This position is located in the Nutrition and Food Service (N&FS) of the VA Medical Center in Augusta serving as a Nutrition Communication Center (NCC) Ambassador, providing administrative and customer service support for the VA hospital food service program.

Duties

Major duties and responsibilities will include: Conducts meal rounds and calculates patients' calorie intake per day. Recommends changes to nutritional value of prescribed diet including protein, carbohydrate, fat, sodium, and fluid content. Provides individualized instructions with consideration of the patient's background. Provides written and oral nutritional teaching/counseling to patients. Provides nutrition care to Veterans in the MOVE Weight Management Program under the guidance of the Clinical Nutrition Section Manager and the MOVE Coordinator Dietitian. Provides nutrition education to patients regarding basic diet modifications and prescribed diets (i.e., high fiber, low fiber, no added salt, low sodium, etc.). Collaborates with food service to coordinate mealtime activities and to clarify diet orders. Develops care plans that reflect knowledge of various disease entities, treatment modalities and drug/nutrient interactions. Interviews patients to obtain information such as diagnoses, medications, food-related preferences, allergies and intolerances, swallowing or digestions issues, unplanned weight loss / gain, etc. Collects and analyzes data and information from patient's medical record. Compares patients' nutrition data to pre-established screening criteria and determines appropriate level of nutritional care. Monitors patients for changes in weight, appearance, food intake or medications. Reports patient's nutritional status and other indicators to appropriate staff. Work Schedule: 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM Position Description/PD#: Clinical Dietetic Technician/PD99792-S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: 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, 02/29/2024. 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-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. 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 as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. Basic Education Requirement: To meet the basic education requirement, all applicants must have successfully completed a course of study in an accredited college leading to an associate's degree in Dietetic Technology with an emphasis in Nutrition Care or the equivalent post-secondary education. Education must have included instruction in nutrition care/diet therapy, the natural sciences (e.g. anatomy, physiology, biochemistry), social sciences (e.g. psychology, sociology), food sciences, medical terminology, communications, and education. In addition, education must have included supervised field experience in a hospital or similar clinical setting. Note: Copies of pertinent transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application. Education will not be credited without documentation. Minimum Qualification Requirement: In addition to meeting the Basic Education Requirement, you must also meet the following: Specialized Experience: You must possess at least one (1) year of progressively responsible specialized experience equivalent to the GS-05 in the field of clinical dietetic technology in which you have demonstrated successful use on the following knowledges, skills, abilities and other characteristics: 1) Knowledge of human nutrition requirements in health and disease; 2) Ability to gather data from the medical record and document information pertinent to nutritional care; 3) Ability to monitor and influence the patient's nutritional intake; 4) Ability to provide nutrition education for selected groups of patients; 5) Skill in patient interviewing and nutrition counseling; 6) Ability to interact and communicate orally with people from a variety of backgrounds; and 7) Ability to function effectively in a support position within a Clinical Dietetic section of a general medical and surgical and/or psychiatric hospital. Qualifying Specialized Experience includes: Developing and revising nutrition care plans; Interpreting significance of abnormal laboratory values related to nutritional status; Performing nutrition screening, assessing meal intakes and adjusting meal plans as appropriate; Providing nutrition education; Communicating with patients and other health care team members regarding patients' nutritional needs; Using nutrition technology applications; and Assessing the effectiveness of nutrition care plans, documenting care plans using the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) guidelines. 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: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.

Contacts

• Address Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center One Freedom Way Augusta, GA 30901 US
• Name: Marques Entzminger
• Email: [email protected]