This position is located at the Aleda E. Lutz VA Medical Center Operating Room Suite. This position is within the Surgery Service. The incumbent functions at an advanced level with specific and specialized training and skills required in the Surgery work setting. The Surgical Technician functions independently to provide a wide range of support to the professional nurse and physician in the Operating Room. To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 08/19/2022. 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-7 position you must have served 52 weeks with specialized experience at the GS-6 level. Specialized experience includes preparing the outpatient surgical room for a variety of simple to major surgical procedures; stocking, replenishing, and preparing supplies and equipment for use; performing scrub and other support services for simple and major cases; handling instruments, supplies and equipment during surgical procedures; and assisting with receiving surgical patients into the OR and ensuring the safety of patients. 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. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Critical ThinkingOrganizational StewardshipTechnical 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: Duties regularly require providing manual assistance in lifting and positioning patients, most of which are stages of unconsciousness. 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. Incumbent 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/. ["SCRUB DUTIES\n1. Functions as a primary scrub person responsible for handling instruments, supplies, and equipment during all surgical procedures such as: general, urology, hand & plastic, ear, nose, and throat, dermatology, general medicine cases, podiatry, and vascular cases.\n2. Set's up Equipment and Surgical Instrumentation: Determines Technical Factors\n3. Sets up sterile field with all required items for each procedure, to include, but not be limited to ultrasound machine, monitor towers for flex cystoscopes, urodynamic machine, and back tables for minor procedures.\n4. Test functionality of equipment such as fiber optic equipment, lasers, urologic equipment, endoscopic equipment, power equipment and recording devices.\n5. Plans and discusses each procedure with surgical professionals and assures that all supplies and equipment are both available and in working order prior to the surgical procedure. Adjusts equipment controls to clarify readings and prepare for operation.\n6. Performs nontechnical equipment maintenance and cleaning, and pre-treatment for all reusable medical equipment and instrumentation.\n7. Coordinate's repair of potentially hazardous equipment. (frayed cords, malfunctioning controls, etc.) with appropriate staff.\n8. Operates equipment and assists surgical team in performance of procedures, able to trouble shoot and adjust, prior to notification of bio-medical engineering.\n9. Positions Patients for Procedures Provides direct patient care by performing the following:\n10. Assists nursing staff in room preparation and patient transfer to OR Table as needed\n11. Applies positioning aids to table and places patient extremities into the apparatus, if needed\n12. Ensures proper positioning and patient safety measures are maintained and in-place\n13. Completes peri-operative patient hair removal\n14. Monitor's patient condition. Recognizes deviation in patient condition and takes appropriate action.\n15. Transport's procedure items to operating room and prepositions them.\n16. Opens sterile items and arranges surgical area and equipment for procedure performance.\n17. Prepares, organizes, and maintains highly complex sterile surgical set-ups. In conjunction with the circulating nurse, performs sponge and instrument counts to verify accuracy. He/she is responsible for the accountability of all surgical instruments and equipment during the surgical procedure.\n18. Observes and responds promptly to each stage of surgical procedure and anticipates the needs of the surgeon by maintaining a high level of concentration for extended periods of time.\n19. Utilizes universal precautions and follows all infection control policies and procedures when handling specimens, supplies, and equipment.\n20. Assists the surgeon by performing such procedures as preparing skin grafts, suctioning, holding retractors, applying skin staples, cutting sutures and preparing prosthesis and surgical devices during procedures.\n21. In conjunction with the circulating nurse, performs sponge and instrument counts to verify accuracy. Responsible for the accountability of all surgical instruments and equipment during the surgical procedure.\n22. Checks, labels' and processes all labs, and specimens per guidelines\n23. Participates in training new Operating Room (OR) staff in the operation of equipment, sterile technique, handling of instruments, and OR procedures to include the scrub role in surgical procedures.\n24. Participates with operating room turnover and provides support to facilitate procedure performance. Maintains Equipment and Work Areas\n1. Performs non-technical maintenance of equipment to prevent malfunctions.\n2. Maintains OR area, performs monthly cleaning to storage locations as per policy.\n3. Assesses equipment needs and maintains adequate stock of supplies and materials.\n4. Assists in all aspects of supply management, including but not limited to ordering of supplies and putting them away.\n5. Recognizes potentially hazardous situations (e.g., frayed cords, water on floor) and takes corrective action.\n6. Processes instruments and supplies after surgery\n7. Cooperates fully with equipment inventory, including meeting established timelines\n8. Cooperates fully in equipment trials and procurement processes. Provides Guidance\nProvides guidance and support to Nursing Assistants, health technicians, and technical students of an approved surgical technology program, able to demonstrate for the resident team the functionality of the more complex instrumentation, and/or any other novice scrub support staff. Other duties as assigned Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8am-4:30pm\nPosition Description/PD#: Surgical Technician/PD91613-A\nRelocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized\nPermanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized\nFinancial Disclosure Report: Not required"]