Summary These positions are located within the Fleet Medicine Directorate, Public Health Department in the Preventive Medicine Division, located at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (FHCC), North Chicago, Illinois. Responsibilities ***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** This position involves a multi-grade career ladder. The major duties listed below represent the full performance level of GS-9. At the GS-8 grade level, the employee performs assignments of a more limited scope and with less independence. You will progressively acquire the background necessary to perform at the full performance level of GS-9. Promotion is at the discretion of the supervisor and is contingent upon satisfactory performance, availability of higher-level work, and availability of funds. Major Duties: Conducts regular drinking water quality inspections. Conducts bacteriological testing for water and ice sources. Provides food sanitation training to military and civilian personnel. Implement the environmental and communicable disease prevention program. Maintains the latent tuberculosis treatment database, reporting all discrepancies to the Preventive Medicine Officer (PMO). Performs entry and quality assurance of Military Readiness Reporting System (MRRS) data entries for all divisions going through Recruit Training Command. Assists the Rabies Control Program. Coordinates the animal bite report completion with Emergency Medical Services, Army Veterinary Command, and Environmental Health. Analyze and evaluate collected data, noting trends and anomalies - Completes daily entries of relevant data in the following electronic databases: o Navy Disease Reporting System o Tuberculosis Surveillance Database o Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Database o Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Database o Blood Donors and Viral Markers Database o Communicable Disease Summary Database for Infection Control o Health Care Worker Surveillance (Immunizations and TST) o Medical Readiness Reporting System (MRRS) o Defense Occupational Environmental Health Readiness System (DOEHRS) o ESSENCE o Illinois Disease Surveillance System o Local Databases, as required. - Performs routine quality assurance checks of the databases, to ensure complete data entry by other staff members, and appropriate follow-up entries. - Performs database security practices to ensure no loss of data. Protects database information compliance with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Act precautions. - Debugs the databases as required to maintain day-to-day functionality. Communicates network problems to the appropriate automated systems manager. - Generates tables, charts, and trend reports from the databases. Trains junior personnel on all aspects of database - Performs program oversight actions, self-assessments, and quality management metrics. Documents and implements performance improvement actions. - Generates routine correspondence, inspection reports, memorandums, and others as required. DESIGNATED DRUG-TESTING POSITON: 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. Applicants will not be appointed to the position if a verified positive drug test results is received. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday - 7:00AM - 3:00PM Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Requirements 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 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 Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP) Participation in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program is a requirement for all Veterans Health Administration Health Care Personnel (HCP) - See "Additional Information" below for details. Qualifications MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: GS-08: Possess one year of specialized experience that required application of the knowledge, methods, and techniques of this position. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the GS-07 grade level. Specialized experience involves Experience that involved identifying, preventing, or eliminating health hazards in one or more areas of environmental sanitation. Such experience must have provided a practical knowledge of environmental health hazards, survey techniques, and control and eradication methods, and may have been gained in work such as biological technician, medical technician, pest control technician, quality control positions with dairy or food service industries, or environmental health worker. Journey level experience in a trade or craft may be credited as specialized experience when the work was closely associated with and provided the required knowledge of environmental health techniques, methods, and skills, e.g., pest control operator, water plant operator. Specialized experience also includes interviewing patients with communicable diseases and their contacts, experience implementing the Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Surveillance Program, the Tuberculosis Surveillance and Control Program. Administers the tuberculin skin test (TST) for civilian and active-duty members, performs the final TST interpretation and records results in the electronic medical records. Refers patients for follow-up X-Ray, Assists the Rabies Control Program, coordination of bite report completion with the emergency medical services, plans, delivers, and evaluates health education classes for active-duty members and their commanders, military and civilian supervisors and their staff, health care workers, assists all inspection, interview, and data collection/reporting activities related to food-borne illness outbreak investigations. Conducts initial and periodic screening of electronic medical records of healthcare workers, reviewing immunization and tuberculosis screening status, as applicable, protects database information compliance with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Act precautions. This experience must be detailed in your resume to receive credit. OR EDUCATION SUBSTITUTION: Possess one and a half years of graduate education that is directly related to the work of this position. One year of full-time graduate education is the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. Transcripts required. OR COMBINATION OF EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE: Possess an equivalent combination of specialized experience and graduate education as described above that demonstrates your ability to perform the duties of this position. Experience must be detailed, and transcripts required. Transcripts required. You will be rated on the following Competencies as part of the assessment questionnaire for this position: Computer Skills Customer Service (Clerical/Technical) Interpersonal Skills Teamwork 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 Requirements: The work consists of some physical activities that require long periods of standing, considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, recurring lifting of moderately heavy items (weighing under 50 pounds [e.g., lifting and carrying applicable test equipment, data collection and monitoring devices, or sample trays]), balancing, walking over rough, uneven, or rocky surfaces; recurring bending, crouching, stooping, stretching, reaching, or similar activity; and handling materials. The work environment for the employee may include a mix of office, laboratory, and/or field work. 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/. Education IMPORTANT: A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. NOTE: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: Recognition of Foreign Qualifications | International Affairs Office (ed.gov). Additional Information This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. Pursuant to VHA Directive 1193.01, VHA health care personnel (HCP) are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 subject to such accommodations as required by law (i.e., medical, religious or pregnancy). VHA HCPs do not include remote workers who only infrequently enter VHA locations. If selected, you will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and submit documentation of proof of vaccination before your start date. The agency will provide additional information regarding what information or documentation will be needed and how you can request a legally required accommodation from this requirement using the reasonable accommodation process. If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement. Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.