Medical Technician

Description:

The Medical Technician in this position works in the following major sections of the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service (P&LMS), STAT, and collecting routine test on blood, urine, and other fluids covering areas of Chemistry, Immunology, Urinalysis, Hematology, Coagulator, and Toxicology. The P&LMS provides services to veterans and their providers.

Requirements:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/31/2025.

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-05 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-04. 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.

Individual Occupational Requirements

Specialized Experience

For positions at GS-4 and above: (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.

OR

Education and Training
For GS-5: 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 appropriate to the position to be filled.


You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

• Specialized Experience: You must have one 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:
  • Experience in medical laboratory with support work such as loading laboratory samples (chemical, hematologic and urinalysis) and preparing shipping manifests/parcels.
  • Experience working 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.
  • Experience in a medical laboratory with support in the research and adherence to clinical laboratory sample collection, handling, and storage for stability and testing.
  • Prior phlebotomy experience.

OR

• Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have 4-year course of study above high school leading to a bachelor's degree with courses related to the occupation, if required (transcripts required).

OR,

• Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education. Combination of specialized experience as described above, and education as described above which totals in excess of 60 semester hours of a course of study leading to a bachelor's degree (transcripts required).Determine your total qualifying experience as a percentage of the year of specialized experience required at the GS-5 level. Then determine your education as a percentage of the education that meets the requirements for GS-5. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Customer Service (Clerical/Technical)
• Specimen Collection
• Technical Competence

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 requires regular and recurrent standing, bending, lifting of some heavy containers, trips to wards for specimen collection, handling of uncooperative patients occasionally, and walking a lot between several sections of the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service. May require reaching and bending to obtain supplies and operation of instruments. Occasionally lifts 20-40 pound containers of liquid reagent.

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/ .