The Outpatient Surgical Clinic Technician is assigned to the Outpatient Surgical Clinics of the Surgery Service and performs the majority of his/her duties in the General Surgery Clinic but can be reassigned to other outpatient surgical clinics as needed. The functions of the assigned areas are to evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients with various suspectedor previously diagnosed diseases, provide continuity of follow-up, and carry out appropriate treatment.

Duties

Duties of the Outpatient Surgical Clinic Technician include but are not limited to the following: The incumbent ensures that adequate quantities of clinical supplies are available to meet workload demands through a systemized process of ordering, receipt and inventory control. He/she assures that procedure and clinical rooms are stocked with necessary supplies at all time with special attention to emergent equipment and supplies. The technician assists in determining costs for specific exams and procedures, projecting costs for budgetary purposes and coordinates new product evaluation. He/She also recommends methods and products to reduce costs and/or increase quality. The incumbent notifies the supervisor of any inventory concerns that may affect performance quality and/or budget. The incumbent assists with training and orienting new technicians in clinic and at times, other surgical sub-specialties. The incumbent assists in instructing other technicians and patient care staff on specialized tasks and new/modified procedures and policies. The technician participates in the education of General Surgery and specialty technicians as well as students, residents and other staff through departmental in-services for the purpose of enhancing the personal and professional development of others within the surgical service. The incumbent ensures test results are brought to the attention of the physician, made part of the permanent medical record, and maintains departmental files (administrative and medical). The technician may be assigned various extra administrative duties including minor invasive procedure monitoring and be responsible for reporting to committees outside of the service and possibly the medical center. When appropriate, forwards results of procedures to contract company for interpretation ensuring physician's review results and ensure the medical record includes results. The technician sets up specialized equipment for procedures, setting technical factors, adjusting for patient anomalies, sets operation parameters for equipment, verifies alarms are set within parameters, etc. He/she recognizes abnormalities and brings them to the attention of the physician. The technician will independently use hot and cold packs, performs simple and complex dressing changes utilizing aseptic technique and in accordance with the doctors' orders, cares for patients and sets up for treatments that require auxiliary equipment. He/she further performs diagnostic tests such as venopuncture, ultrasound, fingerstick for glucose determinations, and simple and complex wound care treatment and dressing changes according to written protocol or as directed by the physician or other professional staff. The incumbent performs medical administrative tasks such as maintaining records for specimens and tests and documenting measurements taken. Maintains records for routine patient tests or laboratory transactions; receives, labels, and transmits test results and other records; verifies such identifiers as patient identification, time of sample, type of test requested; enters data in control records; monitors transmission to testing laboratory and receipt of result; and obtains and provides basic medical information for patients and caregivers. He/she interviews the patient to document the nature of the complaint and its current state, past history and family history, current medication, and other similar matters. The technician verifies lab orders and clarifies unusual requests with initiating physician. The technician must have a broad range of biophysical knowledge of the complete anatomy including an in-depth understanding of the physiology of the major systems with emphasis on and expertise pertinent to the digestive system. Must have sufficient knowledge of protocol to select the correct instruments for a procedure, anticipate the needs of the surgeon during the procedure and on a regular and recurring basis recognize and respond to a variety of critical situations including emergency and life threatening conditions. The technician must be able to independently select, set up, and calibrate instruments, catheters, radiographic contrast injectors, radiographic imaging devices, various ultrasound devices, and lasers. The technician must have knowledge of pharmacology of frequently used drugs (sedatives, analgesics, anesthetics, drugs specific to treatment of General Surgery patients) including methods of administration, expected patient responses and common dosages. Work Schedule: Full-time Telework: Not Authorized Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Health Technician/PD30143A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized ???????Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 01/11/2024. INDIVIDUAL OCCUPATIONAL REQUIREMENT (IOR) for Health Aid and Technician (0640): An IOR is a basic requirement that must be met in order to qualify for entry into this job series, and it is something that cannot be waived. 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. 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-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5. 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. 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-05 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to : Providing support to medical personnel by setting up equipment for medical procedures in rehabilitation clinics, explain medical procedures, operate and maintain medical instruments and equipment, applies quality control and quality assurance in clinic and patient area. Performs diagnostics support duties, i.e. arrange and pass medical instruments, monitor patient for adverse reactions. NOTE: Evidence of specialized experience must be supported by detailed documentation of duties performed in positions held. Please provide such documentation on resume. OR, Substitution of Education: Graduate education or an internship meets the specialized experience required for a GS-6 surgical technician ONLY in those instances where it is directly related to the work of the position. NOTE: TRANSCRIPT(S) MUST BE SUBMITTED IF EDUCATION IS BEING USED TO QUALIFY OR Combination of Experience and Education: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at the GS-06 grade level. To calculate, first identify the percentage of required graduate education you have 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-06. NOTE: TRANSCRIPT(S) MUST BE SUBMITTED IF EDUCATION IS BEING USED TO QUALIFY. NOTE: 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. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: #491 Medical Information #299 Technical Competence #301 Technical Competence #303 Technical Problem Solving 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. 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: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Contacts

• Address Lexington VA Health Care System 2250 Leestown Road Lexington, KY 40511 US
• Name: Kent McGregor
• Phone: 615-947-8891
• Email: [email protected]