Portfolios: Possibilities for Addressing Emergency Medicine Resident Competencies

Portfolios are an innovative approach to evaluate the competency of emergency medicine residents. Three key characteristics add to their attractiveness. First, portfolios draw from the resident's actual work. Second, they require self‐reflection on the part of the resident. Third, they are inherently practice‐based learning since residents must review and consider their practice in order to begin the portfolio. This paper illustrates five different applications of portfolios. First, portfolios are applied to evaluating specific competencies as part of the training of emergency physicians. While evaluating specific competencies, the portfolio captures aspects of the general competencies. Second, the article illustrates using portfolios as a way to address a specific residency review committee (RRC) requirement such as follow‐ups. Third is a description of how portfolios can be used to evaluate resident conferences capturing the competency of practice‐based learning and possibly other competencies such as medical knowledge and patient care. Fourth, the authors of the article designed a portfolio as a way to demonstrate clinical competence. Fifth, they elaborate as to how a continuous