Summary The Health Tech in Specialty Care Clinics is a multi-skilled position established to provide direct patient care and provider support in the Specialty Care Clinics. They include: podiatry, dermatology, orthopedics, general surgery, pain clinic, spine clinic, ENT clinic, urology, cardiology, rheumatology, infectious disease, pulmonology, neurology, oncology and pacemaker. Responsibilities Duties include but not limited to: Report deviations in vital signs to provider and nurses. Provide timely care to ensure care of all patients in clinic. Communicates urgent concern for patients with providers and other staff members. Communicates care, per provider, to all patients and families. Prepare patients for clinic visits, vital signs, and orthostatic vital signs. Assists providers and nurses with other procedures as needed. Maintains and fills liquid nitrogen canisters for cryotherapy treatment. Utilize a range of office and medical equipment for patient care, electrocardiograms, and bladder volume index machines. Assists in surgical site preparation per provider direction. Assists with suture, staple, and steri-strip removal per provider direction. Set up sterile fields. Assist with safe lifting of patients to provide care. Restock clinic rooms daily and check for outdated supply items. Transfer Patients Documents all care in the electronic health record. Ensure sterility and integrity of reusable medical equipment. Ensure clinical equipment is in working order. Take surgical grade pictures of lesions site and location, documentation and download information into patients records. Handel all specimen collection and pathological labeling of specimens per protocol. Provide pre and post handling or reusable medical equipment. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 7:00 am - 3:30 pm or 8:30 am - 5:00 pm Position Description Title/PD#: Health Technician/PD70217A Physical requirements: Physical and mental stamina are required. The duties involve working under considerable stress, tense situations and with patients who are stressed and worried about their medical conditions. Work involves long hours of standing, stooping, bending and stretching without a break during procedures which require concentration. Manual dexterity and agility are required to correctly assemble instruments. Strain is incurred in staying alert on long cases under difficult situations. Work Environment: Work is performed under bright surgical lights in rooms that are often warm while wearing hot moisture proof barrier gowns, gloves and masks. Frequently work must be performed in an uncomfortable positions. Work involves high risk of regular and recurring exposure to blood and body fluids, air-borne contaminates. There is high risk for needle sticks or other punctures by contaminated sharps. There is risk of falls from slick floors (irrigating fluids) and electrical cords. Universal precautions, sterile technique and personal protective equipment must be utilized vigilantly. May be expected to stay beyond shift if clinics or procedures are running late. Requirements Conditions of Employment Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. GS-5 grade level experience: One year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-04 level or pay band) in the Federal service. Examples of specialized experience include: Assist medical and nursing staff through technical and specialized support services which aids in the diagnosis or treatment of patients; Perform clinical, laboratory, and administrative work in support of the inpatient services; Take vital signs of human patients; obtain laboratory specimens and prepare them for transport by labeling and sealing within biohazard bags; Arrange and pass medical instruments or supplies to medical staff during post-operative patient care management; Gather diagnostic information for medical providers by monitoring patients using specialized machines including continuous pulse oximetry monitoring, and 12-lead EKG; support duties to medical or health personnel such as audiologists, speech pathologists, medical officers, and optometrists. Therefore, technician experience is experience that required application of the knowledge, methods, and techniques of the position to be filled. (EXPERIENCE MUST BE DETAILED IN RESUME IN ORDER TO RECEIVE FULL CREDIT) OR Education: Applicants may substitute education for the experience required for the GS-5 level. Applicants must have Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree, with major study or at least 24 semester hours in subjects directly related to the position. (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED). OR Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at the GS-5 level. To calculate, first identify the percentage of required education you have earned (when substituting, you cannot use the first 60 semester hours that you earned). Then identify the percentage of required experience you possess. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify at the GS-5. For example, an applicant who has 9 semester hours of graduate level education (i.e. 50% of graduate education required) and 6 months of creditable specialized experience (i.e. 50% of the required experience) would equal 100% of the required experience for the position. A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Education Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. Additional Information The following will be communicated to applicants for VA employment in a testing designated position and will also be included in all VA vacancy announcements for such positions: All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drugs use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be well-qualified, applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors if applicable, and must be proficient in most of the requirements of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website which can be found at https://www.opm.gov/. Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. VA may offer newly-appointed Federal employee's credit for their job-related non-federal experience or active duty uniformed military service. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. If you are unable to apply online or need to fax a document you do not have in electronic form, view the following link for information regarding an Alternate Application.