Health Technician

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. 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-05 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-04. 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. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: GS-05 Requirements: Do you possess the Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR) Specialized Experience (for positions at GS-4 and above)? You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-04 grade level in Federal Service. Positions in this series range widely in type and include 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; Examples of qualifying specialized experience include: Understanding policies and procedures as related to patient care; Performing phlebotomy techniques, procedures and other specimen collection procedures; Setting up equipment for all phlebotomy procedures; Instructing patients in the proper procedures to follow prior, during and after test; preparing referral specimens for shipment; Performing all clerical duties; Maintaining records of procedures.*This experience must be detailed in your resume to receive credit. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you 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. This education must have been obtained in an accredited business or technical school, junior college, college, or university for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. One year of full-time undergraduate study is defined as 30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours, or the equivalent in a college or university or at least 20 hours of classroom instruction per week for approximately 36 weeks in a business or technical school. Transcripts required. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education as described that demonstrates your ability to perform the duties of this position. Transcripts required, and experience must be detailed in your resume to receive credit. 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-05. 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.
The position is located in the Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Service (PLMS) at the Hudson Valley VA Health Care Systems. The incumbent performs a variety of functions including: accessions specimens into computer system, use the HOWDY system, collects, evaluates and processes patient specimens, answers questions relative to patient specimens, instructs and assists patients, and processes send-out specimens for testing.