SUP MED SUPPLY TECH (STERILE PROCESSING)

Description:

This position serves as a Supervisory Medical Supply Technician (SP) in the Sterile Processing Service (SPS) at the Buffalo VAMC. The employee will be responsible for the direct supervision of day-to-day operations in SPS, regardless of tour of duty, including Reusable Medical Equipment (RME) reprocessing for all clinical services.

Requirements:

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

Basic Requirements :

• Citizenship. Citizen of the United States. (Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Chapter 3, Section A, paragraph 3g.)
• Experience and/or Education
  • (1) Experience. Six months of experience that demonstrates the applicant's ability to perform the work or provides an understanding of the work; or
  • (2) Education. One year above high school that included at least 6 semester hours in health care related courses such as sterile processing, nursing assistant, hospital corpsman, and operating room and surgical technician courses or other courses related to the position; or
  • (3) Experience/Education Combination. Equivalent combination of experience and education are qualifying for entry level for which both education and experience are acceptable.
• English Language Proficiency. MSTs must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with Veterans Affairs Handbook 5005.

May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).

Grade Determinations : In addition to the basic requirements, the following criteria must be used when determining the appropriate grade assignment of candidates.

GS-08 Supervisory Medical Supply Technician (Sterile Processing)
Experience. One year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level.

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) . In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs:

1. Ability to manage, interact and deal with individuals of varying backgrounds.
2. Ability to direct staff and manage tasks to be completed.
3. Ability to oversee and supervise all aspects of decontamination, preparation, sterilization, monitoring, and distribution of RME.
4. Ability to perform a full range of supervisory duties, including assigning, planning and evaluating work, recommending awards, approving leave, identifying training needs, and resolving staff issues.

Preferred Experience: One year of sterile processing experience. National SPS certification is preferred but not required. Computer literacy is preferred in MS Outlook, MS Word and MS Excel.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/ .

The GS-8 is above the full performance level for this vacancy. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is the GS-08 .

Physical Requirements: This work is performed in various settings: decontamination, preparation, clean sterile supply (preparation) and in other services and departments throughout the medical facility/campus. The incumbent may be required to work in areas that are hot, cold, drafty and poorly lighted. The employee is subject to the possibility of falls, scrapes, cuts, bruises, and other injuries from material handling equipment. The work requires standing and walking during the entire workday and frequent bending and lifting of packages (occasionally weighing as much as 50 pounds). The work requires dexterity and visual acuity for manipulating, disassembly and assembly of instrumentation.

On a regular and recurring basis, the employee alternates between a contaminated environment and a carefully controlled clean environment. The employee wears special clothing, hair covers, personal protective equipment and shoe covers that can be uncomfortably warm. The employee uses insulated gloves to remove carts from sterilizers. The employee is subject to burns from accidentally touching hot items. The hazards of working around minute quantities of sterilizing gasses are unknown. The employee often works around body fluids, mucous, excretions and bits of tissue, some of which may be foul smelling. Strong, unpleasant odors are encountered while decontaminating bloody or grossly contaminated instrumentation or reusable medical equipment. The work area is noisy due to the clatter of metal instruments, rumbling of carts and operation of pre-sterilizing equipment.