Portfolio station · evidence builder
Build examples for the criteria the person specification actually publishes
The latest detailed process includes a portfolio station but publishes no ST1 points matrix. Prepare a small set of truthful examples that show how you think and work, and expect assessors to probe ownership, outcome and reflection.
Commitment to Emergency Medicine
Show that you understand undifferentiated presentations, repeated prioritisation, shift work, interruptions, patient flow and the ACCS years. A taster can help, but informed understanding can also come from ED work, shadowing, acute cases, trainee conversations and curriculum reading.
- A specific experience across more than one ED area, linked to an honest observation about the work and a reason it suits you.
- Saying you enjoy adrenaline, variety and procedures, or presenting passive society membership as commitment.
- Arrange focused exposure, follow one patient pathway from arrival to disposition and speak to both junior and senior EM doctors about nights, crowding and training.
Clinical judgement, prioritisation and uncertainty
The 2027 person specification explicitly requires safe work under pressure, monitoring a developing situation, prioritising clinical need and initial management of an acutely ill patient. Entry-level evidence should show recognition, action, help and reassessment within your competence.
- An acute case where you noticed risk, started structured management, coordinated help and changed the plan as new information arrived.
- A dramatic diagnosis told with hindsight, no discussion of uncertainty, or registrar-level claims unsupported by your role.
- Debrief real cases with a senior and practise explaining what you knew at each decision point, who you called and what you reassessed.
Teamwork and leadership
EM leadership often means creating shared priorities across doctors, nurses, ambulance staff, advanced practitioners and specialty teams. You do not need a committee title; you do need a clear contribution and safe follow-through.
- A pressured case or service task where you allocated work, used another profession's expertise, kept oversight and achieved a defined outcome.
- A title without decisions, or saying only what 'we' did.
- Lead a bounded teaching, handover or safety task and ask the team for feedback on communication and follow-up.
Communication and professional relationships
The person specification asks for communication across audiences, negotiation and positive professional relationships. Useful examples include explaining uncertainty, managing expectations, escalating concern and adapting to distress, language or capacity.
- A conversation with a clear communication problem, the words or method you changed, confirmation of understanding and a patient or team outcome.
- Claiming good communication because no complaint was made.
- Seek observed feedback on one difficult patient and one interprofessional conversation; record what changed afterwards.
QI, audit and patient safety
The criteria require understanding of audit, risk, evidence-based practice and QI; practical experience is desirable. A small completed improvement with honest limitations is easier to defend than a national-sounding project you barely know.
- A defined standard or problem, baseline measurement, your intervention, remeasurement or clear next step, and evidence of local learning.
- Data collection without knowing the standard, or calling an unfinished audit a completed QI cycle.
- Choose a narrow issue such as handover reliability, time-critical medication, analgesia or discharge safety and agree a feasible measure with the team.
Teaching
Teaching experience is desirable. The useful evidence is educational reasoning: learner need, delivery, feedback and adaptation. It does not need to be an expensive course or a year-long programme.
- A repeatable session or simulation with a stated learner group, your design and delivery role, feedback and a change made.
- Attendance certificates or a one-off talk with no learner evaluation.
- Deliver two focused sessions for an identified group, collect simple feedback and improve the second session.
Research and evidence-informed practice
The specification requires research understanding and evidence-informed practice; EM research experience is desirable. Be precise about protocol, approvals, recruitment, data, analysis and authorship rather than using 'research' as a broad label.
- A journal-club appraisal, TERN or local study role you can explain, including governance, your task, findings or current stage and limitations.
- Named collaborator status when you cannot explain the study question or your work.
- Join a trainee-network or departmental study with a defined local role, or critically appraise one paper that changes an ED decision.
RCEM examinations and life-support skills
The 2027 person specification lists engagement with relevant RCEM examinations and current advanced life-support skills as desirable. An exam pass or course can support a wider example, but neither proves commitment or clinical performance by itself.
- Accurate current certification or an exam attempt, paired with learning applied to practice and no exaggeration of competence.
- Buying multiple overlapping courses or sitting an exam only to collect a line on the CV.
- Maintain the life-support certification relevant to your role; consider exam timing only after checking eligibility, cost and training needs.
Avoid portfolio theatre
What not to waste time or money on
A portfolio interview rewards credible understanding and defendable examples. Expensive activity, passive membership and unfinished prestige projects can consume time without improving the evidence the assessors can explore.
Do not invent a points grid
Competitor pages sometimes describe EM ST1 as portfolio-scored or imply fixed points for courses, publications and tasters. The official current pages publish a portfolio station, not an ST1 self-assessment table. Use the person specification as your evidence map.
Avoid duplicate certificates
Multiple overlapping acute-care courses add little if your required certification is current and you cannot show learning in practice. Pay for a course because it meets a real clinical or training need, not because its title sounds Emergency Medicine-specific.
A passive membership is not commitment
Joining a society may provide education or representation, but the subscription alone says little about your understanding of the specialty. Use groups for events, projects, support or trainee voice and discuss what you actually did.
Do not start a large project that cannot finish
A multicentre study, guideline rewrite or broad flow project needs governance and time. A small completed intervention or clearly defined network role is usually more useful than a grand plan with no outcome by interview.
Do not confuse exposure with competence
Watching procedures, attending resus or completing simulation does not confer independent competence. Describe the appropriate supervised level and what you learned about indications, teamwork and safety.
Do not sit an exam simply as a signal
RCEM examination engagement is desirable in the 2027 person specification, but exams have eligibility rules, costs and attempt limits. Training progression and genuine learning should drive timing.
From understanding to practice
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