Pretend you are a DNA analyst starting a new job. Additional training will occur at your new forensic lab, even if you are fully trained from an outside lab. This is part of the ASCLD-LAB (American Society of Crime Lab Directors - Laboratory Accreditation Board) accreditation. As part of that continuing education, you will be required to take 2 external proficiency tests per year. Please explain why you think this process is important and how it could benefit you while testifying on the stand as an expert witness.

 

The benefits of taking 2 proficiency tests per year has a lot more to do with competency and reliability on your skill as a DNA analyst. The benefits of continued proficiency exam include: demonstration of a laboratory's ability to satisfy accreditation or certification requirements and ongoing competency; comparison of an individual's or a laboratory's performance with that of another; identification of methodological problems, transcription error patterns, or other undetected performance weaknesses and initiation of actions for improvement; establishment of the effectiveness and comparability of test or measurement methods and, through the provision of metrics that could be analyzed, interpreted, and published, facilitation of further standardization of laboratory procedures and best practices; validation of uncertainty claims; enhancement of stakeholder confidence in the reliability of forensic science providers' workproducts.