Personal Learning Plans
A Guide by the Bristol GP Educationalist Team
What are they?
Why do them?
How to do them successfully
Accrediting PLPs
Feedback
Portfolios
Templates
(MS Word)
A Personal Learning Plan is a record of the learning needs you have
identified as being of benefit to you, the objectives you have set yourself
in order to meet that need, and a record of a process of reflection on the
learning experience.
Although it is possible to produce a PLP for any learning that you might
like to undertake (for instance, learning ballroom dancing or improving your
horticulture skills), we are concerned here with learning that will be
useful to you in your professional life. As such, we encourage you to
undertake learning that will, first and foremost, benefit you personally,
but that will also, by extension, benefit your patients and the practice(s)
in which you work.
There is frequent confusion between a Personal Learning Plan and a
Personal Development Plan (PDP). For clarification, see the document 'The
PLP and the PDP: what is the difference?'
We have already partly answered this question. In addition, PLPs
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allow you to take control over your
learning because you set the learning agenda, rather than just respond
to those learning opportunities presented to you: you learn what, how
and when you want |
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have built into them a process of
reflection which enables you to develop an awareness of how you learn
best |
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encourage clear, achievable and measurable
goals, and thus promote a feeling of satisfaction and personal
achievement |
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help to prepare you for valuable and
successful Appraisal and Revalidation |
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can be used as a means of claiming 30
hours PGEA |
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allow us, as Educationalists viewing you
PLP, to provide learning opportunities for which there is a real need. |
Introduction
At the back of this booklet, and on our website (www.bristolgpsolutions.org.uk),
there is a proforma which we have devised to support you in producing your
PLP. We suggest that you complete the first side for your planned learning,
and the second as a reflection of learning that has taken place. Do feel
free to adapt this proforma if you wish, or not to use it at all. However,
together with the support notes below, we feel that the proforma can save
you a lot of time in structuring your PLP, and lead to a very useful
document.
Notes to support you in producing a PLP
The headings below refer to the various sections of the PLP proforma at
the back of this booklet.
a) Learning Need
Your learning need is the reason behind your learning: what prompted you
to learn more in this particular field. It could be because you saw a
patient who asked you something you did not know (PUN: patient unmet need),
and when you thought about it later you decided to learn more about it (DEN:
doctor educational need). It could be the result of an article you read in a
medical/GP newspaper or magazine, or a conversation with colleagues. It
could simply be a feeling you have about a ‘hole’ in your skills or
knowledge, which if ‘plugged’ would enhance your performance at work eg a
belief that you have poor IT skills, which make entering information onto a
computer laborious and time-consuming. There are various triggers to a
learning need, but the end result is the same: the need is apparent and you
wish to address it.
Learning needs give a sense of direction. They tend to be expressed as
broad statements eg “To improve my IT skills” or “To become more
knowledgeable about cardiology in General Practice”.
Note that the proforma here, unlike many others, encourages you to
address one learning need per document. We would suggest that you aim to
have 3 or 4 ‘live’ learning needs at a time ie your PLP contains 3 or 4
documents. This may seem like a lot to fill in, but we believe that a PLP is
most valuable when it enables you to write at some length, if you wish to,
on each component part.
b) Objective(s)
Objectives are specific goals which need to be pursued if you wish to
head in the broad direction defined by the learning need. Like all journeys,
you can get from A to B in many different ways: this is why there are no set
objectives that are right for everyone for a specific task. Likewise, there
is no set number of objectives relating to a particular learning need: there
may be one, two or several.
When considering what your objectives will be, it is useful to follow the
ARMPITS (!) principle. Objectives should be
Achievable ie the objective is neither over-ambitious, nor
unfeasible within a fixed period of time (12 months is a good maximum period
to allow).
Realistic ie neither idealistic, nor unmanageable, nor involves a
cost to you (financial or in terms of time) which outweighs the benefits.
Measurable ie you will be able to notice and express a change
resulting from the objective being met.
Positive ie you feel motivated to do it and you can see a real
advantage in doing so.
Important ie from the great number of possibilities, you have
identified and chosen to pursue something which is genuinely important to
you in your work.
Time-bound ie your objective can be met in a fixed and fairly
short (up to 12 months) period of time.
Specific ie clear, narrow statements of intent that give focus and
impetus to your plan. It is important that objectives are much more precise
and finite than learning needs.
Do spend time considering your objectives carefully. Clear, precise
objectives
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are motivating in themselves |
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help you to plan |
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help others understand you learning plan |
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facilitate evaluation |
Examples of objectives which meet the above criteria:
- “By November, I will know three factors which influence management of
hypertension in diabetic patients.”
- “By Easter, I will have identified two strategies that I can implement
immediately to improve my time management”.
What you then do with this learning can be reflected upon within the
evaluation process: see Evaluating learning below.
c) How to meet objective(s)
Many people think that learning automatically means either attending a
course or reading from a book, journal or the internet. Try to think beyond
this, asking yourself ‘What of learning styles do I most enjoy and benefit
from?’ and ‘What learning style(s) best suit my objective(s)?’ As you become
more experienced in the reflective learning of a PLP, these questions will
become easier to answer. In certain circumstances you might, for instance,
choose to learn within a study group, within a group of professionals at
your practice, by sitting in a clinic, shadowing a specialist or following
an on-line programme.
d) Evaluating learning
There are many ways to evaluate your learning, and evaluation can take
place during or immediately after learning, or at a later date. Some of
these are summarised below.
During learning:
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self questioning (eg Do I understand? Am I
feeling comfortable/interested? Are my objectives being met? Do I need
to ask anything?) |
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effective completion of tasks |
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formal/informal feedback |
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discussion with others |
Immediately after learning:
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evaluation form |
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reflection alone (eg Was that useful? Can
I apply it? How will I do so?) |
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follow up task |
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reflective/evaluative comment on PLP |
At a later date:
Evaluation should assess both outcomes and processes.
Outcomes include what has been achieved (what has been learned and
the effect of the learning); whether this achievement is synonymous with
your initial objectives having been met; how can you take this learning
forward.
Processes include what was good/not good about the experience;
whether you went about your learning in the most effective way (including
the learning style you adopted); why this was/was not the most effective
way; what you could have done differently.
Above all, evaluation is a reflective tool which encourages you to see
the benefit of your learning, to identify any shortfalls in the learning
that you still need to address, to prompt further learning and to enable you
to refine your understanding of what learning is most useful to you.
This section of notes should now enable you to complete the last 5
sections of your PLP.
Bear in mind that a PLP is fluid. It will evolve over the 12 months
between your submitting to us your planned learning and your reflection on
that learning. You may choose not to meet all those objectives that you
originally set out, and you may well add new learning needs and objectives
over the year. It is helpful (both to you and to us) if, in your reflective
document, you assess why you have altered your original plan, and include
any learning needs and objectives that you have added.
| Familiarisation with producing and actively managing a
PLP is not easy. In addition to these notes, the Educationalist team is
committed to further supporting PLPs through a system of workshops and
study days. If you would like to take advantage of this, please contact
one of the members of the team whose details are given at the end of
this booklet. |
The fee is currently £60. This buys
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a review of your PLP plan by a member of
the Educationalist team |
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feedback on the PLP once
you have undertaken your proposed learning |
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guidance and information to help you to
meet your learning needs. |
The fee is payable to “Bristol Postgraduate General Practice Education”.
You are encouraged to submit the following year’s plan at the same time
as the completed PLP for the past year.
All PLP plans submitted to us will receive feedback. The template that we
use is at the back of this booklet. Feedback is designed to
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be constructive |
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recognise good practice |
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support your development as an independent
learner. |
Fully completed PLPs will receive a more detailed end of year feedback, according
to the criteria you will again find at the back of this booklet. The
assessment criteria are in keeping with the guidance notes given earlier.
For each criterion, we will indicate if it has been fully met (f), partly
met (p) or not met (m). In the latter two cases, we will add an explanatory
note.
We will also provide a summative comment, giving details of any reworking
of the PLP we would like to see prior to approval, and offering any advice
for subsequent PLPs.
We hope that the information on the feedback and assessment forms,
together with the guidance notes above, will assist you in developing your
PLP. They are not intended in any way to ‘straightjacket’ you: we are happy
to receive PLPs in a range of formats and which met a wide range of learning
needs. Our aim is always to support you in undertaking personally valid and
effective learning.
Again, if you would like additional support through attending a workshop
on PLPs, please do let us know.
Please contact one of us by email or phone if you would like to
discuss anything we have said about your PLP. Your PLP is confidential, and
will only be seen by a member of the Educationalist team and (anyone else
you choose to share it with).
Producing and managing a portfolio can be an extension of having a PLP.
A portfolio might include:
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a summary of your learning to date |
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documentation tracking your learning |
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a description of how you would like to
develop professionally in the future |
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past PLPs, including your evaluations of
your developing learning |
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your active PLP |
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detail of what you have learned and how
you have used this learning |
It is a valuable, personal record of your ongoing, evolving learning.
Many people feel that, having established learning through a PLP, and
possibly having participated in group PLP learning, that they would like to
form or join a Portfolio group to maintain peer support in their learning.
If this would appeal to you, we would be happy to facilitate it for
you.
Jo Hennessy: jhennessey@cix.co.uk
Academic Centre
Frenchay Hospital
Bristol BS16 1LE
Tel: 0117 975 3787, or 0117 970 1212 extension 3682
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