This position is located in the Mental Health Service at the VA Loma Linda Health Care System - Jerry L. Pettis Memorial VA Veteran's Hospital in Loma Linda, CA. The Psychology Technician is assigned to work principally in the outpatient mental health interdisciplinary teams (BHIP).

Duties

***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** The Psychology Technician is responsible for the accuracy and validity of all obtained test results and interacts with veterans with a wide variety of medical, neurological, and psychiatric diagnoses. Major duties and responsibilities include but not limited to: Completing neuropsychological assessments for patients and potential research participants Administering clinical assessments/interviews/potential research protocols and batteries of standard psychological tests and questionnaires to patients in individual and group format Providing patients and/or significant others with a rationale for specific testing procedures Ensuring the cooperation of patients during the entire assessment procedure, which may include provision of supportive counseling to particular patients Providing verbal and written observations of patient test behavior and demonstrates proficiency in observation of atypical habits, physical disabilities, emotional and personality features, and any previous injury that might have a bearing on test performance Providing timely and appropriate documentation in accordance with adopted policy of the Mental Health Service for purposes of communication of progress in completion of consultation requests Providing timely, organized, and legible presentations of patient data, and presents tabular or graphic displays of data when necessary Contacting patients to schedule appointments and remind them about appointments through written correspondence and telephone calls Helping patients get setup with video appointments and problem solves with them prior to appointments to ensure their technology is ready for video appointments Conducting follow up interview and ongoing monitoring of patients' symptomatology utilizing structured assessment instruments Contacting patients referred to other clinics to motivate attendance to the appointment or to aid in stabilization and management of that patient before their appointment Participating in group therapy provided by the neuropsychology clinic Preparing patients for neurofeedback and neurostimulation sessions by placing EEG caps and setting up program software Triaging patients, identifying immediate needs. Independently assesses for safety of patient with timely and appropriate hand-off to licensed independent providers Overseeing daily activities of the assigned clinic and facilitates the flow of care Developing a working knowledge of the various treatment modules delivered by the clinical staff Assisting in the necessary training of pre-doctoral psychology interns, psychology interns, and postdoctoral fellows in the area of test administration, documenting careful behavioral observations, and scoring Reviewing assessments, scoring, and reports completed by others on the team for errors and making changes accordingly in database Obtaining missing information from providers, patients and medical records Preparing timely summaries of relevant data collected within the assigned clinic Ordering and obtaining clinic supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) Maintaining measures and ordering necessary tests from approved vendors Working with IT to ensure computer tests and scoring programs are accurately installed Organizing patient files and works with appropriate VA personnel to ensure older patient files are stored responsibly and sent to offsite storage facilities (e.g., Iron Mountain) Ensuring clinic equipment (e.g., computers, phones) is functional and submitting IT request when repairs are needed. Places requests for clinic changes, cancellations, keys, etc. Maintaining an organized filing system of patient data in accordance with VA, Station, and Service procedural regulations and ethical principles Maintaining a current and complete stock of assessment materials Operating equipment and notifies persons authorized to initiate service of inoperative equipment or the purchasing of necessary supplies, with the assistance of the MHS administrative support personnel. Monitoring the security of patient data files, test materials, and equipment Maintaining a check-out list for any borrowed test equipment or patient files, insuring return within reasonable time frames Participating in quality assurance and improvement activities of the Mental Health Service and the VA Medical Center Work Schedule: Monday to Friday; 08:00 a.m. to 04:30 p.m. Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required

Requirements

Qualifications

Basic Requirement: The following are basic requirements for appointment as a Psychology Technician in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), which all applicants must met. Basic Education: Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university with a major in an appropriate social or biological science, which included or was supplemented by 12 semester hours in psychology. (UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED: If you do not submit your transcript, your application may not be reviewed.) Minimum Requirement: In addition to meeting the basic requirements one of the following minimum requirement criteria must be met to be qualified for this position. Specialized Experience (GS-09): You must have two (2) year of technical work under the direction of a professional psychologist in a program of professional services, training or research. NOTE: Candidates for grades GS-9 must have had at least 6 months of experience comparable in difficulty and responsibility to the next lower grade (i.e., GS-08) in the Federal service, or 1 year comparable to the second lower grade (i.e., GS-07) in the Federal service. Examples of qualifying technical work includes but not limited to: applying basic knowledge of the principles, concepts, and methodology of general psychology; administrating and scoring of various neuropsychological, psychological, psychophysiological, vocational, and behavioral test instruments or measures; working with a variety of patient populations, including patients with severe mental illness and medical illnesses/disabilities; and using personal computers, including familiarity with word processing, spreadsheet and database software programs, and sufficient ability to operate equipment required for clinical assessment purposes. (CLEAR DETAILS OF EXPERIENCE REQUIRED: Your resume must show complete information for each job entry, such as beginning and ending dates of employment, duties performed, and/or total hours worked per week.) OR, Education (GS-09): Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have two (2) years of graduate study in psychology in an accredited college or university. NOTE: One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours should be considered as satisfying the 1 year of full-time study requirement. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended. (UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED: If you do not submit your transcript, your application may not be reviewed.) AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: In accordance with 38 U.S.C. 7402(d), No person shall serve in direct patient care positions unless they are proficient in basic written and spoken English. You must be proficient in basic written and spoken English in order to meet the requirements of this position. You will be rated on the following Competencies as part of the assessment questionnaire for this position: CommunicationsInterpersonal EffectivenessManages and Organizes InformationWriting 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: The work is primarily sedentary, although the stress involved in continually working with persons in emotional and physical distress and who may be uncooperative, poorly motivated, obstreperous, or possibly assaultive, makes this position appreciably more demanding than most sedentary lines of employment. Manual dexterity, proficient handwriting speed, physical agility, some degree of physical exe1iion (i.e., moderate lifting of test supplies, records and equipment), walking/mobility, listening, writing, and sitting for prolonged periods of time are required. 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 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.

Additional Note to Duties: Standard psychological tests may include but are not limited to: Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), Patient Health Questionnaire for Depression (PHQ-9), PTSD Checklist (PCL-5), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (TONI), Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - 3rd and 4th edition (WAIS-III and WAIS-IV), Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI), Wechsler Memory Scale - 3rd and 4th edition (WMS-III and WMS-IV), Tests of Premorbid Intellectual Functioning, Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS), Trail Making Test (TMT), Boston Naming Test (BNT), Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test, Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB), Brief Visual Memory Test - Revised (BVMT-R), California Verbal Learning Testing - 2nd and 3rd edition (CVLT-II and CVLT-3), Finger Tapping Test, Grip Strength, Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination, Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), Independent Living Scales (ILS), Iowa Gambling Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test - 64 and 128 version (WCST-64 and WCST-128), Performance Validity measures

Contacts

• Address Jerry L Pettis Memorial Veterans Hospital 11201 Benton Street Loma Linda, CA 92357 US
• Name: VHA National Recruitment Center
• Phone: (844)456-5208
• Email: [email protected]