Health Aid and Technician

Health Aid and Technician

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): San Diego, California

Salary Range: $46072 - $66762 Per Year

Job Summary: This position, at full performance level, is located within Nursing Acute Critical Care Service at the VA San Diego Healthcare System. The primary purpose is to perform various routine and non-routine patient care activities, procedures and tasks for which they have been deemed competent, and which do not require the judgement and skill of a licensed health care professional.

Major Duties:

• Major duties include, but are not limited to the following: Supports professional, licensed providers, both nurses and physicians in designated clinical area using diagnostics and therapeutic medical instruments and equipment to perform non-invasive Electrocardiograms, Spirometry tests, Visual Acuity Screenings, and Bladder Scans according to established procedures. Performs Point of Care testing using glucometer and I-Stat devices and CLIA-waived testing as authorized, according to established unit procedures. Documents treatments, procedures, and/or telemetry identification conducted by the incumbent in the electronic medical record. Provides non-professional medical and technical support to professional staff during diagnosis and treatment of patients. Prepares and sets up equipment, etc., for procedures performed by licensed providers, including laceration repair, chest tube insertion, lumbar puncture, etc. Performs administrative tasks and manages various support functions for clinic or practice such as maintaining control records for specimens and tests and documenting measurements taken. Places orders and maintains specialized supplies needed for equipment and instruments used in assigned unit. Assists with stocking and room turn-over to ensure the patient care environment is prepared to receive and care for patients. Provides guidance to other health techs staff and serves as the technical resource in specialized equipment/supply maintenance, operation, and quality assurance monitoring. Performs other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Various shifts. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Health Aid and Technician/PD10895A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized. Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized.

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/24/2025. 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-5 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-4 level. For the GS-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5 level. 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. This position has an Individual Occupation Requirement (IOR). You must meet the following: Specialized Experience (for positions at GS-4 and above): 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, For GS-5: 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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: GS-05 Specialized Experience: You must have one (1) 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. The incumbent serves in a developmental capacity at the GS-05 level. Key functions will be similar to those described at the full performance level of the target position. However, during the developmental assignment, full performance range and level of selected functions will not be completely delegated to the employee until proper orientation and training have been completed and the incumbent has demonstrated the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to accomplish the work at the full performance level. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have For GS-5: 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 beyond: For GS-5 level positions, only education in excess of the first 60 semester hours of a course of study leading to a bachelor's degree is creditable toward meeting the specialized experience requirements. Two full academic years of study, or 60 semester hours, beyond the second year is equivalent to l year of specialized experience. Determine the applicant's total qualifying experience as a percentage of the year of specialized experience required at the GS-5 level. Then determine the applicant's education as a percentage of the education that meets the requirements for GS-5. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify an applicant for GS-5. GS-06 Specialized Experience: You must have one year (1) 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: Basic anatomy and physiology to include location and function of major body organs and structures. Completion of formal nursing assistant program and/or active duty military equivalent. Cardiac rhythm interpretation, lead placement for 12 Lead electrocardiogram and telemetry monitoring, monitor alarm parameters, operation and maintenance of cardiopulmonary and electrocardiogram equipment. Vital sign measurements, deviation from norms, documentation, and procedure for reporting results. There is no educational substitution at the GS-6 grade level. Preferred Experience: Three (3) to Five (5) years experience as nursing assistant in acute care setting. Current experience using RME & computerized medical record system. Current BLS training. Actively involved in unit wide safety and emergency programs and other committee. Formal EKG training and experience. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-06. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is in the range of GS-05 to GS-06. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Clinical Data Collection/Documentation Customer Service (Clerical/Technical) Medical Information Safety Engineering 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. 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/.

How to Apply: All applicants are encouraged to apply online. To apply for this position, you must complete the questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 11/24/2025 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12821261. To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire. Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/ The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

Application Deadline: 2025-11-24