This position is located within the Pathology & Laboratory Service of the VA Medical Center in Long Beach, CA.
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 10/27/2025. 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 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. This occupation series has a Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR), which is a basic requirement that you may qualify based on specialized experience or education: Specialized Experience: (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. Education: 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. In addition, to meeting the Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR) above, you also need to meet the minimum qualification below. You may qualify based 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: Successfully perform the duties of the position should include experience performing a variety of relatively standardized tests, examinations, and determinations. The procedures and techniques are well-established but involve many meticulous sequential steps to complete a test; Written procedures which give carefully detailed instructions on each step of the assigned test and examinations. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed 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. NOTE: Applicant must submit transcripts must be submitted at time of application, if using any part of education to qualify. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond first two years above high school with courses related to the occupation. NOTE: Applicant must submit transcripts must be submitted at time of application, if using any part of education to qualify. Preferred Experience: Preferred 2 year minimum experience in both an outpatient and inpatient lab setting. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Customer Service (Clerical/Technical) Diagnostic Medical Testing 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: The work requires manual dexterity and exceptional hand/eye coordination, some physical exertion, such as regular and recurring walking, bending, silting over a microscope and concentrate for long periods of time while reading specimens and to stand for several consecutive hours during the preparation of specimens: In many situations the duration of the activity {such as most of a workday) contributes to the arduous nature of the job. Position requires lifting of reagent containers weighing up to 35 pounds. 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/.
Major duties include, but are not limited to the following: Maintains the laboratory facilities and equipment and controls supplies. Sets up equipment for all phlebotomy procedures, making sure that all phlebotomy and ancillary equipment is functioning lo standard. Determines compliance with safety requirements, establishes inventory and equipment maintenance requirements and maintains appropriate inventories and maintenance schedules. Maintains laboratory stock and orders materials, as needed. Maintains laboratory in a clean and safe condition according to agency or accreditation requirements. Calibrates and maintains laboratory Instrumentation on timely intervals so as to minimize breakdown and delay of procedures. Maintains and controls laboratory records. incumbent is responsible for presenting the data to the supervisor in a logical and systematic fashion. Performs all clerical duties required of the position, including work lists, logs, and pending lists. The technician is responsible to manage turn-around times of pre-analytical testing and patient wait times. Provides orientation/training in performance of phlebotomy and lest procedures with the information and experience required to understand underlying disease processes, and inform the physician if unable to obtain specimen. May be called on to familiarize staff on the technical aspects of phlebotomy. Performs venipunctures in accordance with facility and laboratory policies and procedures. Incumbent must be experienced in phlebotomy procedures and knowledgeable in the various types and sizes of tubes used for collection, how much blood is required for each test, types of tests, what color of tube needs to be drawn and what anticoagulants are necessary to assure accurate test results. Assures all test tubes are labeled accurately when performing venipuncture using facility and laboratory designated patient identifiers. Verifies correct patient identification, performs proper specimen handling and labeling, accessions specimens, checks that lab test requests are consistent with physician orders, generates labels and sorts labeled specimens to be distributed to specific laboratory sections. Incumbent works closely with facility and laboratory computers systems, CPRS and Vista to accession specimens and retrieve results. Performs urine drug testing collections in accordance with facility and laboratory policies and procedures. The incumbent will be able to select, perform, evaluate and monitor the performance of test procedures both manually and on testing equipment. The incumbent will be able to recognize and react to indicators of malfunction and when appropriate locate and Implement corrective action. Using medical or surgical procedures the technician obtains samples of blood or other body fluids or substances. Ensures safe and non-traumatic processes are used with critical concern for the donor and for the quality of the specimen while using standard aseptic procedures and safeguards. Controls contaminated or potentially dangerous specimens In accordance with accreditation agency requirements. The incumbent prepares slides, smears, cultures, etc., of extremely delicate or otherwise volatile specimens, using critical concern for the quality of the specimen given the procedure to be used for test or examination, the incumbent performs microscopic evaluations of specimens when required. Work Schedule: Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm, rotating weekend & holidays. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Med Technician/PD13972A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required