This position is in the Infection Prevention Department of the VA Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA. The Health Systems Specialist is responsible for directing the development, organization, implementation, and assessment of the efficacy of programs related to hospital infection control, including educational programs, prevention programs, and surveillance programs in both clinical and all public areas.

Duties

***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** Detecting, preventing, and predicting nosocomial infections; Developing guidelines, action items, and data collection procedures; Designing, conducting, and analyzing epidemiological studies; Participating in activities to ensure compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Bloodborne Pathogens Standard; Developing innovative approaches to implementing and assessing the efficacy of programs designed to prevent hospital-associated infections; Meeting with committees and teams to discuss pertinent laboratory findings, their clinical significance, and necessary control measures, as well as other infection control concerns; Instituting appropriate isolation procedures; Reviewing microbiology laboratory data and reporting significant results; Performing preliminary evaluations to determine the nature of unusual healthcare associated infection problems, assess the magnitude and gravity of the problem, and determine control measures to be taken; Developing tentative hypotheses about causation and transmission, initiating studies to elucidate the cause of the outbreak, and reporting findings; Monitoring the results of bacterial spore and other testing; Reviewing and recommending products for use in cleaning and disinfection of equipment and environmental surfaces; Obtaining cultures of environment when epidemiologic data suggests a possible role of equipment or physical surroundings in the spread of infection; Notifying appropriate public health agencies of the occurrence of a reportable communicable disease; Developing criteria to identify infections and the specific isolation/precautions needed for the containment of infections; Identifying infractions of established policies and procedures; Investigating exposure of employees to specified communicable diseases; Obtaining cultures on employees who may be responsible for the spread of an infectious agent; Gathering, recording, and presenting data on healthcare associated infections; Providing knowledge, direction, and support through educational programs, training, and consultation; Collecting and tracking colonization and infection data through passive and active surveillance; Assembling metrics for reporting to hospital committees, departments, and boards; Developing protocols for environmental samplings, interpreting results, and devising remedial procedures; Conducting literature searches on pertinent infection prevention and control problems; Performing related duties as required. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 7:00am - 3:30pm. Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized. Financial Disclosure Report: Not required.

Requirements

Qualifications

BASIC EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENT: A bachelor's or higher-level degree with a major study in an academic field related to the medical field, health sciences, or allied sciences that is appropriate to the work of the position. This degree must be from an educational program from an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education at the time the degree was obtained. Transcripts required. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS GS-12: One year of specialized experience that equipped you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of this position, and that is typically in or related to the position. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the GS-11 grade level in Federal service. Specialized experience includes: knowledge of infection control/prevention; implementing infection prevention procedures in a healthcare environment; collecting and presenting data; maintaining files, logs, and databases; and tracking timelines and performance metrics. This experience must be detailed in your resume to receive credit. You will be rated on the following Competencies as part of the assessment questionnaire for this position: CommunicationsInfection ControlManages and Organizes InformationMedical InformationProblem SolvingResearch IMPORTANT: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. All experience listed on your resume must include the month and year start/end dates. 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. 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; religious; 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. Physical Requirements: This position requires extensive travel between wards, microbiology laboratory, clinics, and medical center offices. Travel outside the medical center is also necessary especially to the nursing home and domiciliary facilities as well as outpatient clinic care facilities within the geographic responsibilities of the MC. The position requires walking for completion of a variety of inspections/rounds related to survey readiness and general isolation and policy adherence observations. The position requires completion of inspections/rounds in non-finished construction areas to survey readiness, adherence to appropriate infection prevention controls, and assess areas for occupancy. The work is primarily performed in non-smoking facilities, clinics, laboratory, and office environments. On occasion, the Health Science Specialist may be required to take environmental samplings in other areas, and interview and/or take cultures from patients and staff with suspected and/or known infectious problems, some of which may be very serious in nature. The position will require use of personnel protective equipment (PPE) when entering areas where potentially contagious/transmissible communicable agents may be present. The position will require a fit test for and use of an N95 Respirator Mask and/or Powered Air-Purifying Respirator (PAPR) to enter areas where potentially contagious/transmissible communicable agents may be present. Construction rounds will require safety shoes and a hard hat supplied by the VA will at times need to don and doff PPE for isolation needs due to potential contact with contagious/transmissible infectious agents (e.g., viruses, bacteria, fungi, mycobacteria, parasites, prions, etc.). 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

IMPORTANT: A transcript must be submitted with your application to support the basic educational requirement. There is no educational substitution for the experience required at this grade level.

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 Pittsburgh VA Medical Center 1010 Delafield Road Pittsburgh, PA 15215 US
• Name: VHA National Recruitment Center
• Phone: (844)456-5208
• Email: [email protected]