile at any time, whether your portfolio is being audited or not. 

Keeping a paper based Portfolio

• The portfolio template can be printed, and pages 1-6 used as Section dividers.
• Paper copies of any documents can be kept organised in each section.
• Don’t use staples – you will need to scan it all one day if you are audited.
• File CPD by calendar year.
• Keep CPD evidences with the relevant CPD learning outcome form, not separately.
• Within each year, group types A, B and C forms separately.
• If audited, you will need to scan each activity and evidence to PDF.

Keeping an E-Portfolio 

This is a paper free portfolio, with documents stored on a computer or cloud storage.

• Make folders named after Sections 1-6.
• Save CPD forms and evidences by calendar year.
• Forms requiring signatures, i.e. those with no evidence, must be first printed and signed, then scanned and stored. Electronic signatures are not accepted.
• Evidences should be stored as PDF files - label the file to match it with the activity.
• Consider file size – High resolution files are not required. Many PDF printers allow you to reduce the density. Files should be < 20MB.
• Do not store as photo files (jpeg, png etc…) A picture file should be printed to PDF.

• Name the files to stay organised, e.g. in the 2019 folder, label all A activities with a filename beginning with the letter A. 

 e.g.

A – lecture by J Smith - signed

A – Training session 12.2.2019

A - Training session 12.2.2019 evidence

Store files on your own home or workplace computer. Do not use the CPD section of your CPRB profile as the only site for documents - we may need to delete documents > 4 years old from our website periodically, and will not store your CPD indefinitely.

The flow chart below provides registrants with a concise overview of the auditing process, detailing the steps and decision-making procedures employed by board members when evaluating portfolio audit outcomes.

CPRB Portfolio Audit Flowchart