ESCORT

The Escort position serves the Office of the Associate Director Patient Care Services (ADPCS)at VISN 10 Medical Center, Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, Chillicothe, OH. The Escort serves as an assistant and is responsible for supporting the daily needs of Veterans in the Community Living Center, Extended Care programs, or other long-term health care setting.

Qualifications:

PHYSICAL EFFORT:
Ability to be on feet for most of the day. Will be required to stand and walk up to ten (10) hours a day throughout the facility. Will be required to climb and descend stairs to reach certain destinations. Must have no lifting restrictions. Will be required to push and pull wheelchairs and other equipment weighing up to four hundred (400lbs) pounds. Will be required to push and pull beds and equipment, with assistance, weighing up to one thousand (1000lbs) pounds. Will be required to transport supplies weighing up to forty-five (45lbs) pounds. Will be required to transport patient belongings and miscellaneous equipment weighing up to forty-five (45lbs) pounds. Will be required to transport patients and items up and down an incline of one (1) inch per foot. Will be required to have bilateral motor coordination to handle patients and equipment. Will be required to assist with physical management of disruptive behavior in patients.
AND
WORK CONDITIONS:
Work will be performed on the grounds of the VA Medical Center, primarily within the facility. Main duties include lifting and positioning patients, assisting with disruptive behavior patients in a clinical setting, transporting, and moving patients, and cleaning reusable medical equipment. Pushing and pulling hospital equipment, walking distances, taking stairs, and answering cell phone will be daily occurrences. Retrieving equipment from around the hospital and grounds and delivering equipment to various areas is expected. Assisting clinical staff with obtaining equipment and other patient support items will be needed. Work is in a Medical Center setting and involves possible exposure to contagious disease which will require appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE)
as identified.

Applicants will be rated in accordance with the OPM Federal Wage System Qualifications. For this position, the job element method is used to match what you, the applicant, can do against what the work calls for. Your knowledge, skills and abilities will be compared to the knowledge, skills and abilities (called job elements) needed for success. Your qualifications will first be evaluated against the prescribed screen out element (WG-2 and higher only; screen-outs are not applicable to WG-1). Applicants who appear to meet the screen out element are considered for further rating; those who do not are rated ineligible and are eliminated from consideration. The potential eligibles are rated against the remainder of the job elements. While a specific length of training and experience is not required, your responses to the questionnaire must be supported by detailed descriptions of your experience on your resume.

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

• Conscientiousness
• Customer Service (Clerical/Technical)
• Oral Communication
• Physical Strength and Agility
• Without more than normal supervision

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.

Responsibilities:

NOTE: This is a TEMPORARY appointment (not-to-exceed one hundred and eighty (180) days). This appointment may be renewed for additional service in accordance with Agency needs for one (1) additional year. Temporary positions offer health insurance (if the employee is expected to work at least one hundred and thirty (130) hours per month for at least ninety (90) days but do not offer life insurance or retirement benefits and may be terminated at any time before the expiration date. The appointment to a Temporary position does not confer eligibility for promotion or reassignment to other positions or the ability to be non-competitively converted to permanent employment.

Duties include but are not limited to:

• Receives requests and complies with excellent customer service and phone etiquette
• Responds to requests to procure supplies, equipment, etc. from and for various areas of the facility, as requested by supervisor.
• Assists with lifting & moving patients between rooms or wards using Safe Patient Handling equipment.
• Assists long term health care setting related therapeutic recreation by transporting Veterans and assisting with maintaining safety of Veterans during program.
• Assists with Rehabilitation activities through patient transport and equipment assembly and delivery.
• Consults with the supervisor to make changes or coordinate work as needed.
• Assures compliance with hand-off communication procedures, checking patient's identification and escort destination prior to transporting to ensure proper patient identification & location.
• Provides and transports equipment as available.
• Disinfects / wipes down equipment with approved cleaning product prior to and after each patient transport. Rounds regularly on inpatient wards to ensure Reusable Equipment is clean and disinfected for staff use.
• Maintains order and accessibility of reusable medical equipment in the long-term health care setting storage area.
• Requests or provides assistance from the nursing team to transfer patients to or from transport equipment, when needed using Safe Patient Handling resources.
• Safeguards documents relating to the patient.

*Note: The Escort position is a temporary not to exceed one hundred and eighty (180) days position, with the expectation that incumbent attend and complete a certified nursing assistant training program (VA funded) after scheduled tour of duty.*

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday; 8:00am - 4:30pm
Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized