By Felicia Millett (NPDN Proficiency Committee Chair, Connecticut Ag. Exp. Stn. - NEPDN) and Allina Bennett (NPDN Professional Development Coordinator, University of Florida - SPDN)
The Communicator: Volume 5, Issue 7, July 2024

The NPDN Proficiency Committee has been working to create meaningful and achievable proficiency standards for each of the NPDN lab types through essential proficiency assessments. These assessments will serve to measure a diagnostician’s fundamental diagnostic knowledge. In the future, diagnosticians who contribute to the National Data Repository (NDR) must attain essential proficiency by completing assessments found on the LearnUpon platform.

Implementation of the Essential Proficiency Policy is anticipated to begin after the Core Accreditation deadline of December 31, 2027. Essential proficiency assessments will cover content that is considered basic and fundamental to a diagnostic lab. In the meantime, the Essential Proficiency Program and course catalog will be developed. More information about the program may be found here.

While not required at this time, the first of these essential proficiency courses, “Fundamentals of Plant Diagnostics” will be released on LearnUpon on July 1st of this year. You may also access this course by searching the LearnUpon catalog. Diagnosticians who complete this assessment early will receive certification that will carry over once the program is implemented. A straight-to-test option is available for those who are familiar with the content.

The first draft of the NPDN Essential Proficiency Policy is currently posted on the Proficiency Committee’s home page under important documents.
The Proficiency Committee is interested in hearing any questions or concerns from NPDN member labs surrounding the release of the Essential Proficiency Program. Click here to submit any feedback and questions.

The links in this article are available to NPDN members when they are logged in.

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