My ePortfolio: recording sensitive professional midwifery material

Those of you who have been following this blog recently will know that I have been building my ePortfolio. As I have said before, one of the reasons for this is because I am required to have a portfolio as a midwife in New Zealand. So I want to model ePortfolios for my students and midwives who are interested in the concept.

The area that is causing me the most concern is how I present the information that pertains to clients and my professional practice in a way that is meaningful for my reflection, but keeps both my clients and myself safe, and observes all professional and legal standards that regulates my practice.

So where I have got to now is that I have almost completed the Midwifery Review section of my ePortfolio. This is the part of the portfolio that is most likely to have sensitive professional information in it. I have taken the material from all my previous reviews and put them into this portfolio. There are a couple of things I have omitted and I have made a few changes, but otherwise, what you see is what I have presented in the past to the Review Committees.

I am conscious that there is a lot of written text which could be very boring for readers, although that is how Review material is currently presented to the Reviewers.

Here are the questions I would really appreciate feedback on because these will be issues that face the profession as midwives explore the option of ePortfolios.

• What do you think about the clinical stories I have presented? Is it acceptable for them to be in the public eye or are they breaching confidentiality and should be kept in a private space?
• What material should stay in text form and what could be presented effectively in video or audio?
• How 'honest' can I be about my personal clinical practice in an open forum?
• How much background information should be given to accommodate non-midwifery readers - are non-midwives likely to be interested?
  

Any feedback about these issues would be gratefully received.

What I am loving about the electronic format for my portfolio is that I can link and add material into my writing that I would not otherwise would not be able to do in a paper portfolio. I am also finding that the links between my ePortfolio and the reflections in my blog are increasing. I am getting to the point of saying that the two are dependent on each other.