Portfolio evaluation for professional competence: credentialing in genetics for nurses.

The use of professional portfolios, comprised of a wide variety of materials and evidence to profile the scope and depth of a clinician's practice competence, is gaining popularity. The usual methods of showing professional competence via paper and pencil/computerized testing, oral presentations, or performance observations provide a picture of competence at a given point in time based on didactic content recall. Portfolios present an opportunity for presentation of a larger number of competency evaluation points. Although examinations can be validated with psychometrics, providing accuracy and reliability of evaluation of portfolios is a more complicated matter. This article discusses the experiences of the Credentialing Committee of the International Society of Nurses in Genetics as they created and validated the evaluation of professional portfolios to provide a quality credential for nurses in genetics.