Navigating the new Portfolio process

By Lynn Grieger, RD, CD, CDE.

You knew it was coming, but suddenly, there it is in your mailbox: the Professional Development Portfolio, the new procedure for maintaining registration as a dietitian or dietetic technician through the Council on Dietetic Registration (CDR). RDs must achieve 75 and DTRs 50 Continuing Professional Education Units (CPEUS) during each five-year reporting period. It may look daunting at first, but navigating the portfolio process is simple by following these easy steps:

Step One: Professional Self-Assessment

1. Read through all the materials before you begin. The portfolio includes five separate steps: self-reflection, learning needs assessment, learning plan development, learning plan implementation, and evaluation of outcomes.
2. Each of the five steps contains examples from clinical, food service, and presently unemployed practitioners. Additional examples for other career areas such as research or non-traditional health care are also provided. Use these examples to guide your work through the entire process.
3. The first step, self-reflection, is for personal use only and is not submitted to CDR. You can either use the form provided by CDR, or use alternate methods such as assessment tools required in your workplace. Or you can skip writing down anything for the first section and assess your career goals and learning needs in your head. It’s a great activity during a long run, while swimming laps, or driving home from work!
4. Instead of looking at self-reflection and assessing your learning needs as odious tasks, use them as a way to plan your career over the next five years. Think about your professional strengths and weaknesses and what you want to be doing in the next five years.

Step Two: Developing a Learning Plan

1. Use one of these methods to define your learning goals:
   • Focus on a specific area of practice, such as brushing up on laboratory assessment skills or developing management skills.
   • Build your goals around a specific content area, such as becoming a Certified Diabetes Educator or learning skills to work with a pediatric population.
   • Choose broad-based goals such as remaining current in nutrition research or keeping up-to-date with nutrition counseling skills.
   • Focus on ancillary areas, such as developing computer competency or taking public speaking courses.
2. Anticipate the unexpected! Include a mix of specific and broader goals in your plan to cover possible job changes or time spent at home with children.
3. Remember that you can update and change your learning plan as often as you wish. If you start the five year reporting period working in a cardiac center, but change careers to teaching in a community college, you can submit a new learning plan if you desire. Note: you do not automatically have to submit a new learning plan every time your job or goals change. If you set broad learning goals, your plan should serve you for the entire five-year reporting period.
4. There is no minimum or maximum number of goals that must be included in your learning plan. You can submit one goal, such as earning a master's degree in sports nutrition, or you can include a variety of goals. The choice is yours!
5. Check out all the methods to earn CPEUs before you submit your learning plan. For example, CPEUs can now be earned for reading professional peer-reviewed journals or volunteering as an elected official with a state association or practice group. CDR is developing a list of all CPEU opportunities, which will be mailed in May or June 2001. If you have questions before that time, contact CDR directly.
6. If you set a goal for earning an advanced degree or specialized certification, you don't actually have to complete the degree or earn the certification to meet the requirements of your learning plan. Simply taking courses and working toward that degree or certification is sufficient.
7. If in doubt, ask CDR! If you're not sure that your plan to take accounting courses or study Spanish meets your assessed nutrition career goals, ask the folks at CDR before you submit your plan.
8. Plan to submit your learning plan as soon as possible after your new five-year reporting period begins. That way, CDR has plenty of time to review your learning plan, and you have five years to earn CPEUs. There is no set deadline to submit the learning plan, however, the learning plan must be submitted within 120 days after the continuing education event for it to count toward the required total. In addition, many states have licensure or certification guidelines that require CPEUs every two years.
9. CDR's role is primarily to provide the tools and support necessary to complete this process and meet lifelong learning goals. They will not judge learning plans or CPEUs, but simply verify that the learning plan is related to the dietetics field.
10. The learning plan must be submitted within 120 days after a specific continuing education course for it to count toward the required hours. If you attend a session on working with people with low literacy in January, but don't submit your learning plan until November, you won't be able to count that activity toward your CPEUs.

Step Three: Submitting the Learning Activities Log

1. Be well organized! It's up to each individual professional to keep records of all continuing education activities. Maintain a file of the dates of programs, speakers and their credentials, course syllabus, program outline and goals, journal abstracts, etc. These documents must be kept for seven years in case of an audit.
2. The learning activities log must be submitted before the end of your five-year reporting period. If you complete the log and achieve the required number of hours earlier, you can submit at that point.

Resources:

• CDR staff at 1-800/877-1600, ext. 4869
• Online CPE courses http://www.foodandhealth.com/continuinged.php
• The Professional Portfolio Guide table of contents at http://www.cdrnet.org/pdrcenter/portfolioTOC.htm
• Approved Certification Programs at http://www.cdrnet.org/PDFs/Appendix55.pdf
• Portfolio practitioner examples for public health, research, retirement, business and communication, and non-traditional health care are available at http://www.cdrnet.org/pdrcenter/industries.htm
• Searchable on-line CPE database at http://www.cdrnet.org/applications/cpe/index.cfm

"Congrats to Lynn for writing the above article and for you for posting it. She has done such a good job of presenting the CDR PD2001 Professional Development Portfolio in a such positive manner which should help dietetic professionals overcome any apprehensions about it.As a delegate for ADA, I have given presentations about PD2001 many times to members and I find that when RDs and DTRs learn a bit about it, they feel much better about the process. Hopefully Lynn's article will reach many members who have not been able to attend formal presentations!" Rita Allhoff Mitchell, RD, University of California Cooperative Extension

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