This position is in Nutrition and Food Services (NFS) located at the Wilkes Barre Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The primary purpose of the position is to facilitate the selective menu process within the medical center and long-term care units. The incumbent performs routine duties that require exceptional customer service, computer skills, proper phone etiquette, proficiency in special food service and knowledge of Dietetics software.

Duties

Major Duties: Assists patients in selection of the proper foods according to their individual diet. Uses communication skills to converse with veteran's to accurately take menu orders. Triages calls from inpatient units or outpatient clinics and procedure areas relating to patient meal trays or nourishments of patients. Complete quality monitors to ensure food items and menu selections for regular and therapeutic diets are prepared and served appropriately (i.e. accuracy, timeliness, appearance, and temperature, dysphagia food testing). May adjust diet patterns and menu selections to assure the correct meal tickets are generated, as per local facility policy and procedures. Handles routine telephone inquiries from nursing units/nursing personnel regarding patient meal orders and may maintain a log of telephonic client inquiries/concerns received directly from the client or unit personnel. Ensures supplemental feedings are correctly entered. Advises food service supervisors and/or food production chief of any special orders or changes needed that may impact food production, including instances when substitutions are needed due to food preferences. Prints lists, reports, labels, and tray tickets. Verifies physician orders for unusual diets, conflicting modifications, and nutritional supplements. Work Schedule: 10:00 AM-6:30 PM, 5 days a week to include weekends and holidays. Position Description Title/PD#: Health Technician (Dietetic)/PD99855S Physical Requirements: The work may require walking, standing, bending, lifting and carrying of light items, such as food trays, instruction materials, books, and manuals. Long periods of sitting and moving about in an office environment, including repetitive motion activities of the hands and fingers for extensive keyboard and computer mouse use, and office tasks such as answering and holding a telephone phone, and writing. The work may require walking indoors, outdoors or to and from other areas of the medical center. It may be necessary to lift and/or push equipment. Subject to periods of continuous standing, sitting, walking and frequent stooping, reaching, pushing, pulling and bending. Frequently lifts or moves objects weighing up to 20 pounds and pushing loaded carts of trays and/or nourishments. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Compressed/Flexible: No. Telework: No. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

• You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this job
• Subject to a background/suitability investigation
• Designated and/or random drug testing may be required
• May serve a probationary period
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• A complete application package; Resume, Transcripts, etc
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR). 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 can't be waived. Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR) for positions at GS-4 and above: Specialized experience: Positions in this series range widely in type and include support duties to medical or health personnel such as audiologists, speech pathologists, medical officers, & optometrists. Technician experience is experience that required application of the knowledge, methods, and techniques of the position to be filled Education & Training: In addition to the IOR, applicants must meet the specialized experience/education and selective placement factor below: GS-4 grade level: At least six (6) months of specialize experience and six (6) months of general experience that has given you the particular knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully perform the duties of this Health Technician (Dietetic) position. Specialized experience includes documenting dietary/nutrition information and updating patient records; knowledge of tray assembly area procedures; using dietetics software programs; following verbal and written instructions; and using computer equipment, phone system, and printers. This position requires effective communication skills both verbally and in writing and good customer service. General Experience is any type of work that demonstrates the ability to perform the work of the position or which provides a familiarity with the nutrition environment. OR Substitution of Education: Successful completion of two (2) years of study that included at least 12 semester hours in subjects directly related to this position A bachelor's degree or four (4) years of education above the high school level with major study or at least 24 semester hours in subjects directly related to the position (i.e. nutrition, dietary therapy, food and nutrition science, food service systems management, etc.). This education must have been obtained in an accredited business or technical school, junior college, college or university for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. OR Combination of Experience and Education: An equivalent combination of successfully completed post-high school education (beyond the first year) and specialized experience, as described above, which meet the total qualification requirements for this grade level. This education must have been obtained at an accredited business, secretarial or technical school, junior college, college, or university. GS-05 grade level: One year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-04 grade level in the federal service); experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA's) and other characteristics to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled, in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience includes: practicing excellent customer service in all forms of communication, either via telephone, e-mail or in-person, ability to use computers to retrieve and provide information to team members and knowledge of basic and routine modified diets and is able to provide basic level education and information on therapeutic diets. OR, Substitution of Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To substitute for this experience you must have successfully completed a full 4-years above high school. One year of full-time academic study is defined as 30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours, or the equivalent in a college or university, or at least 20 hours of classroom instruction per week for approximately 36 weeks in a business, secretarial, or technical school. (Unofficial transcripts must be submitted. Transcripts must reflect coursework and grades received.) OR, Combination of Experience and Education: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at the GS-5 level. Only education in excess of the first 60 semester hours (i.e., beyond the second year) is creditable toward meeting the specialized experience requirement. One full academic year of study (30 semester hours) beyond the second year is equivalent to 6 months of specialized experience. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Computer SkillsCustomer Service (Clerical/Technical)Food ServicePatient Care 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 Physical Requirements: The work requires walking, standing, bending, lifting and carrying of light items, such as food trays, instruction materials, books, and manuals. NCC Associate functions require long periods of sitting and moving about in an office environment, including repetitive motion activities of the hands and fingers for extensive keyboard and computer mouse use, and office tasks such as answering and holding a telephone phone, and writing. The work may require walking indoors, outdoors or to and from other areas of the medical center. It may be necessary to lift and/or push equipment. Incumbent is subject to periods continuous standing, sitting, walking and frequent stooping, reaching, pushing, pulling, and bending. Frequently lifts or moves objects weighing up to 20 pounds. 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

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.

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/.

Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation.

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.

Contacts

• Address Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center 1111 East End Boulevard Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711 US
• Name: Stephanie Langer
• Phone: 814-969-2094
• Email: [email protected]