The position is in the Surgical Service at the James E. Van Zandt VA Medical Center, Altoona, PA. The duties and responsibilities are carried out throughout the medical center including all clinical and other patient care areas involved with the service, and as assigned.

Duties

VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package. Duties include but are not limited to: a. Provide care to our veterans including: The PA is charged with delivering the best possible care to our Veteran patients. This care must be delivered in accordance with hospital policy and meet community standards and pertains to outpatients as well as inpatients. The PA always works within the candidate's privileges. This candidate must be able to deliver interventions throughout the full spectrum of patient care, i.e., and is expected to maintain good diagnostic, judgmental, and therapeutic acumen. The PA exercises corporate citizenship by serving as leader and/or active member on Medical Center committees as requested. Timely documentation (notes and encounter forms) is necessary in all areas in accordance with facility policy. The PA provides Orthopedic - related direct patient care in all functional areas of the Ambulatory Surgery Clinic, Recovery Area, and clinic settings as needed. The PA is responsible for maintaining current clinical privileges and keeping licensure, CPR/ACLS, and all other appropriate documents up to date. The candidate maintains professional, technical, and administrative knowledge, competencies, and skills to provide effective leadership, direction for the service, timely and quality responses to patient's clinical needs and problems. This candidate will assist in reviewing all equipment needs and forward to the Service Chief, Surgical Service. The PA provides and promotes high quality and effective care of its patients. The PA monitors and evaluates patient care through various quality management activities. The PA complies with the credentialing and privileging process. b. Knowledge required - Position requires a wide range of knowledge principles, practices, procedures, and techniques to perform recurring assignments and to enable the development of further knowledge and skills to perform more complicated assignments. c. Guidelines - Procedure policies and practices of the organization; accepted materials, procedures, and techniques. Candidate uses judgment in interpreting and adapting techniques, procedures, and materials most appropriate for the patient. d. Complexity - The work typically includes varied duties that require many different and unrelated processes and methods such as those relating to well-established aspects of Orthopedic. The candidate makes decisions relating to the identification, assessment, evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment in adult and geriatric patients. Decisions regarding what needs to be done include the assessment of unusual circumstances, variations in approach, and incomplete or conflicting data. The Orthopedic PA works closely with physicians, and other professionals in order to develop and implement treatment for the individual patient. The work requires making many decisions concerning such things as interpretation of considerable data, planning of the work or refinement of the methods and techniques to be used. Work Schedule: 8:00am-4:30pm Monday-Friday Compressed/Flexible: No Available Telework: Not Authorized Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met. Physician Assistant Basic Requirements Master's degree in any discipline or a bachelor's degree in any discipline with one year of experience as a Physician Assistant ~AND~ Successfully passed the PA National Certifying Exam (PANCE) (or are you in the process to taking the exam) ~AND~ Currently hold, or will hold, a full and unrestricted license to practice in a State, Territory, or Commonwealth of the United States or in the District of Columbia. Grade Determinations: The following criteria must be met in determining the grade assignment of candidates, and if appropriate, the level within a grade: Grade Determinations Physician Assistant I:Experience and Education: None Beyond the basic requirementsKnowledge Skills and Abilities are required to be demonstrated: Ability to utilize the principles of PA practice in the care of assigned patients to provide appropriate care Ability to perform patient history and physical Ability to formulate a plan and provide treatment to the patient Ability to provide patient care that is abreast of changing concepts and advancements in the profession Grade Determinations Physician Assistant IIExperience and Education. The PA at this grade is at the intermediate grade level and has had progressively increasing responsibility and experiences as indicated in the KSAs listed below. Individuals will have demonstrated the ability to analyze and solve more complex medical problems than at the entry level grade and can utilize their training in the successful practice of patient care and participate in team problem solving. Individuals demonstrate the KSAs of PA-II intermediate level by: Two years of successful practice as a PA.OR Successful completion of a PA post-graduate residency program sponsored by VHA Office of Academic Affiliations or other postgraduate residency programs accredited by VA, ARC-PA, U.S. Armed Forces, or another accrediting agency OR A doctoral degree in a health-related field from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education Knowledge Skills and Abilities are required to be demonstrated Skills to analyze and solve complex medical problems Skill to incorporate training and experience into the successful practice of patient care including telehealth medical care Ability to work effectively in an interdisciplinary environment for improvement of services for patient care Ability to practice with colleagues and peers collaboratively Grade Determinations Physician Assistant IIIExperience and Education. PAs at the PA-III grade are at the full performance level and lead and organize patient care independently, practice within multi-disciplinary teams, and coordinate all aspects of patient care across the health care system. They utilize advanced clinical knowledge and judgment in decision-making and evaluating outcomes. They function as experts in clinical practice and/or in areas related to the assigned roles and responsibilities, may serve as mentors for transitioning PAs, and may provide training for health care students. Individuals can demonstrate the KSAs for the full performance level by: Three years of successful practice as a PA OR Successful completion of a PA post-graduate residency program sponsored by VHA Office of Academic Affiliations or other postgraduate residency programs accredited by VA, ARC-PA, U.S. Armed Forces, or another accrediting agency and one year of professional practice as a PA.OR A doctoral degree in a health-related field from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and one year of professional practice as a PA Knowledge Skills and Abilities are required to be demonstrated: Ability to clinically evaluate facility patient care delivery systems and validate or identify barriers to safe and effective patient care Ability to clinically evaluate facility patient care delivery systems and validate or identify barriers to safe and effective patient care Ability to present clinical findings and recommendations to appropriate management officials Ability to clinically facilitate the delivery of patient care in collaboration with health professionals, health managers, and other health care personnel Ability to implement and initiate clinical changes to established treatment protocols based upon new medical literature research findings to enhance patient delivery care for improved patient outcomes Ability to participate clinically in the development of the PA patient care audit processes involving in-depth review and analysis of medical records References: VA Regulations, specifically VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Appendix G-8 Physician Assistant Qualification Standard. This can be found in the local Human Resources Office. Physical Requirements: See VA Directives and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Service.

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 James E Van Zandt VA Medical Center 2907 Pleasant Valley Boulevard Altoona, PA 16602 US
• Name: Esperanza Obinyan
• Email: [email protected]