This position is located in the Edward Hines Jr. VA Spinal Cord Injury (SCI/D) Center SCI-N and SCI-S units. Hines 58-bed comprehensive SCI/D Center provides acute medical treatment as well as ongoing medical care and rehabilitation services in a continuum of care that includes acute care inpatient units, an inpatient and outpatient acute rehabilitation program, an outpatient clinic and home care program.

Duties

The Health Technician provides a diverse range of clinical services supportive to the delivery of quality patient care. The position combines duties that provide assistance to licensed nursing personnel and other medical technician duties (i.e., phlebotomy, EKG, respiratory care, activity oriented exercises, and nutrition assistance.) Under the general guidance and supervision of registered nurses, the Health Technician carries out specific-direct and indirect patient care assignments and supportive functions to assist in providing total patient care services. Establishes helpful relationships with patients and others; interacts in a courteous manner; explains patient care provided. Provides emotional support, friendly assistance, sympathetic understanding and encouragement to patients/families. Contributes to patient's well-being by providing assistance with personal hygiene, bowel/bladder care, physical comfort and a clean and safe environment. Provides appropriate support to patients in meeting their nutritional needs by clearing overbed tables, placing meal trays/nourishments within easy reach, preparing food/beverages, obtaining additional items, feeding patients, recording intake and clearing trays. Adds prescribed nourishment to existing continuous tube feeding setup. Performs, reports and records measurements, such as vital signs, intake and output, pulse. oximetry, glucose finger stick and other parameters. Identifies obvious patient problems, symptoms, behavioral changes and deviations from normal in a timely manner to the appropriate Registered Nurse. Performs EKG as directed and provides results to Registered Nurse. Collects urine, stool sputum, and blood specimens by phlebotomy using appropriate procedures. Accurately labels all specimens and delivers to laboratory as indicated. Provides selected respiratory care, such as incentive breathing exercises, turn, deep breath and cough, oxygen therapy, monitoring of MDI self-administration and oral/ pharyngeal suctioning under the direction of the RN and/ or respiratory therapist. Applies appropriate principles of body mechanics and patient safety in assisting patients with movement, positioning, ambulation, and transportation. Provides activity orient exercises under direction of the RN and/ or rehabilitation therapist. Uses assistive devices appropriately. Assists nurses/physicians with diagnostic and therapeutic procedures performed on the unit. Safely transports patients to off unit appointments. Applies principles of infection control when performing direct and indirect patient care assignments. Assists in emergency situations and initiates CPR when indicated. Records care given and objective/subjective patient observations on appropriate medical record forms. Demonstrates competence in the performance of clinical procedures outlined in the approved skills inventory and unit-specific procedures as assigned. Provides care based on physical, psychosocial, educational, safety, and related criteria appropriate to the age of the patients served in his/her assigned area (i.e., adult and geriatric patient population). This entails knowledge of human growth and development; ability to assess and interpret age specific data and provide age specific care; communication skills necessary to interpret age specific response to treatment; and ability to involve family/significant others in decision making related to plan of care. The knowledge, abilities and skills needed to provide such care will be refined through continuing education and training and. experience. Reinforces patient health teaching related to self-care. Correctly and safely uses equipment and supplies. Cleans and returns equipment to appropriate location and reports needs for equipment repair to the appropriate person. Maintains a safe, clean, and orderly work environment through routine maintenance activities such as ordering and stocking equipment and supplies; cleaning equipment and patient care areas; providing proper containment/ disposal of discarded materials; reporting maintenance and security problems to appropriate personnel. Work Schedule: Work Schedule or Tour of Duty: 12 hour Day shift 0730-2000 with rotating weekends/holidays Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Health Technician (SCI)/PD21231A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 10/10/2024. 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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: 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, and optometrists. Therefore, technician experience is experience that required application of the knowledge, methods, and techniques of the position to be filled. OR Education and Training: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree, with major study or at least 24 semester hours in subjects directly related to the position. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education. One year of Spinal Cord Injury is highly preferred. Acute Care, Rehab, and/or Skilled facility experience preferred. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Infection ControlInterpersonal SkillsPatient CareTechnical Competence 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: Physical requirements include extensive periods of standing and walking. Patient care activities require regular and recurring bending, lifting, stooping, stretching, pushing and similar activities using appropriate body mechanics and other assistive devices for patient and/or equipment movement and transfer. The employee protects self and others from injury. Work Environment: Responsibilities are performed in a health care environment. The Health Technician practices principles of aseptic technique, "infection control, and environment safety. Precautions are required when working with movable equipment, wet floors, and potential exposure to diagnosed/undiagnosed contagious diseases. 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 Edward Hines Junior Hospital 5000 South 5th Avenue Hines, IL 60141 US
• Name: Kiphanie Moore
• Phone: 414-712-8177
• Email: [email protected]