Health Technician (Phlebotomy)

Health Technician (Phlebotomy)

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Montrose, New York

Salary Range: $48005 - $62407 Per Year

Job Summary: The position is located in the Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Service (PLMS) at the Hudson Valley VA Health Care System. The incumbent performs a variety of functions including: accessioning specimens into the computer system, collects, evaluates and processes patient specimens, answers questions relative to patient specimens, instructs and assists patients, and processes send-out specimens for testing.

Major Duties:

• Performs Diagnostic Procedures: Incumbent collects and processes specimens obtained for analyses throughout P&LMS and associated reference laboratories, ensuring safety and non-traumatic processes are used with critical concern for the patients and the quality of the specimen. The incumbent performs venipuncture specimen collections from inpatients, outpatients, and urgent room when needed. Collections should be completed with a minimal number of failures, bruising or re-sticks, and ensuring that samples are submitted to the clinical laboratory with the least possible delay. The use of a syringe or butterfly needle may be required in obtaining difficult specimens. During collection procedures, the incumbent makes gross visual observation and identifies subtle changes regarding the patient's condition, notifying appropriate emergency personnel as needed. Patient Care: He/she secures the confidence and cooperation of patient during phlebotomy, explains procedure, and positions patients for desired results. Special attention should be given to explaining any post phlebotomy procedure that may be needed, such as applying extra pressure and leaving bandage in place for an extended period of time to patients on blood thinners, and address any concerns from the patient. Clerical Support/ Coordination: Navigate through the procedure of checking patients into the phlebotomy area, taking care to follow protocol. This includes checking 2 forms of ID, logging patients in, and accessioning into the computer for the proper labels. These duties will be performed in a friendly, courteous manner utilizing appropriate customer service skills. The patient's correct identification (two different types) must always be established prior to obtaining any specimen. Generated labels must match the test requisition slips or the electronic request, and the patient's identification. All specimens must be properly labeled in front of patient. Specimen Processing, Send Outs, Employee Urine Drug Screen Collection: Receives and sorts specimens collected from inpatients, outpatients, and all Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC's), checks request slips for proper information, logs in specimen, and delivers specimens to various laboratory sections. The incumbent also operates centrifuges, reporting any malfunction the to Supervisor, as needed. He/she evaluates temperature requirements of specimen refrigerators on the wards as needed. Processes specimens for send out to reference laboratories by centrifuging, separating, storing specimens at the appropriate temperature, and creates appropriate manifests for specimen being sent out. Collects employee urine drug screens as scheduled or requested by Human Resources. Other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Varied, Intermittent Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Health Technician (Phlebotomy)/PD08049A 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, 05/04/2026. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: GS-05 Minimum Requirements: Specialized Experience: Must have one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-04) in the Federal Service that has given me the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform successfully the duties of this position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. 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. Specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Understanding policies and procedures as related to patient care; Performing phlebotomy techniques, procedures and other specimen collection procedures; Setting up equipment for all phlebotomy procedures; Instructing patients in the proper procedures to follow prior, during and after test; preparing referral specimens for shipment; Performing all clerical duties; Maintaining records of procedures. NOTE: Such experience MUST be well represented in resume. Failure to do so will results in a Non-Qualification Determination. ~OR~ Education: 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. 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. One 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. NOTE: Transcripts required. ~OR~ Combination: I have equivalent combinations of education and specialized experience as described above to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education as described that demonstrates your ability to perform the duties of this position. NOTE: Transcripts required, and experience must be detailed in your resume to receive credit. 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/12938584. 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, 05/04/2026. 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: 2026-05-04