Medical Technician

Medical Technician

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Grand Junction, Colorado

Salary Range: $53345 - $69349 Per Year

Job Summary: The Medical Technician serves within the Phlebotomy and Specimen Receiving section of the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service (PLMS) in the Western Colorado Health Care System (WCHCS) and is responsible for inventory and record control, accessioning, specimen collection guidance, processing, testing, storage, clerical tasks, shipping of specimens, quality improvement activities, as well as performing primary phlebotomy duties to support patient care.

Major Duties:

• ***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** Major duties and responsibilities include: Performs blood collection procedures by venipuncture or capillary techniques on designated hospital inpatients and outpatients. Establishes proper identity of all patients, ensures accountability of specimens by proper and complete labeling. Administers minor first aid, if necessary, to counteract unfavorable patient reactions. Maintains patient privacy in all matters in accordance with the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Performs special procedures to include, but not limited to, administration of oral products such as glucola for glucose tolerance testing and obtaining specimens for forensic or medico legal purpose such as blood alcohols and drug testing. Performs CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 Act) waived complexity testing and submits it to a Clinical Laboratory Scientist for review and verification of results. Receives samples and specimens of tissue, blood, urine, stool, sputum, and other body fluids. Performs clerical duties related to handling of laboratory specimens, e.g. conducting order entry and patient registration in reference lab information systems, accessioning specimens, receiving test results from reference laboratories, verifying for completeness, and checking for pending test results. Sorts specimens based on testing location, needs, and priority for turnaround time. Processes a wide variety of laboratory specimens for shipment to reference laboratories using procedures, test codes, requisition forms, and materials that conform to EPA (CFR 40) and OSHA (CFR 29) regulations. Instructs the patient in the proper use of the specimen containers and the correct times of specimen collection. Interacts with outlying clinic sites and hospital staff to educate and monitor compliance to specimen collection requirements and handling guidelines. Researches test menu catalogs and/or verbally locates commercial laboratories capable of performing rare and unusual tests. Performs other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 7:00am-3:30pm, final schedule will be determined upon hire and needs of service Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved Designated Drug-Testing Position: Applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA. Applicants will not be appointed to the position if a verified positive drug test result is received.

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. In accordance with 38 U.S.C. 7402(d), No person shall serve in direct patient care positions unless they are proficient in basic written and spoken English. You must be proficient in basic written and spoken English to meet the requirements of this position. -AND- To qualify for this position at the GS-6 level, you must meet one of the following: -EXPERIENCE: One (1) year of specialized experience that equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) to successfully perform the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. To be creditable, this experience must have been equivalent to at least the GS-5 grade level. Specialized experience is: (a) Technical medical laboratory support work such as performing laboratory tests and examinations (chemical, microbiologic, hematologic and blood banking) and preparing reports of findings or (b) technical support work in a closely related field, e.g., biological laboratory technician work that required application of the methods and techniques for the position to be filled. Note: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hour worked per week ~OR~ -EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least one-half year of graduate level education that is directly related to the work of the position to be filled. This education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university. One (1) year of full-time graduate education is the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent one (1) year of full-time study. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours should be considered as satisfying one (1) year of full-time requirement. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended. (Transcripts must be submitted at time of application) ~OR~ -COMBINATION: Equivalent combinations of post-high school education and experience, as described above. (Transcripts must be submitted at time of application) -AND- This position includes a Selective Placement Factor (skill, knowledge, ability, or other worker characteristic basic to - and essential for - satisfactory performance of the job). Selective Placement Factors are a prerequisite to appointment and represent minimum requirements for a position. Applicants who do not meet it are ineligible for further consideration. The Selective Placement Factor for this position is: Experience performing phlebotomy/blood draws on human patients. Physical Requirements: The work requires regular and recurring physical exertion, including standing, walking, bending, stooping, reaching, or carrying or lifting items such as specimen containers, supply boxes, phlebotomy equipment, etc. (up to 45 pounds and with assistance as needed). There may be special requirements for manual dexterity and coordination (i.e., hand/eye coordination or good color vision) to perform precise procedures such as venipuncture and specimen handling. 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 assessment and submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. 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 questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12949267. 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, 06/01/2026. After submitting the online application, you will be notified whether or not you are required to take additional online assessments through the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment system. This message will be delivered to you via email notification. The email may be routed to your "Spam" or "Junk" folder. IMPORTANT: If you are asked to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be presented with a unique URL to access the USA Hire system. Access to USA Hire is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Be sure to review all instructions prior to beginning your USA Hire Assessments. Click here for Computer System Requirements. 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 at a later time, you can re-use the URL sent to you via email and also found in your USAJOBS account under the "Track my application" link for the corresponding application. 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 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: 2026-06-01