Health Technician (Dietetic)

Health Technician (Dietetic)

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Detroit, Michigan

Salary Range: $44487 - $57828 Per Year

Job Summary: The Health Technician (Dietician) position provides administrative and customer service support for the VA hospital food service program. The incumbent performs routine duties that require exceptional customer service, computer skills, proper phone etiquette, proficiency in special food service and therapeutic diet procedures, a broad knowledge of routine modified diets, combinations of diet modifications and knowledge of Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) Dietetics software and required functions.

Major Duties:

• The Health Technician duties include: Welcome callers courteously and identify themselves/ the service/ the organization. Communicates effectively via telephone and in-person and uses strong listening and speaking skills. Properly operates telephone equipment in order to transfer or place calls on hold. The incumbent will consider both verbal and nonverbal aspects of communication. Practice excellent customer service skills in all forms of communication, either via telephone, e-mail or in-person. The incumbent must also practice proper business telephone etiquette while answering the phone. When communicating with customers, incumbent will be pleasant, friendly, personable, and professional. Maintain the vital connection between Nutrition Communication Center (NCC) Associates, Registered Dietitian, higher graded dietetic technicians, food service staff, Nursing, patients and guests. NCC Associate will follow local-facility policies and standard procedures for patient feeding, including but not limited to missed patient meals, late tray requests, patient meal ordering, and adherence to prescribed therapeutic diet. Triages calls from inpatient units or outpatient clinics and procedure areas relating to patient meal trays or nourishments at the lowest level and will refer issues that cannot be resolved to Food Service Supervisor or other as determined by local policy. Retrieve computerized information/printouts to assist with tray and/or nourishment assembly such as standing orders, nourishment labels, tabulated recipe lists, and other simple information to assist in meal delivery. Organizes work to complete assignments. Assists patients in selection of the proper foods according to their individual diet. Uses communication skills to converse with veteran's to accurately take menu orders via COTS Dietetic software System. Able to provide Veterans, guest/family members, VA employees (i.e. nursing staff) with basic information about the menu, available food items and refers concerns on compliance problems or appetite to supervisor and/or dietitian. Has working knowledge of diet principles, such as carbohydrate counting for meal planning. Conducts new-admit patient rounding to introduce and discuss, menu available food items and ways to order meals with patients and residents. Handles routine telephone inquiries from nursing units/nursing personnel regarding patient meal orders and may maintain a log of telephonic client inquiries/concerns received directly from the client or unit personnel based on local policy. Initiates corrective action and/or notifies appropriate dietitian/dietetic technician for follow up. communicates patient concerns with registered dietitian or dietetic Technician as appropriate and communicates with supervisor to complete all task assigned such as production/menu changes, menu specials, or menu shortages. Verifies physician orders for unusual diets, conflicting modifications, tube feeding orders and nutritional supplements. Ensures supplemental feedings are correctly entered. Cleans and maintains NFS equipment such as refrigerators and juice machines located on patient units. Prepare nourishments for patients. Performs other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Rotating schedule which includes working every other weekend and holidays Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Health Technician (Dietetic)/PD99796S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives:Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI):Not Authorized 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, 01/07/2026. Individual Occupational RequirementsSpecialized 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, 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. Grade Requirements -You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: GS-05 Specialized Experience: Applicants must have 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to at least GS-4 that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled to be eligible for the GS-5 level. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the experience required. Four-year course of study above high school leading to a bachelor's degree with courses related to the occupation, if required. The applicant must have successfully completed post-high school education is qualifying for grades GS-3 through GS-5. 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. 1 year of full-time undergraduate study is defined as 30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours, or the equivalent in a college or university or at least 20 hours of classroom instruction per week for approximately 36 weeks in a business or technical school. At grades GS-4 and above, a portion of the education is usually directly related to the work of the position to be filled. Examples of related courses are provided in the individual occupational requirements where applicable. However, agencies may require other courses if they are considered to be more related to the position to be filled. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at the GS-05 level. Equivalent combinations of successfully completed post-high school education and experience are also qualifying. The combinations described below are those most typical for these positions, i.e., for grades GS-3 through GS-5. If education is used to meet specialized experience requirements, then such education must include courses directly related to the work of the position. 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 1 year of specialized experience. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: 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 requires walking, standing, bending, lifting and carrying of light items, such as food trays, instruction materials, books, and manuals. NCC Associate functions require long periods of sitting and moving about in an office environment, including repetitive motion activities of the hands and fingers for extensive keyboard and computer mouse use, and office tasks such as answering and holding a telephone phone, and writing. The work may require walking indoors, outdoors or to and from other areas of the medical center. It may be necessary to lift and/or push equipment. Incumbent is subject to periods continuous standing, sitting, walking and frequent stooping, reaching, pushing, pulling, and bending. Frequently lifts or moves objects weighing up to 20 pounds and pushing loaded carts of trays and/or nourishments. 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 01/07/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12856837. 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. If initial application submission is updated and resubmitted with a new resume, only the most current resume will be reviewed for consideration. 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: 2026-01-07