The Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center is currently recruiting for two (2) Emergency Department (ED) Intermediate Care Technician (ICT) that will serve as advanced technicians for the ED. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Intermediate Care Technician (ICT) Program is designed to hire transitioning service, National Guard, Reserve, and Veteran corpsmen, combat medics and medical technicians into positions at VA Medical Centers as an integral part of the medical team. To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. EXPERIENCE: A specific length of training and experience is not required, but you must show evidence of training or experience of sufficient scope and quality of your ability to do the work of this position. Evidence which demonstrates you possess the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform the duties of this position must be supported by detailed descriptions of such on your resume. Applicants will be rated in accordance with the OPM Qualifications Standards. SCREEN-OUT ELEMENT: Your qualifications will first be evaluated against the prescribed screen out element, which usually appears as question 1 in the on-line questionnaire. Those applicants who appear to possess at least the minimal acceptable qualification requirement are considered for further rating; those who do not are rated ineligible and are eliminated. The potential eligibles are then rated against the remainder of the Job Elements: Decision Making Emergency Care Patient Care 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. ["The Intermediate Care Technician is an occupational specialty, especially for former military combat medics, medical technicians, and corpsmen. Candidates generally qualify based on U.S. Armed Forces experience or equivalent education. As an ICT, you will operate within clearly defined clinical competencies. You may work in the Emergency Department as a Supporting Community, Outpatient, Urgent Care and Telehealth Services (SCOUTS) employee. The SCOUTS initiative is a post emergency department complementary service utilizing Intermediate Care Technicians (ICTs) to support care transitions for older Veterans by ensuring unmet care needs, geriatric syndromes, 4Ms of Age-Friendly Health System, and digital divide concerns are addressed in an acute time frame. ICTs serve as Telepresenters in the Veterans home as a provider performs a telehealth visit. Duties for this position include, however, not limited to the following: Assisting in behavioral/psychiatric situations in an outpatient setting. This can include assisting licensed personnel with crisis intervention, management of aggressive or suicidal psychiatric patients, by providing one-to-one observations and applying prevention and management of disruptive behavior techniques (PMDB). Assists licensed staff with the delivery of care to patients with complex, specialized, and potentially life-threatening situations. You will assist licensed staff with setting up equipment and providing treatment during in person or virtual visits. Initiates cardiopulmonary resuscitation (BLS), use of automatic external defibrillator, and assists with airway management using bag-valve-mask (BVM), oral airway or nasal airway. Operating specialized medical equipment to obtain diagnostic and therapeutic outcomes. Observes patient status and keeps licensed clinical staff informed of any change in condition. You will assist clinical providers with emergency medical care, provides emergency response as part of the Rapid-Response-Team (RRT), and assists with training of other hospital clinical staff. Incumbent recognizes lethal rhythms/arrhythmias (i.e. ventricular fibrillation and asystole) and immediately notifies appropriate staff. Cardiovascular monitoring: provides support, relief, and coverage as needed to central station telemetry, and performs measurements of PR, QRS, QT, RR, and QTC intervals, interprets rhythm, and prints rhythm strip. Performing Diagnostic Tests. Examples: Vital Signs, 12-lead electrocardiogram (EKG) Point-of-care (POC).such as Abbott hand-held blood analyzer (I-Stat), glucometer. Equipment and surgical instrumentation set up (i.e. chest tube insertion, filling water chambers, handling instruments in a sterile field, hooking up to suction when ordered). Performs observation-based screening and collection of patient information in collaboration with the LIP and/or RN. Oxygen therapy and splinting. Wound care (i.e. bandaging, application of dressings and wound measurements). Operates specialized medical equipment and assists with patient exams and screenings. Specimen Collection (i.e. collecting and labelling venous blood samples and mucous specimens). Geriatric-specific care (i.e. screening for depression, elder abuse, consults, phone follow-up ad assisting with ambulation, fall prevention). Patient Transport with or without cardiac monitor. Prepares and administers medications through various methods, examples include, intramuscular injections, subcutaneous injections, intradermal injections, oral, aerosolized including oxygen, topical, intraocular (eye drops), Otic (ear drops), intranasal, rectal (suppositories), local anesthetics, intraurethral, and intravenous Work Schedule: 6- twelve hour tours (8am-8pm), with 1- eight hour tour 8am-1630pm or 12pm-8pm biweekly or 4 -ten hour tours (8am-1800pm) weekly for a total of 8- ten hour tours (800am-1800pm) biweekly. Rotating Weekends and Holidays are required. Position Description Title/PD#: Intermediate Care Technician/PDS0031A Preferred experience: Experience in the military as a Hospital Corpsman, Combat Medic, Medical Technician is highly desired. Experience as as Paramedics, EMTs and LPN. Physical Requirements: The work requires a level of physical fitness that allows for standing for extended periods, heavy lifting to position patients, and manual dexterity to perform clinical procedures. The work will require recurrent bending, lifting, stooping, standing, squatting, stretching, sitting and walking."]
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest integrated health care system in the United States, providing care at 1,321 health care facilities, including 172 VA Medical Centers and 1,138 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity (VHA outpatient clinics) to over 9 million Veterans enrolled in the VA health care program. VHA Medical Centers provide a wide range of services including traditional hospital-based services such as surgery, critical care, mental health, orthopedics, pharmacy, radiology and physical therapy. In addition, most of our medical centers offer additional medical and surgical specialty services including audiology & speech pathology, dermatology, dental, geriatrics, neurology, oncology, podiatry, prosthetics, urology, and vision care. Some medical centers also offer advanced services such as organ transplants and plastic surgery.
