Health Technician (Telemetry Technician)

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 10/15/2024. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Medical Information Organizational Awareness Patient Care Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-5 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to:1) Assisting RN with patient care as directed.2) Providing direct patient observation.3) Assisting with transfer and ambulation of patients.4) Answering call lights and if unable to independently assist, communicates patients’ needs to assigned RN or Charge Nurse5) Measuring and recording blood pressure, respirations, oral and axillary temperature, weight, and pulse. 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. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: The work requires the ability to focus on continuous observation of numerous screens representing patients’ EKG activity. The employee must be alert at all times and quick to respond to alarms or signs of EKG changes. This involves good visual acuity necessary to see EKG rhythms, ability to hear alarms, and rapid changes in position and movement. In addition, sitting, standing, walking, and carrying light instruments and supplies is involved. Work Environment: Continuous EKG monitoring is performed in a central workstation shared by other health care providers involving everyday risks and requiring normal safety precautions, Application and adjustment of monitor leads is performed at the patient bedside. Here the employee is exposed to potential/actual infectious diseases, which may require the wearing of protective gowns, masks, and gloves when interacting with patients. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management’s website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.
This position is located at the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, Hines, IL (578) – a Level la Complexity VHA Facility – and is organizationally aligned under the Telemetry Unit in the Nursing & Patient Care Service. The primary purpose of this position is to serve as a non-licensed member of the nursing care team providing continuous observation of telemetry monitoring electrocardiographic (EKG) rhythms of critically ill patients.