Methodologic trends in the healthcare professions: portfolio assessment.

Earlier article have presented the importance of developing programs of assessment designed to measure knowledge and abilities basic to community-focused healthcare practice. In the field of assessment, considerable attention recently has been given to what has come to be called "alternative assessment" methods. Alternative assessment formats offer the possibility to more accurately assess a range of abilities, such as critical thinking, problem solving, and clinical decision making, that are fundamental to community-based nursing practice. The authors present one such alternative assessment method--portfolio assessment--and discuss its application to the measurement of student performance in a community-focused practice environment.