Clarification from the agency

This announcement is open to current, permanent Department of Veterans Affairs. NOTE: The 2-page Resume requirement does not apply to this position. For more information, refer to Required Documents below.

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The primary responsibility is for patient care, supporting diagnostic and treatment procedures, patient charting and patient education, which do not require a full professional audiology education or knowledge and skills represented by audiology licensure. Support functions include both direct patient care and administrative duties. In addition, the incumbent must be able to mentor and train new health technicians (Audiology).

Direct patient care duties may include. but not limited to the following:

• Greeting and escorting patients.
• Triaging patients to an audiologist based on complexity of the procedures being completed.
• Patient set up for procedures (e.g., vestibular, neurodiagnostic procedures).
• Patient instruction and counseling on hearing loss or hearing aids either on an individual basis or in a group setting.
• Conducting hearing pass/fail screenings without interpretation.
• Non-diagnostic otoscopy.
• Cerumen management.
• Taking earmold impressions.
• Hearing aid troubleshooting and repair.
• Providing basic hearing aid information for patients and caregivers.
• Performing listening checks on hearing aids.
• Electroacoustic analysis of devices.
• Pairing hearing aids and accessories via Bluetooth technology.
• Programming previously stored settings into hearing aids.
• Activating remote controls.

The incumbent at this level is required to have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to develop and implement the technician role for a program in a focused area of audiology. The focused area will include at least one of the following: the cerumen management program, hearing aid program, audiologic rehabilitation program or hearing conservation program.

Ensuring timely and accurate documentation of all interactions in the medical records and that all encounters are correctly documented using electronic medical record and computerized tracking and ordering functions via ROES.

Administrative duties include, but may not be limited to the following:

• Managing office supplies.
• Tracking loaner stock hearing aid inventory.
• Electronic ordering, verifying orders upon arrival to ensure components are present and working correctly.
• Scheduling appointments.
• Packaging and mailing hearing aids and accessories.
• Processing ROES transactions (e.g. certifying and issuing hearing aids, entering orders and repairs).
• Responding to routine inquiries from patients, including determining nature of hearing aid inquiry and responding to administrative questions.
• Assisting patients, visitors, and others requesting information.
• Management of infection control, patient safety, and clinical supplies for the audiology clinic.
• Maintenance of clean, disinfected instrumentation, equipment, and work surfaces in the audiology clinic.
• Reprocessing reusable medical equipment based on facility policy according to Medical Center infection control procedures and reusable medical equipment policies.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 7:30am-4:00pm.
Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized.
Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized.
Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases.
Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year).
Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.
Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66.
Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA.
Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement).
Telework: Available on an Ad-Hoc basis only.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 07414A.
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized.
PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not Authorized.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements:

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• English Language Proficiency: Health Technician (Audiology) HTA candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. § 7403 (f).
• Experience and Education:
  • (1) Experience. Six months of experience comparable to the next lower level which demonstrates the knowledge, skills and abilities related to the duties of the position to be filled. OR
  • (2) Education. Successful completion of two academic years above high school leading to an associate degree or a bachelor's degree with at least 12 semester hours in courses related to the position. OR
  • (3) Experience/Education Combination. Equivalent combinations of experience and education are qualifying. An example of a combination of experience/education is three months of experience comparable to the next lower level which demonstrates the knowledge, skills and abilities related to the duties of the position to be filled and one year above high school with a minimum of 6 semester hours related to the health care industry.
• Foreign Education: To be creditable, education completed outside the U.S. must have been submitted to a private organization that specializes in the interpretation of foreign educational credentials and such education must have been deemed at least equivalent to that gained in conventional U.S. programs.

Creditable Experience.
To be creditable, the experience must have required the use of knowledge, skills and abilities associated with current Health Technician (Audiology) HTA practice. Experience satisfying this requirement may be paid or non-paid employment as a health technician in the health care field.

Quality of Experience.
Qualifying experience must be at a level comparable to Health Technician (Audiology) HTA experience at the next lower grade level of the position being filled. For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher- level duties must consist of significant scope, administrative independence, complexity and range of variety as described in this standard at the specified grade level and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time.

Part-Time Experience.
Part-time experience is creditable according to its relationship to a full-time workweek. For example, an individual employed 20 hours per week, or on a half time basis, would receive one full-time work week of credit for each two weeks of service.

May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).

Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates.

Health Technician (Audiology) HTA, GS-07

• Experience: Completion of one year of progressive experience and/or experience equivalent to the next lower grade level directly related to the position being filled.
  • Examples of specialized experience include, but are not limited to: works independently under the direction of a licensed audiologist. Assignments associated with this position include, but are not limited to: completing visual and auditory checks of hearing aids and hearing assistive technology; repairing or returning hearing aids to the factory; restoring hearing aid or hearing assistive technology settings after repair or replacement; and ordering, registering, certifying, issuing and tracking prosthetic devices. The health technician assists in setting up and delivering face to face and telehealth visits by preparing the equipment for patient evaluation and other audiology procedures.

AND

• Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs). In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs:
  • (a) Ability to mentor and train new HTAs.
  • (b) Ability to prepare patients for advanced testing procedures performed by the audiologist, such as evoked potentials.
  • (c) Ability to develop and implement the technician role for a program in a focused area of audiology.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-07 which is the grade an applicant may be selected for.

Physical Requirements: Physical aspects associated with work required of this assignment are typical for the occupation, see Duties section for essential job duties of the position. May require standing, lifting, carrying, sitting, stooping, bending, puling, and pushing. May be required to wear personal protective equipment and undergo annual TB screening or testing as conditions of employment.

Work Environment: Work is performed in an office/clinic setting with minimal risks that requires normal safety precautions; the area is adequately lighted, heated, and ventilated. However, the work environment requires someone with the ability to handle several tasks at once in sometimes stressful situations.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Areas of Consideration:
Eligible applications will be reviewed and referred in the following order:
1. Current, permanent VA employees of the New Jersey VA Healthcare System.
2. Current, permanent VA employees.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Your application, resume, C.V., and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect consideration for employment.

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.

The Department of Veterans Affairs performs pre-employment reference checks as an assessment method used in the hiring process to verify information provided by a candidate (e.g., on resume or during interview or hiring process); gain additional knowledge regarding a candidate's abilities; and assist a hiring manager with making a final selection for a position.

It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.