Surgical Technician

Description:

The Surgical Technician position is located in the Lee County VA Healthcare Center and is a member of the surgical team and provides assistance to the surgeon and other team members during surgical procedures.

Requirements:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05/29/2025.

Preferred Experience: Candidate will have 1-2 years Operating Room or ambulatory surgery experience.

Individual Occupational Requirements: Positions in this series range widely in type and include support duties to medical or health personnel such as audiologists, speech pathologists, medical officers, and optometrists. Therefore, technician experience is experience that required application of the knowledge, methods, and techniques of the position to be filled.

***In addition to the IOR you may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

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 - 07 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS - 06. 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.

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-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: preparing and organizing complex sterile surgical setups, observing and responding to each stage of the surgical procedure and anticipating the needs of the surgeon, assisting team members with patient care, performing instrument counts, preparing prosthesis and surgical devices during procedures, and assisting the surgeon by performing procedures such as suctioning and cutting sutures.

OR,

• Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have: Graduate education or an internship meets the specialized experience required above GS-7 only in those instances where it is directly related to the work of the position. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have One (1) full year of graduate education related to the field to meet the requirements for the GS-7 level. One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. 18 semester hours should be considered as satisfying the 1 year of full-time study requirement.

NOTE: A transcript (unofficial or official) must be submitted if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Applications submitted without this information will not be considered..

OR,

• Combination of Experience & Education: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an appropriate combination of specialized experience and education. NOTE: Transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation.

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

• Infection Control
• Safety Engineering
• Teaches Others
• Teamwork
• 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: There are extensive periods of regular and recurring standing, walking, bending, lifting, pushing, reaching, and prolonged stretching to provide easy accessibility of instruments and supplies for the surgeon. Must be dexterous in passing instruments to surgeons without compromising principles of aseptic technique and in a manner requiring little or no effort from the surgeon.

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/ .