Surgical Technician

Surgical Technician

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Columbia, Missouri

Salary Range: $50082 - $90237 Per Year

Job Summary: The incumbent is responsible for handling instruments, supplies and equipment during all surgical procedures. For three consecutive years, Truman VA has been ranked #1 nationally by employees as "Best Place to Work" among 142 VA Medical Centers, based on results from the All Employee Survey. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

Major Duties:

• Duties include, but are not limited to: Responsible for handling instruments, supplies and equipment during all surgical procedures such as: open heart, major/minor vascular, simple/complex general surgery, orthopedic procedures including total joint arthroplasty, ophthalmology, plastic, neurosurgery, urological procedures including nephrectomy and laser lithotripsy, and otolaryngology procedure to include radical neck dissection with or without laryngectomy. Plans and discusses each procedure with surgical team members and observes and promptly responds to each stage of the surgical procedures, anticipating the needs of the surgeon by maintaining a high level of concentration over an extended period of time. Suggests alternative supplies/instruments if necessary due to unique unforeseen intra operative occurrences. Prepares, organizes and maintains simple to highly complex surgical fields. Appropriately manages surgical specimens. Performs sponge, needle, and instrument counts prior to the incision, before closure of all cavities, and at the termination of the operation. Assists surgeon by performing such procedures as preparing skin grafts, suctioning, holding retractors, applying skin staples, cutting sutures, preparing prosthetic devices for delivery to the sterile field, and preparing dressings. Assumes responsibility for connecting drainage devices to suction and balloon pumps as needed. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Physical aspects associated with work required of this assignment are typical for the occupation and would generally not require a pre-placement examination. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday-6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with alternating holiday and weekend call, must be able to report in 45 minutes Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Surgical Technician/PD01030A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: 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, 12/04/2025. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience for GS-04: You must have at least 6 months of general experience plus 6 months of specialized experience. Examples of specialized experience would typically include but are not limited to: Having knowledge of medical instrument. Having knowledge of human anatomy. Having knowledge of physiology. Having knowledge of Sterile Fields. Having knowledge of aseptic technique to prepare and protect a sterile field during surgery. OR, Education GS-04: Successful completion of a two years of study that included at least 12 semester hours in subjects related to the position. OR, COMBINATION: You must have a combination of specialized experience and post high school education as described above that demonstrates your ability to perform the duties of this position. This experience must be supported by your resume to be creditable and transcripts are required at the time of application. Specialized Experience for GS-05: You must have 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-04) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include but are not limited to: Providing direct patient care in a hospital/medical/surgical facility. Setting up sterile fields. Assisting health care providers in surgery for a variety of procedures. Following universal precautions for infection control. And understanding and using proper medical terminology. OR, Education GS-05: 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. OR, COMBINATION: You must have a combination of specialized experience and post high school education as described above that demonstrates your ability to perform the duties of this position. This experience must be supported by your resume to be creditable and transcripts are required at the time of application. Specialized Experience for GS-06: You must have 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-05) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include but are not limited to: Preparing sterile fields for surgical procedures. Monitoring and maintaining aseptic techniques throughout surgical procedures. Handling medical instruments, supplies, and equipment during surgical procedures. Performing proper cleaning techniques. Handling and rotation of sterile supplies. Properly handling contaminated items applying knowledge of universal precautions. And implementing infection control policies and procedures. Specialized Experience for GS-07: You must have 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-06) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include but are not limited to: Assists the surgeon by performing such procedures such as preparing skin grafts, suctioning, holding retractors, applying skin staples, cutting sutures. Prepares prosthesis and surgical devices during procedures. Assists in training residents, medical students, nursing students, operating room technology students, and new operating room staff in the operation of equipment, sterile techniques, handling instruments, and/or procedures to include the scrub role in surgical procedures. Recognizes potentially hazardous situation and takes corrective action. Provides guidance and support to Nursing Assistants and other Health Technicians. OR, Education for GS-07: Must have successfully completed one full year of graduate education (18 semester hours or equivalent), or an internship in course matter with a major that included courses directly related to the work of the Health Technician position. OR, Combination of Specialized Experience and Education GS-07: Must have an equivalent combination of related graduate level education and specialized experience to meet the total experience requirement. Preferred Experience: Surgical Technician certification Demonstrated knowledge of AORN standards. A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Attention to Detail Customer Service Decision Making Flexibility Integrity/Honesty Interpersonal Skills Learning Organizational Awareness Reading Comprehension Self-Management Stress Tolerance Teamwork Technical Competence Technology Management 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. 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: 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/12841642. 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. 2. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. 3. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 12/04/2025 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 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 requirements listed in the job announcement. If initial application submission is updated and resubmitted with a new resume 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 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, 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 athttps://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit.

Application Deadline: 2025-12-04