Professional Development Record
for ARC Advanced Life Support Instructors

SECTION 1:  Introduction to Professional / Personal Development

The need for healthcare professionals to record professional, academic and other related activity has for some time been a requirement of continuing professional and personal development.  Following a review of the instructor re-certification process, the Australian Resuscitation Council has adapted from the Resuscitation Council (UK) professional development record (PDR) that will enable you to collect, comment upon and evaluate your ongoing contribution to this specialist area of healthcare education.  This is not a replacement of current systems of documentation but may be used as an adjunct to current logbooks, portfolios and other record keeping. The PDR may prove of value and assist in times of professional college development requirements and national registration requirements.  Healthcare professionals all take responsibility for their own self-development and acknowledging how this contributes to life long learning. It is an essential component of continuing professional development. The PDR is a critical account of your Instructor activity, rather than an annotated contents list.  This provides you with the opportunity to place into context the work you undertake as an Instructor and outline where learning/development has taken place.  It is advised that Section 2 of the PDR is completed as a minimum. The PDR outline will be the recommended tool for recording the following:
•	Number of courses taught 
•	Details of teaching commitments on each course 
•	Written feedback/comments relating to the teaching experience
•	Reflective writing on the teaching experience
The collection of such evidence of development will enhance any review processes for Instructors when re-certifying or in application for Course Director status. 

Benefits of a Profile
•	Contributes to your professional development by helping you to recognise, understand and value your abilities, strengths, achievements and experience, as a source of learning. It also creates an opportunity for you to identify areas for improvement and self-development.
•	Provides a source of information which you can draw on at any time and encourages reflective practice and life long learning.
•	Provides a sequential source of information that is evidence of experience, learning and achievements.

The introduction of profiles into the world of healthcare professionals has brought with it theories that stem from educational philosophy about the way adults learn.  The two main theories are those associated with experiential learning and reflective practice.

Experiential Learning
Experiential learning is largely concerned with learning that takes place when you are directly involved with the reality of the situation being studied. It is about applying knowledge into practice, in other words it becomes real.  In developing reflective and critical thinking skills, work activity, creativity, hunches, intuition and informed guesswork are central features in developing practice. 

Reflection
Reflection is seen as an important component of experiential learning because it provides a means of thinking about professional practice.  Reflection is an active process that turns your experience into learning, and is seen as a generic term for the mental activities we engage in, in order for learning to occur.

EXPLANATORY NOTES ON THE PROFILE SECTIONS
Section 2
The Australian Resuscitation Council will need you to share the information documented in Section 2 of your profile on request when re-certifying.  This section relates to your activity as an Instructor and includes candidate evaluation of the content and delivery of that activity. Section 2 also includes information on Provider / Instructor courses on which you are the Course / Medical Director.
This is the only section the Course Director may request to review on re-certification.  All other sections are for your personal use. 

Please note that Instruction on ALS1/Immediate Life Support Courses do not contribute the minimum course Instruction requirements for re-certification on ALS2/Advanced Life Support Courses.

The remaining sections may choose not to be completed and may be kept for personal use only: 
Section 3
This section is for you to record your experience to date

•	What have you done so far?
•	What areas of your practice are you particularly proud of because you overcame difficulties in order to succeed?
•	What actions have you taken in the past to improve your practice?
•	What activities have you been involved with outside work that can help you develop skills you can apply to improve your practice?

Section 4
This section gives you the opportunities to document any projects/publications/audits you have completed, and have a direct contribution to your Instructor activity.

Section 5
From time to time it will help to reflect on particular events.  These events are sometimes called critical incidents.  Do not be misled by the word ‘critical’.  Critical incidents can be out of the ordinary, life-threatening events, but they can also include day-to-day activities that are routine.  A critical incident need not be a dramatic event: usually it is an incident, which has significance for you. It is often an event that made you stop and think, or one that raised questions for you. It may have made you question an aspect of your beliefs, values, attitude or behaviour. It is an incident that in some way has had a significant impact on your personal and professional learning. Try and identify what you learnt from the situation, how you felt at the time, how you dealt with the situation and what the outcome was.  Finally, consider any areas you want to develop that were highlighted by the incident. 

Section 6
The importance of demonstrating learning through reflecting on your practice should not be underestimated.  Document what you were trying to achieve in a given situation, what you learnt from the activity, how you tried to apply that learning to your practice and the evaluation of that application. Questions that you may wish to ask include: 
•	What were your strengths during the planning and delivery of your session?
•	What communication methods did you use to build rapport with the candidates?
•	Any difficulties encountered and how you managed them. 
•	What worked well
•	Adult Learning Principles followed: 
o	How did you optimise their working memory and use hooks to the long-term memory to facilitate learning? 
o	Prior knowledge, repetition of concepts, reinforcement, feedback, active learning, multiple educational strategies, opportunity for practice and or questioning
•	Outline the questioning techniques you used, explaining why you chose those techniques.
•	What candidate cues did you observe that indicated participant understanding and engagement?
•	What strategies did you use to assess candidate understanding?
•	Outline any changes that would have to be made and why
•	What feedback did you receive from the any others, including the candidates, involved in the education?

Confidentiality
Writing about yourself and your professional practice in your profile will probably mean you are including confidential information that you would not wish anyone else to read. In the interests of confidentiality, it is advisable not to document any information that could identify patients, clients or colleagues.

Additional Reading
Benner P (1984) Novice to expert. Addison Wesley: Merlo Park 
Brookfield S (1987) Developing critical thinkers. Challenging adults to explore alternative ways of thinking and acting. Open University Press: Milton Keynes.
Brown S and Knight (1998) Assessing learners in higher education. 3rd Ed Kogan Page: London
Hargreaves D (1999) Teacher development in hospital medicine and dentistry. Medical Education 33 637 -639
Hesketh E, Bagnall G, Buckley E, Friedman M, Goodall E, harden R, Laidlaw J, Leighton-Beck L, McKinlay P, Newton R and Oughton R (2001) A framework fro developing excellence as clinical educator. Medical Education June Vol 35(6) 
p555-564
Jackson N (2000) Programme specification and its role in promoting an outcomes model of learning. Active learning in higher education. Vol 1 No2 Sage Publications: London
Jarvis P (1995) Adult and continuing education. Theory and Practice. Kogan Page: London
Kelly J. (1985) The really useful guide to portfolios and profiles. Nursing Standard   May 3, Vol 9
Pinksky L. Monson D and Irby D (1998) How excellent teachers are made: reflecting on success to improve teaching. Advanced Health Services Education 3 207-215
Redman W (1994) Portfolios for development: a guide for trainers and managers. Kogan Page: London
Schon D (1983) The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books: USA
Welsh I and Swann (2002) Partners in learning. Radcliffe Medical Press: Oxford