This Secretary position is in the Surgical Service at the VA Maine Healthcare System located at the Togus location. This position is full time at 40 hours per week.

Duties

The Secretary position provides a wide array of administrative and project support to the Chief of Surgery, Associate Chief of Surgery, the Health Systems Specialist, and the Specialty & Acute Care Clinic Nurse Manager. Duties will include, but not be limited to the following: Prepares and edits letters and reports and reviews correspondence for accuracy and completeness. Serves as a patient advocate for the service. This requires personally listening to the patients' or their families' concerns and assisting in the resolution and documentation. Prepares meeting agendas; prepares and distributes meeting notices; provides attendance sheets and arranges audiovisuals. Arranges for continuing medical education (CME) credit as applicable. Attends meetings, takes accurate minutes and follow up on action items with appropriate staff members independently. Provides administrative support to the VA Maine Healthcare Surgical Workgroup (multi-disciplinary team). Serves as timekeeper for multidisciplinary and administrative staff. Maintains current file of provider privileges. Manages and provides direct oversight regarding the purchase of instruments, disposable items, and other supplies as needed within surgery. Responsible to reconcile purchase transactions, negotiates and completes amendments/adjustments to purchase delivery orders. Picks up, sorts and distributes mail. Organizes and maintains official files. Keeps policies and procedures updated. Arranges travel; completes and routes necessary forms required for authorization and funding of travel, including requests involving special procedures (e.g. foreign travel, acceptance of contributions incident of training, etc.). Maintains employee service records and files and inputs personnel actions, using electronic Human Resources system. Types a wide variety of material for the service, including technical reports, MS Power Point presentations, MS Excel spreadsheets, medical lectures, proficiency reports and policies. Work Schedule: Full-Time Monday-Friday 7:30am-4:00pm Compressed/Flexible: Not authorized Telework: Authorized/Ad-hoc: VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Secretary/00330-0 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: May be authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required Notifications: This position is in an AFGE Bargaining Unit. This position is in the Competitive Service. Veterans' preference does not apply for internal or other current permanent Federal agency employees. Current and former Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50, (Notice of Personnel Action). The SF-50 must identify the position title, series, grade, step, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). In some cases, more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held. Interchange Agreements with Other Merit System: Employees who occupy medical or medical-related positions and were appointed under 38 U.S.C. 4701(1) or (3) [formerly 38 U.S.C. 4104 (1) and (3)] must be serving in a full-time position without time limit and have served continuously for at least one year in this other merit system to be eligible to convert to the Title 5 System. Some exceptions to this rule may apply if you have previously acquired tenure under a Title 5 appointment.

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 07/02/2024. 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 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 as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience as described below: GS 6 Specialized Experience: Have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-5) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include but are not limited to: Controls incoming and outgoing correspondence, reports, memoranda and other forms of written communication. Prepares and edits letters and reports and reviews correspondence for accuracy and completeness. Supervises and orients summer volunteers and/or students assigned to the Office. Serves as a patient advocate for the service. Provides administrative support to staff and assists in preparation of meeting Power Point presentations. Serves as timekeeper for multidisciplinary and administrative staff. Receives telephone calls and visitors. Organizes and manages on-call schedules. Picks up, sorts and distributes mail. Maintains and prints the Manager's calendars. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Attention to DetailCustomer ServiceInterpersonal SkillsOral Communication 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. Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary considerable computer and keyboard work. The work includes some walking, standing, bending, and carrying light items such as books, papers and files. Work Environment: The work environment involves the normal risks and stresses typical in an office environment which supports an extremely busy clinical service with various professional staff. 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

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

Contacts

• Address Togus VA Medical Center 1 VA Center Augusta, ME 04330 US
• Name: Donna Davies
• Phone: (603) 624-4366 X5077
• Email: [email protected]