Health Technician (OA)

Health Technician (OA)

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Las Vegas, Nevada

Salary Range: $41197 - $53551 Per Year

Job Summary: The Health Technician performs phlebotomy and specimen processing for the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service at VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System. Serves the VA Sierra Pacific Network, offering a full range of comprehensive health care services including Dentistry, Geriatrics and Extended Care, Imaging, Medicine Services, Mental Health Services, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service, Primary Care, Radiation Oncology, Rehabilitation Services, Specialty Services, and Surgery.

Major Duties:

• Primary Purpose: The primary purpose of the position is to be responsible for providing phlebotomy, specimen processing and testing functions, clinical patient support as well as for providing general clerical and administrative support for all patient activities. The incumbent accepts and supports the guiding principles of the VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System (VASNHS) and will performs his or her duties in a manner that promotes patient safety, quality health care, outstanding customer service, and the maintenance of an environment committed to serving the Veteran. Furthermore, the incumbent actively supports the team concept and continually functions as a team player. Duties may include but are not limited to: Explain work requirements and procedures, giving special instructions with regard to specimen collection, specimen preparation, special specimen handling and test analysis. Perform and provide a wide variety of supportive skills in specimen collection, specimen receiving from hospital and outpatient PCC, specimen verification, and specimen handling, sorting, separation, sets up and ready to load specimen for testing. The work consists of related steps, processes associated with the accessioning, processing, and phlebotomy duties. Conducts on the job training of employees who need skill development or enhancement. Perform a wide variety of blood collection of a responsible nature requiring a representative knowledge of clinical science to understand the multiplicity of tests and specimen requirements, the mechanics of venipuncture and patient preparation. Demonstrate versatility of skill in rapidly proceeding from one patient to another to perform multiple and simultaneous collection using accurate patient and specimen identification procedures. Perform all clerical duties required of the position, including work lists, logs, etc. Provides orientation/training in performance of phlebotomy and test procedures with the information and experience required to understand underlying disease processes and inform the healthcare provider if unable to obtain. Sets up equipment for all phlebotomy procedures, making sure that all phlebotomy and ancillary equipment is functioning to standard. Orders and maintains specialized supplies pertaining to ancillary instruments used in the drawing areas. Makes determinations where instructions or guidelines are only general in nature and do not contain specific details. Recognizes abnormalities and brings them to the attention of the appropriate Medical/Health Care Provider. Uses initiative in direction the activities of the phlebotomy area and works independently without specific instruction. Obtains assistance from the Supervisory Medical Technologist for unusual patient issues and/or unfamiliar situations. Monitors environment to ensure patient safety during phlebotomy procedures. Exercises a high degree of flexibility and ability to function in emergent patient care situations. Transports specimens to the laboratory including those requiring special handling. Cleans disinfects, and sterilizes equipment and ancillary equipment according to Medical Center Policies and Procedures. Adheres to the Infection Control Guidelines for the Medical Center Maintains record of procedures performed in the Drawing Areas. Participates in Continuous Quality Improvement activities. Establishes and maintains effective interpersonal skills with patients, families, and all Medical Center employees. Timeliness, accuracy, service customer satisfaction and comfort to the patient are the key processes. Work Schedule: Various Shifts, Rotating, Evenings, Days, Weekend Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Health Technician (OA)/PD01582A 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, 01/29/2026. 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-05 position, you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-04 grade level. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. A 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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade, GS-4, in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Setting up, cleaning and routine maintenance of selected clinical instrumentation; directing patients, answering routine inquiries, and making referrals. 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 above high school 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 a combination of specialized experience and education beyond 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. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Accountability Infection Control Quality Management Technical 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: The work requires extensive and recurring physical exertion such as standing for extended periods of time, bending standing, lifting, walking, stooping, and stretching. The work requires duty on weekends, holidays, and nights when so assigned. This position is also considered high-risk because of the constant exposure to blood and fluid products, sharps, and chemicals. 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/12865106. 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, 01/29/2026. 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: 2026-01-29