This Supervisory Medical Supply Technician (Sterile Processing) position is in Nursing service at the VA Boston Healthcare System, located at the West Roxbury, MA campus but may be required to travel to other campuses. This position is a full-time at 40 per week, Night shift. To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 02/02/2023 BASIC REQUIREMENTS: Citizenship: Citizen of the United States. English Language Proficiency: Medical Support Technicians must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3j. 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. Certification: None. 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: In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs: 1. Ability to instruct staff on the correct procedures and protocols for completing assignments. 2. Skill in communicating with staff to ensure compliance with written directives, rules and regulations. 3. Skill in interpersonal relationships in dealing with employees, team leaders, and managers. 4. Knowledge of sterility principles in order to instruct staff on decontamination procedures. 5. Ability to lead individuals, manage priorities, and schedule work assignments. Candidate must also 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. 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. The incumbent will be responsible for promoting a culture of safety and will fully cooperate in efforts to improve patient safety and eradicate potential events including the reporting of events resulting in actual or potential injury to a patient. Incumbent must demonstrate knowledge of the reporting procedures involving safety issues relating to patients. NOTIFICATIONS: This position is in the Excepted Service. Veterans' preference does not apply for other current permanent Federal agency employees. Due to a critical staffing shortage, 38 U.S.C. § 7412 waives the requirement to apply Veterans' preference for this job announcement. This position is covered by a special rate. Current and former Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50, (Notice of Personnel Action). The SF-50 must identify the position title, series, grade, step, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). In some cases, more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held. The incumbent may be required to travel to other VA Boston campuses and assist with Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) support during periods of required coverage. This is not a Bargaining Unit position. This position is covered by locality-based comparability pay. Narrative responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) will be required from the selectee in order to proceed with the appointment. Incomplete applications will not be considered. ["This position is located administratively in Sterile Processing Service within Nursing Service. The incumbent's duties and responsibilities are of necessity, exercised throughout all clinical and patient care areas of the Medical and Surgical hospital with a specialty Spinal Cord Care Unit. This is a teaching hospital affiliated with Harvard University and Boston Medical Center which has extensive research and professional teaching programs and is engaged in sharing agreements with several area hospitals. The Sterile Processing Service is organized into three distinct and physically separated units: Decontamination, Sterile Preparation, and Equipment. The decontamination unit is solely responsible for the collection and receipt of used soiled supplies, instruments or equipment. Decontamination processing requires the knowledge to determine what specific means are utilized to accomplish cleaning, disinfecting, or pre-sterilization of complex diagnostic equipment and medical apparatus. Sterile preparation accomplishes the assembly, packaging and terminal sterilization of all instrumentation trays, sets and packs for use throughout the medical center. The equipment function within sterile processing is responsible for cleaning and processing of reusable medical equipment to include but not limited to IV poles, crash carts, isolation carts, feeding pumps and IV pumps. Duties include: 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. Operationalizes the quality assurance program in daily practice in order to ensure that the right instrument, in the right condition, the right place, at the right time. In conjunction with the Educator, the Supervisor will be responsible for operational deployment of a comprehensive training program for all SPS staff. Communicates daily with customers in order to ensure that results is uninterrupted and consistently accurate flow of necessary RME supplies for procedures. Plans work to be accomplished by subordinates, sets and adjusts short term priorities; prepares schedules for completion of work. Plans and assigns work on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis and adjusts assignments during a work day to alleviate halt points in reprocessing activities. Assigns work to subordinates based on priorities, selective consideration of the difficulty and requirements of assignments, staff designation as competent to complete and task, and the capability of the employee. Participates in Interview Panels and makes recommendations regarding hiring decisions. Provides recommendations regarding promotion and advancement of the Medical Supply Technicians on respective shifts. Resolves complaints from employees, referring group grievances and more serious unresolved complaints to a higher-level supervisor or manager. Identifies developmental and training needs of employees, providing for and arranging for needed development and training. Finds ways to improve production or increase the quality of work directed, and assists in development of performance standards. Establishes guidelines and performance expectations for staff, which are clearly communicated through the formal employee performance management system. Observes workers' performance, demonstrates and conducts work performance critiques. Provides informal feedback and evaluates employee performance. Resolves informal complaints and grievances. Develops work improvement plans, recommending personnel actions as necessary. Provides advice and counsel to workers related to technical work and administrative matters. Provides training to subordinates to fully comply with provisions of safety regulations. Makes operational decisions based upon findings, observations or problems presented by subordinate technicians and direct observation. Advises the Assistant Chief and Chief, SPS of problems in the organization's activities, and provides input to the Assistant Chief that may lead to disciplinary actions, such as counseling and formal disciplinary action, within the framework of progressive discipline; recommendation may include termination, especially separation during the probationary period. Oversees the work of employees under his/her supervision, orients new employees to their duties, validates competencies of employees, identifies equipment requirements, and recommends methods to improve the quality and productivity of the service. Work Schedule: Monday- Friday, Night Shift, 11:00pm- 7:30am, Full time. Additional details to be discussed upon selection. Travel: This position is at the West Roxbury campus but may be required to travel to other campuses. Virtual/ Telework: Not Available. Functional Statement #: F02670 Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required"]

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