This Program Support Assistant position is with the Infection Prevention Program within Nursing Operations services at the White River Junction VA Medical Center, located at the White River Junction, Vermont location. This position is full-time at 40 hours per week.

Duties

The Program Support Assistant's purpose is to provide a wide array of administrative and project support to the Infection Prevention Program. Because of the complexity of the service, and the involvement of medical center-wide activities, the program support assistant is primarily responsible for a variety of administrative program functions necessary to the smooth management of the Infection Prevention Program. These range from Veteran contact work, correspondence, information control, and communication to staff members of the VAMC including facility leadership, VISN and National colleagues. Responsibility includes providing requisite approaches and skills to fully meet the administrative and programmatic challenges that affect the organizational efficiency and effectiveness of the Infection Prevention Program. Duties include but are not limited to: Controls incoming and outgoing correspondence, reports, memoranda and other forms of written communication. Routes materials to the appropriate staff members and performs follow-up tracking to ensure timely reply/action. Prepares and edits reports and reviews correspondence for accuracy and completeness. Anticipates the needs of the Infection Prevention team, compiling data and background material before routing. Provides administrative support for Infection Prevention meetings and assists in preparation of meeting presentations. Attends meetings, takes accurate minutes, and follows up on action items with appropriate staff members independently. Distributes minutes to appropriate staff and forwards for applicable committee review as required. Serves as timekeeper for multidisciplinary and administrative staff. Accomplishes input to the automated Time and Leave System; analyzes daily time and leave system variances/rejects; notes discrepancies and coordinates with supervisors/action officers for correction. Maintains electronic leave calendar and cancellation log. Serves as alternate timekeeper for the remaining time and leave units. Organizes and manages the Infection Prevention webpage. Develops methods for the collection and retrieval of computer information from established systems to enhance analysis of program related data. Collects and displays delegated Infection Prevention associated data using knowledge of VISTA, CPRS, Microsoft Word and Excel, and VSSC. Receives telephone calls and visitors, ascertains nature of call or visit, refers to supervisor or staff member as appropriate; provides routine, non-technical information from office files or knowledge of the organization, functions and policies. Maintains suspense of incoming or outgoing correspondence or material; advises staff members of approaching deadlines and initiates follow-up on overdue matters. Establishes and maintains office files of correspondence, publications and other materials, following established filing procedures. Maintains and prints the Managers calendars, with authority to make commitments. Schedules appointments, coordinates meetings, and/or schedules conferences. Researches and provides background on subject matter of meetings without direction. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 7:30 am - 4:00 pm Compressed/Flexible: Not Authorized Telework: VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Support Assistant/PD035450 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required Notifications: This position is in the Competitive Service. This position is a AFGE Bargaining Unit position. This position is covered by locality-based comparability pay. Interchange Agreements with Other Merit System: Employees who occupy medical or medical-related positions and were appointed under 38 U.S.C. 4701(1) or (3) [formerly 38 U.S.C. 4104 (1) and (3)] must be serving in a full-time position without time limit and have served continuously for at least one year in this other merit system to be eligible to convert to the Title 5 System. Some exceptions to this rule may apply if you have previously acquired tenure under a Title 5 appointment. Veterans' preference does not apply for internal or other current permanent Federal agency employees. Current and former Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50, (Notice of Personnel Action). The SF-50 must identify the position title, series, grade, step, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). In some cases, more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held.

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/14/2023. 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: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-04 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: responsible for providing clerical, technical, or customer support; receiving and referring phone calls; communicating and treating customers in a courteous, tactful and respectful manner while providing consistent information according to established policies and procedures; and using computer programs to prepare documents. Note: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates and hours worked per week. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed four (4) years of education above the high school level in any field which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond post-high school education in excess of the first 60 semester hours (beyond the second year) and specialized experience as described above, which meet the total experience requirements for this grade level. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Attention to DetailClericalTechnical Competence 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 is primarily sedentary with considerable computer and keyboard work. The work includes some walking, standing, bending, and carrying of light items such as files, papers and books. Work Environment: The work environment involves the normal risks and stresses typical in an office environment which supports an extremely busy clinical service with various professional staff. 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/.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on 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. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.

Contacts

• Address White River Junction VA Medical Center 215 North Main St. White River Jct., VT 05009 US
• Name: Jessica Steed
• Phone: (802) 295-9363 X2021
• Email: [email protected]