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***THIS ANNOUNCEMENT HAS BEEN AMENDED TO EXTEND THE CLOSING DATE***

***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION***

Major duties and responsibilities will include:

• Handling patient meal service orders in person or by answering patient calls using phone system;
• Entering meal orders into a Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) Dietetics Software system;
• Interacting with Veterans, dietitians, nursing staff, and other medical center employees;
• Providing excellent customer service, acting professional and courteous at all times;
• Collaborating with Dietitians regarding Food/Drug Interactions, notifying clinical staff of potential issues with meal service and delivery;

• Receiving patient meal orders and preferences, meal and nourishment requests from nursing, clinical staff, and other members of the interdisciplinary team;
• Following local-facility policies and standard procedures for patient feeding, including but not limited to missed patient meals, late tray requests, patient meal ordering, and adherence to prescribed therapeutic diet;
• Taking whatever action necessary, within authority, to maximize patient satisfaction with meal service;
• Printing, preparing, and reviewing meal tickets according to local facility procedures;
• Completing select and non-select menus as required;
• Triaging calls from inpatient units or outpatient clinics and procedure areas relating to patient meal trays or nourishments at the lowest level and will refer issues that cannot be resolved to Food Service Supervisor or other as determined by local policy;
• Retrieving computerized information/printouts to assist with tray and/or nourishment assembly such as standing orders, nourishment labels, tabulated recipe lists, and other simple information to assist in meal delivery;
• Providing education and information on local facility therapeutic diets to patients, guests, and nursing staff;
• Completing quality monitors to ensure food items and menu selections for regular and therapeutic diets are prepared and served appropriately (i.e. accuracy, timeliness, appearance, and temperature, dysphagia food testing);
• Assisting patients in selection of the proper foods according to their individual diet;
• Performing clerical and administrative duties in support of the service;
• Performing related duties as required.

Work Schedule: 10:00am-6:30pm, includes holidays and weekends

Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized

Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved

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
• You may be required to serve a probationary period
• 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 dentification 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)

Qualifications

To qualify for these positions you must meet the below requirements.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: One year of specialized experience that that required application of the knowledge, methods, and techniques of the position. To be creditable, experience must have been equivalent the GS-04 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience includes: experience in food service in a hospital environment; knowledge of tray assembly area procedures; using dietetics software programs; familiarity with regular and modified diets; assisting with food selections; possessing good writing skills; communicating effectively, both verbally and in writing, in person and via telephone; maintaining a high level of customer service; following verbal and written instructions; and using computer equipment, phone system, and printers. This experience must be detailed in your resume to receive credit.

~OR~

EDUCATION: A bachelor's degree or 4 years of education above the high school level with major study or at least 24 semester hours in subjects directly related to the position (medical, health, etc.). This education must have been obtained in an accredited business or technical school, junior college, college or university for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. One year of full-time undergraduate study is defined as 30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours, or the equivalent in a college or university or at least 20 hours of classroom instruction per week for approximately 36 weeks in a business or technical school. Transcripts required.

~OR~

COMBINATION: An equivalent combination of specialized experience and post-high school education as described that demonstrates your ability to perform the duties of this position. For the GS-05, only education in excess of the first 60 semester hours may be used to combine with experience. Transcripts required, and experience must be detailed in your resume to receive credit.

You will be rated on the following Competencies as part of the assessment questionnaire for this position:

• Administration and Management
• Clerical
• Communication
• Customer Service (Clerical/Technical)
• Technical Competence

IMPORTANT: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. All experience listed on your resume must include the month and year start/end dates. 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.

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; religious; 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.

Physical Demands and Work Environment:
The work requires walking, standing, bending, lifting and carrying of light items, such as food trays, instruction materials, books, and manuals. NCC Associate functions require long periods of sitting and moving about in an office environment, including repetitive motion activities of the hands and fingers for extensive keyboard and computer mouse use, and office tasks such as answering and holding a telephone phone, and writing. The work may require walking indoors, outdoors or to and from other areas of the medical center. It may be necessary to lift and/or push equipment. The employee is subject to periods continuous standing, sitting, walking and frequent stooping, reaching, pushing, pulling, and bending. Frequently lifts or moves objects weighing up to 20 pounds and pushing loaded carts of trays and/or nourishments. Work is performed in a hospital and involves some exposure to contagious diseases. The employee must observe ergonomics pertaining to working in an office setting with electrical and stationary equipment. Employee must be alert to wet floors, gas, steam, electrical equipment, and general safety precautions including correct lifting techniques in all potential work areas. Discomfort may exist due to changes in temperature and/or humidity. Standard precautions may necessitate the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) in situations of potential exposure.

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/.

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. If your resume does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s).

Your responses to the assessment questionnaire will be reviewed along with the information provided in your resume and supporting documentation to determine if you are qualified for the position. If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and or experience, your rating may be lowered and/or you may lose consideration for this position. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.

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.

Candidates who apply under All U.S. Citizens announcements will be rated and ranked using Category Rating procedures. Qualified candidates will be assigned to a quality category. The categories are defined as follows:

• Best qualified - applicants possessing experience that substantially exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are highly proficient in all requirements of the job and can perform effectively in the position;
• Highly qualified - applicants possessing experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the requirements of the job;
• Well qualified - applicants possessing experience that meets the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in some, but not all, of the requirements of the job; and
• Qualified - applicants possessing experience and/or education that meets the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors.

Application of Veterans' Preference: Category rating and selection procedures place those with veteran's preference above non-preference eligibles within each category. Preference eligible applicants that meet the eligibility and qualification requirements and who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10 percent are listed in the highest quality category (except when the position being filled is scientific or professional at the GS-09 grade level or higher).

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.