1. ePortfolio Supervision OTBNZ Q & A Webinar
Mary Silcock, Professional Advisor
Sam Ashworth, Registration & Communications Advisor
June 2019

2. Objectives Purpose of ePortfolio Supervision Role of Supervisee
Role of Supervisor
Nominating a Supervisor
Supervisor statements

3. Purpose of ePortfolio Supervision
The purpose of mandating ePortfolio supervision for all occupational therapists who hold a practising certificate is to protect the public by ensuring the occupational therapy they receive is by a safe and competent occupational therapist.
The Board has three main documents that you can refer to learn more about the legal obligations which ePortfolio supervision is fulfilling.
Supervision guideline:
This gives clear guidance of the types of supervision the Board requires
and why it needs these in reference to the Code of Ethics and our
Competencies for Registration and Continuing Practice.
Code of Ethics:
Under Principle 1 – Relationship with those receiving OT services
1.3.7 specifies the need for OTs to provide professional supervision for other OTs,
assistants and students for whom they are responsible; and
1.3.8 receive effective professional supervision.
ePortfolio Handbook:
Describes the purpose of ePortfolio supervision to support ongoing safe
and competent practice and details roles & responsibilities of being an
ePortfolio supervisor and supervisee
Supervision requirements for occupational therapists (p.2)

4. Role of ePortfolio Supervisee
Organise an appropriate supervisor
Ask for feedback about competence to write self-assessments
Discuss goals and developmental activities with supervisor
Ensure ePortfolio supervision is part of supervision received
The intention of ePortfolio supervision is to receive feedback about our practice and support us to maintain competence.
Supervisee’s need to organize an appropriate person to be their ePortfolio supervisor.
We recommend that supervisees look for a supervisor who has completed training in supervision and attend training themselves about supervision to enable supervision to meet your needs as an OT and for the ePortfolio requirements
OTs who are New Grads/RTP/Overseas must have a supervisor who is an OT with a current practising certificate and no conditions on their scope of practice.
Everyone else can have a suitable/appropriate person who does not necessarily need to be an OT but is willing and able to participate/fulfil the roles as an ePortfolio supervisor
Supervisee’s need to discuss your ePortfolio within supervision
At the beginning of the two year ePortfolio cycle sit down with your supervisor and ask for some honest feedback about your competence, skills, abilities, service requirements, workplace needs etc
Get guidance and support with writing self-assessments to enable you to form realistic goals and developmental activities that will help meet your professional development needs over the next two years.

5. Role of ePortfolio Supervisor
Focus on practice & competence
Beginning & end of cycle are opportunities to reflect and take stock of where supervisee is at with their practice
Additional training in the provision of supervision is strongly recommended
Commitment to role of ePortfolio supervisor is required
The role of the ePortfolio supervisor is to support the supervisee to engage and use the ePortfolio to evidence their ongoing competence
Supervision for the ePortfolio should focus on practice and ongoing competence
Supervisors need to provide feedback to the supervisee about their practice in each competence area to help them write accurate and appropriate self-assessments, goals and developmental activities that are realistic and achievable for their role and abilities.
We suggest that at least 2 or 3 times a year the ePortfolio progress is reviewed and discussed to support supervisees with achieving their goals.
The beginning and end of the ePortfolio cycles provide excellent opportunities to have a stock take of where the supervisee is at.
Critical reflections can be discussed and difficult conversations, areas of strength or opportunities that are presenting themselves can be brought up.
An ePortfolio supervisor should be someone who has skills in supervision and a sufficient knowledge of the area of practice of the practitioner they are supervising.
And as already mentioned we strongly recommend that therapists wishing to be an ePortfolio supervisor participate in further training to enhance their skills in this area.
It is very important that supervision is provided safely, ethically and in culturally competent ways as there is increasing research about the harms of supervision to practitioners because of lack of skills and abilities of the supervisor.

6. Nominating a Supervisor
The process for nominating an ePortfolio supervisor is through your ePortfolio and the Supervision tab.
There is a ‘Nominate a Supervisor’ or ‘Nominate an external supervisor’ link there which you click on and you will be guided through selecting an OT who is registered with OTBNZ or to enter the contact details of your external supervisor
The supervisor will then receive an saying they have been nominated by you and they will accept or decline the invitation.
After they have accepted the nomination they will appear on your ePortfolio as your current supervisor and your name will appear in their ePortfolio as being a supervisee
None Pending

7. Supervisor statements
Once supervision has been arranged and set up the supervisor needs to also make two supervisor statements
These are to acknowledge that they have discussed the self-assessments with you and that you are actively involved in the developmental activities you have chosen
To make these statements the supervisor needs to click on the ‘Details’ that appears beside their supervisee’s name
Another Awesome OT
Details
Remove
Awesome, OT ( )

8. Two tick boxes appear for them to fill in to make these acknowledgements and this then gets transferred to your ePortfolio in the form of two green ticks.

9. Checking Supervisor statements
Another Awesome OT
Awesome, OT ( )
Details
Remove

10. In Supervisee’s ePortfolio:
Another Awesome OT
OTA
The Supervisor statements need to be present for an ePortfolio to pass an audit
We don’t state when these need to be completed but I would suggest once the self-assessments, goals and developmental activities have been discussed and your supervisor is happy with the way the supervisee is engaging with these they should tick these boxes.
If you are audited and these are not you will be given 10 days to get them ticked. This is the time to sit down and discuss the progress you are making with your goals and developmental activities if you haven’t already done so.
In Supervisors’ ePortfolio:
Awesome OT

11. Mary Silcock
Professional Advisor
General enquiries & technical support