With all learning experiences it is also important to record evidence of that experience
in your portfolio. The purpose of this evidence is to prove your participation in a learning activity where evidence may consist of   documents such as a course certificate, course marks or lecture notes, or to actually demonstrate your learning from experiences which may be evidenced, for example, with written reflections or presentations.

Have a look at this list of examples of evidence that might be suitable to submit in support of your learning experiences, then get collecting.

The whole learning experience should be recorded in a professional development portfolio.

1. Write a summary of the learning experience details which should include a description of the actual experience, when it occurred, where it occurred, who else was involved and how many hours it took to complete.
2. Record the actual learning outcome of your learning experience. These may fulfil or be slightly different to the learning objectives that you had planned in relation to your learning needs or they may be incidental following an unplanned learning experience.
3. After this your reflections on your learning experience should be documented.
4. You might then want to make links between your learning and research evidence to prove development of your evidence based practice.   The integration of research evidence into your practice provides a more solid foundation for your practice.
5. Then try to link your learning outcomes to other standards such as competency frameworks, professional standards and service targets to enable you to easily refer back to learning activities completed that will support processes such as proof of competence or professional body registration for example.

Following any learning experience, whether it was a planned activity or an unplanned event, there should be a period of reflection upon that experience. You may want to ask yourself:

• What were the actual learning outcomes, or in other words what have I actually learned from the experience?
• Which of your learning needs has this addressed?
• As a result of your new learning should you change you practice?
• Is there any evidence available to support that change?
• You should also consider, how your learning contributed to your personal development goals?
• How has it contributed to maintaining your competence?
• How is it relevant to your current or future practice?
• How has it improved the quality of your practice?
• How has the service and service user benefited?
• How is it linked to your personal and organisational needs?
• Have any other learning needs been identified?

Take some time reflect!

Any planned learning activity that you complete will be a learning experience for you.   However, unplanned learning experiences may also occur incidentally in the work place or in relation to your work. For example, a clinical question may arise during a patient assessment relating to their management that you need to go away and research, an incident may occur during the treatment of a patient from which you could learn or you may simply read something that changes your practice.   These incidents can often result in the identification of additional learning needs.   Once a learning need is identified in this way you can repeat steps 2 & 3 of the CPD process as previously discussed and create a plan to achieve your new learning objective. These critical incidents are your unplanned learning experiences and can make as significant a contribution to your CPD as any planned learning activity.

It is useful to keep a log book a work where you can jot down any critical incidents and any resultant learning needs that arise from them.

The next bit is easy… it’s time for action, time to do all those things that you have planned to do to achieve your learning objectives.