2010 Curriculum

8.1     RCoA recommendations for portfolios and logbooks

8.1.1       Portfolios

All trainees are required to maintain a Portfolio of training activity. By the end of training their Portfolios should meet the requirements for NHS appraisal and GMC revalidation for consultants.

The Portfolio is a means of recording the information and collecting the documentation required for appraisals and assessments during training. Keeping the Portfolio up to date will demonstrate the acquisition of the appropriate knowledge, skills, attitudes, and therefore competence.  

8.1.1.1       e-Portfolio

Trainees registered with the RCoA have access to the e-Portfolio system. The e-Portfolio allows the storage of training documents and manages workplace based assessments referenced to the curriculum units of training. Trainees should register with the College as soon as they have accepted an offer for a training placement by completing the core or higher specialty training registration forms available on the College website, where more information on the e-Portfolio is also available. 

8.1.2       Logbooks, diaries and other records

Trainees must record the details of anaesthetics they have given in a suitable logbook.

A Logbook Summary in the format shown in Appendix 4 or a report downloaded from the RCoA’s electronic logbook should be present within the trainee’s e-Portfolio for each ARCP. 

8.1.2.1       ICM

Anaesthetic trainees attached to critical care should maintain a record of their mandatory ICM competence acquisition by completing an ICM Training Progression Grid. This Grid should then be uploaded to the personal library in the e-Portfolio system as evidence for sign-off of the ICM unit of training. Any trainee with a specific interest in this field should adopt the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine’s record of training at an early stage. [See Annex F]

8.1.2.2       Pain medicine   

Anaesthetic trainees undertaking pain medicine training should maintain a diary of sessions spent in these activities [including acute pain rounds]. Trainees should maintain a logbook of acute and chronic pain cases seen, with a record of procedures [see the FPM website]. Any trainee with a specific interest in this field should keep more detailed records from an early stage.

8.2     Data Protection

The Data Protection Act 1998 governs the collection, retention, and transmission of information held about living individuals and the rights of those individuals to see information concerning them.  The Act also requires the use of appropriate security measures for the protection of personal data. Special treatment is required for the processing of ‘sensitive data’ [e.g. religion, race, health etc]. All doctors must be aware of the implications of this legislation for their work.  Trainees should further be mindful of logbooks which are backed up in the Cloud.

8.2.1       Use of patient ID in logbooks

Patients must not be individually identifiable from the patient ID used. The GMC Confidentiality Guidance defines anonymised data as ‘Data from which the patient cannot be identified by the recipient of the information. The name, address and full postcode must be removed together with any other information which, in conjunction with other data held by or disclosed to the recipient, could identify the patient.’²⁸  The RCoA recommends that trainees only record the age [not date of birth], sex and ASA grade of patients and that no other unique numbers are retained. 

8.3     Documentation of training 

It is essential that trainees and Schools of Anaesthesia maintain proper training records for a number of reasons: to ensure that individual trainees receive an appropriately balanced programme of training; to inform the ARCP; to support the revalidation process and to assist the external quality control and assessment of training by the GMC, the Postgraduate Deans and the College.

8.3.1       The trainee’s responsibilities

• At the commencement of the training programme the trainee must register with the College to enable an e-Portfolio account to be created. [See section 8.1.1.1 for e-Portfolio] This account must be contemporaneously maintained throughout training.
• It is the trainees’ responsibility to ensure that their ‘Workplace Assessments’ for individual units of training are completed by reminding those responsible at the appropriate time. If however a trainee experiences unreasonable difficulty in obtaining the necessary assessment they should communicate this to the College Tutor or, exceptionally, to the Regional Adviser. 

8.3.2       The School’s responsibilities

• Details of assessments and records of appraisals must be kept by the School of Anaesthesia.
• Schools of Anaesthesia should ensure that trainee and trainer information on the e-Portfolio is current and accurate.