The value of student portfolios to evaluate undergraduate nursing programs

A growing trend in nursing education is the use of student portfolios for program evaluation. Incorporating portfolio analysis into a school's evaluation plan requires that faculty consider how the benefits and limitations of the portfolio development process impact the entire curriculum. The primary benefit of portfolio evaluation is that it permits the correlation of competencies attained by graduates with curricular outcomes. However, portfolio development also promotes increased student responsibility for learning, enhances faculty-student interaction, and facilitates changes in curriculum and instruction. The principal limitations of portfolio evaluation are the lack of research-based evidence that demonstrates the validity and reliability of portfolio analysis, time required to create a portfolio, and documentation storage.