Job Information
Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration Intermediate Care Technician in Lewiston, Idaho
Summary The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Intermediate Care Technician (ICT) Program is a program designed to hire transitioning service, National Guard, Reserve, and Veteran corpsmen, combat medics and medical technicians into positions at VA Medical Centers as an integral part of the medical team. Candidates generally qualify based on U.S. Armed Forces experience or equivalent education. Responsibilities You will serve as the Intermediate Care Technician (ICT) for the Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) located Lewiston, Idaho. VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package. https://vacareers.va.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/12/Total-Reward-of-a-Allied-Health-Professions-VA-Career-11-4-2022.pdf The Intermediate Care Technician is an occupational specialty, especially for former military combat medics, medical technicians, and corpsmen. As an ICT, you will operate within clearly defined clinical competencies. For this job announcement, you may work in multiple clinical settings based on facility needs, these include but are not limited to, Emergency Medicine, Critical Care, Primary Care, Specialty Clinics, Women's health and COVID Screening, Swabbing Stations, and Vaccine Operations. The clinical activities for the hospital will include but are not limited to: Performing observation-based screening and collecting patient information in collaboration with licensed personnel, this may involve completing clinical reminders, obtaining patient health history, chief complaints, medication history, and identification of health- related conditions that may impact the patient's health status. Completing approved templates and tools, such as, intake/outtake forms, normal result note follow up, clinical reminders, procedure and intervention notes established by the agency. Assisting in behavioral/psychiatric situations in an outpatient setting. This can include assisting licensed personnel with crisis intervention, management of aggressive or suicidal psychiatric patients, by providing one-to-one observations and applying prevention and management of disruptive behavior techniques (PMDB). Assists licensed staff with the delivery of care to patients with complex, specialized, and potentially life-threatening situations. You will assist licensed staff with setting up equipment and providing treatment during in person or virtual visits. Operating specialized medical equipment to obtain diagnostic and therapeutic outcomes. Observes patient status and keeps licensed clinical staff informed of any change in condition. You will assist clinical providers with emergency medical care, provides emergency response as part of the Rapid-Response-Team (RRT), and assists with training of other hospital clinical staff. Performing Diagnostic Tests. Examples: Vital Signs, 12-lead electrocardiogram (EKG) Point-of-Care. Examples: glucometer, COVID swabbing Specimen collection and Preparation. Examples: collecting and labeling venous blood samples Minor Procedures. Examples: simple one-layer laceration repairs, incision and drainage, skin stapling, STERIS trips, Dermabond Medication Administration: nebulized medications, topical, limited PO meds, vaccine administration Wound Care. Examples. wound debridement, Wet-to-Dry dressings, Unna Boot placement, compression dressings- Forflex and Profour, wound vac placement, graft application Patient education within scope of care or while providing an intervention Electronic Health Record (EHR): Thoroughly and appropriately documents actions, interventions and procedures in the medical record. Examples: Procedural notes and progress notes 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. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday; 8:00am-4:30pm Telework: Not Authorized. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description Title/PD#: Intermediate Care Technician/PD99968S, PD99363S, and PD99362S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized. PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not required. Physical Demands: The work involves extended periods of bending, standing and walking. Generally, the work requires recurring physical exertion with assisting patients. Working Conditions: On a regular and recurring basis, employee is exposed to infection, exposure to communicable diseases and contagious diseases him/her to comply with special safety and health precautions by wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) according to universal precautions. Requirements Conditions of Employment Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements within the 30 days of the closing date of this announcement. Individual Occupational Requirements (IOR): ALL applicants must meet the IOR is a basic requirement that must be met in order to qualify for the 0640 occupational series. To qualify for this occupational series, All applicants, regardless of grade level must meet specialized experience listed below: 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. In addition to, you will need to qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: GS-05 Minimum Qualifications: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-04 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Obtain and maintain records of patient health history, complaints, and medication history; Perform identification of health-related conditions that may impact the patient's health status; Assist on evaluation of patients for emergent/non emergent medical conditions. (Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hour worked per week). OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed 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. (Transcripts Required) GS-06 Minimum Qualifications: 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: Obtain and maintain records of patient health history, complaints, and medication history; Performs Evaluation on patients for emergent/non-emergent medical conditions; Ordering and assisting appropriate diagnostic studies (vital signs, EKG, and immunizations); Performing interventions based upon patient symptoms and established protocols/standards; Assisting Physicians with complex, specialized, and potentially-life threatening procedures. (Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hour worked per week). Education: There is no educational substitution for the GS-06 level. GS-07 Minimum Qualifications: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-06 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Prepare and administer medications through various methods, examples include, intramuscular injections, subcutaneous injections, intradermal injections, oral, aerosolized including oxygen, topical, intraocular (eye drops), Otic (ear drops), intranasal, rectal (suppositories), local anesthetics, intraurethral, and intravenous. Perform minor surgical procedures, medical interventions and administer treatments to manage care to combat disease or disabling symptoms example incise and drain various skin infections or abscesses. Order appropriate diagnostic studies under the direction of the supervising Licensed Independent Practitioner (LIP) obtains and Reports Diagnostic and laboratory results.(Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hour worked per week). OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed one (1) full year (18 semester hours) of graduate education that is directly related to the work of the position and have submitted transcripts with my application. (Transcripts Required) Preferred Qualifications: Experience in the military as a Hospital Corpsman, Combat Medic, Medical Technician is highly desired. 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. Examples of military occupational specialties highly desired, include but are not limited to: 4NOX- Basic Medical Technician, 4NOIC- Independent Duty Medical Technician, X4NO- Aeromedical Evacuation Technician, 1T2X1- Pararescueman, 68W- Combat Medic Specialist, 18D- Army Special Forces (Medic), 68WW1- Special Operations Flight Medic, HM0000- Basic Hospital Corpsman, HM8404- Field Medical Service Technician, HM8425- Surface Force Independent Duty Corpsman, HM8402- Submarine Force Independent Duty Corpsman, HM8401- Search and Rescue Medical Technician, HM8403- Fleet Marine Force Reconnaissance Independent Duty Corpsman, HM8406- Aerospace Medical Technician, and HS- Basic Health Services Technician. 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. 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: 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. Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer (TJO). Please visit the Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP), va.gov/EMPLOYEE/docs/The-Fair-Chance-to-Compete-Act.pdf for more information. Additional Information Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer (TJO). Please visit the Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP), va.gov/EMPLOYEE/docs/The-Fair-Chance-to-Compete-Act.pdf for more information. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be well-qualified, applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors if applicable, and must be proficient in most of the requirements of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website which can be found at https://www.opm.gov/. Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. VA may offer newly-appointed Federal employee's credit for their job-related non-federal experience or active duty uniformed military service. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. Pursuant to VHA Directive 1193.01, VHA health care personnel (HCP) are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 subject to such accommodations as required by law (i.e., medical, religious or pregnancy). VHA HCPs do not include remote workers who only infrequently enter VHA locations. If selected, you will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and submit documentation of proof of vaccination before your start date. The agency will provide additional information regarding what information or documentation will be needed and how you can request a legally required accommodation from this requirement using the reasonable accommodation process. Please be aware that all Department of Veterans Health Care Personnel (HCP) are required to participate in the seasonal influenza vaccination programs. It is a requirement that all HCP receive the annual influenza vaccination or obtain an exemption for medical or religious reasons. Wearing a mask is required when an exemption has been granted. HCP in violation of these directives may face disciplinary action up to and including removal from federal service. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.