Health Technician

Health Technician

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Saint Cloud, Minnesota

Salary Range: $43970 - $57156 Per Year

Job Summary: The Health Technician is a direct care staff in the St. Cloud VA Health Care System Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation and Treatment Program. This specialized treatment program provides residential, bio-psychosocial services in the treatment of substance use and/or mental health disorders. This position provides support in a wide variety of basic clinical and administrative activities in the residential outpatient domiciliary setting.

Major Duties:

• Major duties include, but not limited to: Serves as a liaison between patients, team members, specialty, and ancillary services. Documents patient interactions in various computer programs including vital signs, Urine Drug Screens (UDS), observed patient behaviors, activities participation, group education notes, appointments, etc. Maintaining the safety and security of patients. Performs environmental rounds, maintaining awareness of patient activities and participation requirements. Facilitates recovery-based psycho-education groups to Veterans with mental health and substance abuse. Assists doctors and nurses in the care and treatment of ill Veterans. Conducts simple tests, such as, glucometer readings and vital signs and records the results. Obtains all key information needed in initiating medical processing of physician orders. Initiates appropriate procedures in emergency situations, including response to emergency events and drills, as well as medical emergencies. Communicates with people from diverse cultural, educational, and organizational backgrounds within and outside the facility. Work Schedule: Varies Sunday - Saturday, Day and Evening rotation, some weekends required, typical hours 7:30am-4:00pm or 3:30pm-midnight. Compressed/Flexible: Not Authorized Telework: Not Authorized Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Health Technician/PD90479A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Approved Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Physical Requirements: You will be asked to participate in a pre-employment examination or evaluation as part of the pre-employment process for this position. Questions about physical demands or environmental factors may be addressed at the time of evaluation or examination. The work is performed in a clinic setting. This includes a variety of periods of sitting, walking, standing, and carrying of items. The incumbent must be able to utilize good body mechanics. Must be physically capable of walking distances required to perform daily rounds, multiple times per shift, respond to emergencies within the facility, complete emergency procedures including, but not limited to: evacuations, drills, and Basic Life Support ((BLS). The incumbent must be able to maintain auditory and visual alertness during all assigned tours of duty. Work Environment/Conditions: The work is performed in the residential outpatient domiciliary setting. The environment involves risk, which requires normal safety precautions. The employee works in a health care facility where exposure to contagious disease exists. The physical surroundings involve risks and discomfort that requires special precautions, e.g., exposure to undiagnosed and infectious disease, contacts with patients under the influence of intoxicants, verbal and physical assault from patients, etc. The VA Midwest Health Care Network advocates for a Whole Health System of care in each of the Medical Centers. This is an approach to healthcare that empowers and equips people to take charge of their health and well-being and live their lives to the fullest. As an employee operating in a Whole Health System of care, you will operate in a model with three core elements, seeking to create a personalized health plan for each Veteran. This is done in the context of healing relationships and healing environments and a connection back to the Veteran's community. This aligns with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Mission Statement to Honor America's Veterans by providing exceptional health care that improves their health and well-being.

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/10/2025. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: 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. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: performing administrative/clerical and clinical duties; interpreting and utilizing standard medical terminology/abbreviations for the human body; utilizing computer technology, including software, printers, and copiers; recognizing emergent/urgent medical conditions or complaints and immediately referring to clinical staff. Positions in this series range widely in type and include support duties to medical or health personnel. Therefore, technician experience is experience that required application of the knowledge, methods, and techniques of the position to be filled. 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 four (4) year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree, with a major study or at least 24 semester hours in subjects directly related to this position. This education must have been obtained in an accredited business or technical school, junior college, college or university for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. NOTE: Transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application materials if you are basing all or part of your experience on education. Education cannot be credited without documentation. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an equivalent combination of specialized experience and education successfully completed post-high school education (beyond the second year) and specialized experience, as listed above. The education portion must include courses directly related to the work of the position. This education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university. NOTE: Transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application materials if you are basing all or part of your experience on education. Education cannot be credited without documentation. Preferred Experience: Mental Health experience preferred. 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: Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online questionnaire and submission of the required documentation specified in the How to Apply and Required Documents section. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. To preview the application questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12816938. The application process is as follows: 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. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 11/10/2025. If you are required to complete any USA Hire Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice. Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire Assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue later, you can re-use your unique assessment link. NOTE: Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed. To view the announcement status or your application status: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. 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.

Application Deadline: 2025-11-10