Program Support Assistant (OA)

Program Support Assistant (OA)

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Johnson City, Tennessee

Salary Range: $45409 - $59031 Per Year

Job Summary: Serves as Program Support Assistant for Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service (P&LMS). In this capacity, the incumbent will act as administrative support coordinator for Anatomic Pathology. The Anatomic Pathology section is responsible for providing all surgical pathology and cytopathology reports at this Medical Center. The completed reports become an integral part of the patient's permanent Medical Record and are an essential component for patient care activities.

Major Duties:

• Duties include but not limited to: Aids in the collection and interpretation of data, receives requests for statistical or informative material and advises when the material can be furnished within the specified time frame. Assists with the administration preparation of the surgical and cytology manuals for inspections and participates in the inspection process as required by the Supervisor. Maintains pending lists, printing reports, entering reports, timekeeping, entering SNOMED codes, reports and slides. Keeps electronic logs on all tissues released to outside laboratories for testing or consultation. Spots checks for accuracy, verifies and distributes reports daily. Receives, screens and directs telephone calls appropriately. Maintains departmental filing system for hard copy records and prepares records for archiving as necessary. Develops a tracking system for files, enters pertinent information. Maintains automated system data to track competencies, training and other departmental data. Prints surgical pathology reports and case materials for weekly pathology reviews, meetings and conferences. Receive and files pathology materials from outsides sources and completes spreadsheets as necessary. Prepares samples for send out testing and transcribes results into report supplementals when received and distributes reports to pathologists for sign-out. Coordinates with the Release of Information office when receiving requests for material and for inclusion of results into patient records. Receives and files pathology materials and completes spreadsheets as necessary. Willing to access and distribute specimens when needed and be physically located around surgical specimens and chemicals. Performs and instructs SNOMED coding and assists with Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding. Performs computer searches and pulls data and reports for physicians working on Quality Assurance (QA) cases. Acts as a liaison between Anatomic Pathology and the Laboratory Information Manager regarding computer problems. Instructs residents and physicians on the use of the lab computer package to order test and obtain reports. Instructs histotechnicians, cytotechnologists and others on office procedures. Order and maintains administrative supplies. Prepares required information for the onboarding on new Anatomic Pathology staff. Establishes training schedules and orients new staff to the department. Maintains equipment inventory and assists with purchasing new equipment by submitting requests, researching suppliers and obtains reference materials and quotes. Work Schedule: 7:45am - 4:30pm Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Support Assistant (OA)/PD605950 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approval 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, 03/17/2026. 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-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An 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. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS GS-06: To be qualified you must have at least one (1) full year of specialized experience that equipped you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties the Program Support Assistant that is typically in or related to the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-5) in the Federal service. Specialized experience includes experience where you were responsible for independently establishing priorities for accomplishment of the various responsibilities found within a multi-disciplinary department, as well as handling multiple and varied interruptions and unpredictable work assignments arising on a day-to-day basis. The incumbent must possess the skills of coping with pressure situations, frequent interruptions, and staff shortages. There is need to exercise judgement and discretion in handling sensitive and confidential matters and the need for diplomacy, courtesy, and tact in dealing with physicians, staff, residents, and the general public. related to clinical laboratory tests and pathology procedures. Experience with automated applications including the use of electronic mail and Microsoft office products such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint. and the laboratory document control system. Typing Requirement. Must possess the ability to type at least 40 words per minute. Preferred experience: Outpatient scheduling using ISS, Timekeeping, Sending VVC links, Utilizing Secure Messaging. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Attention to Detail Clerical Communication Computer Skills Customer Service (Clerical/Technical) Manages and Organizes Information 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 is sedentary. Typically, the employee sits comfortably to do the work. However, there may be some walking; standing; bending; carrying of light items such as papers, books, slides, small parts; or driving an automobile, etc. No special physical demands are required to perform the work. 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 03/17/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12905361. 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. 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/ Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities [i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities], and/or Disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. Contact the Agency Contact for information on how to apply under this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator. 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: 2026-03-17