Portfolios

We were required to do this too. Huge waste of time. I would have been embarassed to take it to an interview and never did. Chalk it up to something you just have to put your head down and get done as part of nursing school.

Employers don't want to see all that ... but I strongly recommend maintaining a portfolio after graduation. Just modify it a bit to suit a real professional career instead of it being an academic exercise.

Get a folder, box, or whatever ... and use it to keep all your professional documents. Keep copies of your evaluations, any licenses or certification documents, continuing education records, etc. Also include a current copy of your resume, updated at least once per year to include committees served on, awards won, etc. You also might want to keep an ocassional example of your work. For example, I am in Staff Development and I keep copies of the bigger classes that I teach (the handouts, slides, etc.), research projects, conference presentations, 8'' by 11'' copies of conference posters, etc. That way, I have all of that stuff in one place where I can easily find it when needed.

When you someday go to apply for a promotion, new job, graduate school, etc. ... you will then be able to find all of that stuff. You won't have to agonize trying to remember your supervisor's name from a job 5 years ago ... or remember all of the committees you served on or letters you received from patients, etc. You'll have copies of your old evals that show you were considered a great employee, etc.

While you don't want to show all of that stuff to a prospective employer, it helps to have it available so that you can use the information and maybe a few pieces of it when you apply for a new job. You can use it to put together a great application package. You'll have it all easily accessible so that you can "pick and choose" what you need.