Recertify by Portfolio

About the CNOR Professional Portfolio

A professional portfolio can best be described as a scrapbook of your professional life. It requires that, in addition to participating in educational or professional activities, you also reflect and document how you have integrated learning from activities to your clinical practice. It is more than a list or log of your professional activities. A portfolio includes documentation of how you applied that learning to your practice.

The portfolio method may be used for CNOR recertification or CNOR reactivation.

Candidates for CNOR recertification or reactivation submit a professional Portfolio to provide documentation of maintaining continued perioperative competence. In addition to identifying examples of practice that showcase achievements, professional development is portrayed by reflecting on those examples. Reflection requires the ability to describe an activity in depth, analyze it, and then supply the results to future practice.

Deadline

Recertification. If you are using the portfolio method for CNOR recertification, your application and reflection forms must be submitted by July 1st of the year you are due to certify.  The last time to recertify your credential by the portfolio method is July 1, 2013.

Reactivation. If you are using the portfolio method to reactivate a lapsed CNOR credential, your application and reflections forms may be submitted at any time throughout the year.

Requirements

A complete portfolio must contain each of the following components.

  1. Completed Portfolio Application.
  2. Professional resume. Your resume should be of the same quality as one used to apply for a job. Please limit work experiences and awards to the past five years. Education, employment, and professional achievements listed on the resume should support the selected activities below.
  3. Four different activities that best reflect your current perioperative practice. The activities must have taken place in the past five years.
    • Continuing education (total of 35 CEs)
    • Educational resources
    • Patient-centered care
    • Standards application
    • Precepting/mentoring/coaching
    • Evidence-based practice/CQI/research
    • Risk management
    • Contribution to institution: committee work
    • Contribution to a professional organization
    • Educational presentation
    • Professional writing
    • Academic courses completed or taught
  4. Completed reflection form for each activity describing application of the acquired knowledge to the experience must be filled out for each activity. The reflective process includes a description of the activity, what was learned, what would be done differently in the future, and the identification of goals and further learning needs.
  5. Relevant evidence/documentation must be provided that demonstrations successful completion of the activity.

Benefits of a Portfolio

  • Provides competency development
  • Requires reflection on professional experiences
  • Enables you to integrate what you have learned into your clinical practice
  • Creates a tool that may be useful for performance reviews, job interviews, to demonstrate professional development, to document performance in meeting requirements of an accreditation survey, or as part of an application to an educational program

Downloadable Forms

Please note, this process cannot be done online. Please download and submit the following forms.

Samples

Many successful applicants have found it beneficial to review examples of appropriate documentation: a sample portfolio activity and sample resume.