Doctors are often baffled by how to structure their medical portfolios. Every time they are asked to present it for interviews, applications, appraisals, or ARCPs, they are asked to show something slightly different each time. This leads to frustration, avoidance, and stress. We believe that we have solved the puzzle of portfolio structure. By putting you and your portfolio at the center of this process, you will be armed with information and ready to face anything. On this page, we have set out our recommended structure for your portfolio that ensures all your documents are stored in a clear and logical way. Because your portfolio has a number of uses (appraisal, specialty or job applications, agency registrations), we recommend using this ‘master’ structure and then extracting relevant sections as needed.

Every portfolio should start with a Table of Contents. This quickly shows the reader how your portfolio is organised so that they can find the relevant information they need to see.

Section 1: Employment History

This section describes your work history and includes all of the documentation related to your employment including your CV, references for your work, legal contracts, and important financial and tax documents.

The sub-sections are:

📝 CV & References

💰 Finance and Contracts

Section 2: Documents & Certificates

This section is a repository of all of the official documents and certificates relating to your registration as a medical professional. This is mainly

The sub-sections are:

💼 Registration Docs & Certificates

📄 Appraisal Records

💡 Mandatory & Statutory Training

💊 Probity & Health Statements

Section 3: Academic Achievements

This section encloses all of your formal academic achievements and endeavours. It is important to retain records of these as accomplishments in these areas can aid future applications by scoring you extra points.

The sub-sections are:

🎓 Qualifications & Prizes

✒️ Publications & Presentations

⚛️ Research, Audit, & QI

Section 4: Career Development

This section is the most relevant for your annual appraisal and will be the part of your portfolio that changes the most each year.

It is where you will store evidence of your ongoing learning and development, and collect the bulk of your evidence for appraisals and assessments.

The sub-sections are:

💭 PDPs

📚 CPD

📔 Teaching & Supervision

🔬 Workplace Based Assessments

🗣️ Feedback from Colleagues and Patients

🚨 Significant Events

🎹 Achievements Outside of Medicine