Clarification from the agency

The first area of consideration is current, permanent employees of the West Palm Beach Veteran Affairs (Station 548) facility. Status Candidates {Current and former competitive service Federal employees, and people eligible under special hiring authorities. This includes all Merit Promotion sources: Status (Transfers, Reinstatements), VEOA, Permanent Canteen (VCS) employees, CTAP, ICTAP, Non-Competitive Eligible and certain Excepted Service Employees (i.e., Interchange Agreements).}

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The Patient Relations Assistant performs the required duties for the Guest Relations Program in the Patient Advocate office. The program provides Veterans, their families, and visitors with staff who can quickly respond to inquiries, identify problems, and help improve the experience of those visiting the campus. The services are designed to meet customers' immediate needs, including navigation, directions, and information assistance. Because navigating the campus is a key challenge for patients, staff will focus on providing a positive first impression. For those who do not know how to access medical center programs and/or services, staff will provide personal assistance.

Additional Duties Include But Not Limited To:

• Serves as the initial and final point of contact for guests entering and leaving the facility and is a key influence on patient/public perception.
• Performs these responsibilities using skills that will foster a culture of care at the VA facility.
• Assigned to the Patient Advocate Office, which reports to the Medical Center Director.
• Provides customer service and guest relations, showing understanding, friendliness, courtesy, tact, empathy, cooperation, concern, politeness, respect, and dignity to others; relates well to people from varied backgrounds and different situations.
• Receive, greet, and direct callers by phone and in person with precise, clear instructions.
• Provide information about the organization, its functions, and activities.
• Provide requested assistance to ease the customer experience.
• Direct Veterans, visitors, and callers to the appropriate staff member and/or department based on the request or by determining the nature of the need, and initiate service recovery when needed.
• Takes accurate messages and ensures their delivery to support a responsive culture to the customer.
• Provide personal wayfinding assistance and often take Veterans and visitors to locations when they have difficulty following instructions.
• Provide excellent customer service by phone and face-to-face.
• Ensure customers are greeted with respect and dignity.
• Inquiries vary widely, and the information provided requires explaining office functions, describing specific requirements, providing basic instructions, or a similar level of detail.
• Inquiries received sometimes require evaluation to determine the most useful appropriate information, resolve inconsistencies in available information, or provide alternatives.
• Addresses customers by answering questions concerning the location of outpatient clinics, inpatient area pharmacy, radiology and lab services, and other areas of the medical center.
• Ability to calmly and courteously assist individuals who are upset or irate and demonstrate the ability to manage challenging situations and diffuse potentially volatile situations with customers using proper resources (i.e., campus police).
• Meets the demands of a busy facility by providing simple, understandable instructions and/or directions.
• Communicate effectively with individuals from varied backgrounds, including those with mental and/or physical health problems.
• Use interpersonal communication skills that foster effective working relationships with Veterans, volunteers, staff, community groups, students, business associates, and the general public.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• 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)

• 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.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/19/2026.

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-05 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.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education s 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: answering phones and log calls; provides directions and assistance to patients and guests; provides friendly, excellent customer service; greeting patients and offering assistance for appointments; locates appointments in computer system; reports safety concerns. OR,
• Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed four (4) years above high school. 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 the first 60 semester hours is creditable toward meeting the specialized experience requirement.

• Veteran and Customer Focus: Understands the VA's mission and uses this knowledge to guide actions; provides outstanding customer service and represents the organization effectively.
• Customer Service: Works and communicates with clients and customers (e.g., any individuals who use or receive the services or products that your work unit provides, including individuals who work in your agency or in other agencies or organizations outside the Government) to satisfy their expectations. Committed to quality services.
• Interpersonal Skills: Shows understanding, friendliness, courtesy, tact, empathy, concern, and politeness to others; develops and maintains effective relationships with others; may include effectively dealing with individuals who are difficult, hostile, or distressed; relates well to people from varied backgrounds and different situations; is sensitive to cultural diversity, race, gender, disabilities, and other individual differences.
• Information Management: Identifies a need for and knows where or how to gather information, organizes and maintains information or information management systems.

How you will be evaluated

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

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE.

Narrative responses are not required at this time. If you are referred for consideration, you may be asked to submit additional job related information, which may include, but not limited to; responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities; completion of a work sample, and/or contact for an interview. Your resume and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating or consideration for employment.

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.

For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the 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.