Nursing Assistant

Summary

The Nurse Assistant (NA) provides Veteran-centered care within the VA New Jersey Health Care System Community Living Center (CLC), including long-term care, sub-acute/short-stay rehabilitation, dementia care, mental health/behavioral health, and hospice/palliative care. Assignments involve Veterans with complex and changing needs ranging from predictable to unpredictable.

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Duties

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Duties:

The Nursing Assistant successfully performs duties at the lower grades and provides direct care to complex Veterans under the direction of an RN or LPN. The incumbent communicates effectively with Veterans, families, and the interdisciplinary team; recognizes emergent and subtle changes; intervenes within scope while obtaining assistance; and supports orientation and competency development of other NAs. Duties include:

• Provides the full range of nursing assistant care for Veterans with complex physical, cognitive, behavioral, rehabilitative, and end-of-life needs, including ADLs, nutrition, elimination, mobility, positioning, restorative care, and skin protection.
• Obtains, interprets within scope, documents, and reports vital signs, weights, intake and output, blood glucose values, specimens, and changes in appetite, mood, behavior, cognition, skin color, respiratory status, or functional ability.
• Performs validated procedures such as catheter and ostomy care, enemas, simple dressings, application of braces or prosthetic devices, oxygen support, suctioning or tracheostomy care when specifically authorized and competency validated.
• Promotes long-term care residents' autonomy, preferences, meaningful activity, continence, social engagement, and highest practical level of independence; actively contributes to interdisciplinary care planning and treatment meetings.
• Supports sub-acute and short-stay rehabilitation goals by reinforcing therapy plans, monitoring tolerance and progress, safely using adaptive and mobility equipment, and promptly reporting barriers to recovery or discharge readiness.
• Provides advanced dementia-sensitive care using validation, redirection, de-escalation, individualized behavioral approaches, and non-pharmacological interventions; identifies subtle changes from baseline and reinforces WanderGuard/elopement-prevention practices.
• Implements assigned mental health observation levels and therapeutic milieu expectations; recognizes behavioral escalation, suicide or violence risk, contraband or environmental hazards, and initiates appropriate emergency or crisis response while summoning licensed staff.
• Provides compassionate hospice and palliative care focused on comfort, dignity, symptom observation, oral and skin care, positioning, family support, and recognition of changes associated with active dying.
• Maintains a safe environment, follows infection prevention and safe patient handling requirements, initiates basic life support or other emergency actions as appropriate, serves as preceptor/mentor, and completes accurate documentation, mandatory education, and annual competency validation.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Work Schedule : Alternating Weekends (12am-8am)

Recruitment/Relocation Incentives (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized

Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized

Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of higher or unique qualifications or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade).

Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year)

Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior [work experience] or military service experience.

Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.

Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66 .

Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA

Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)

Telework : Not Available

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Functional Statement # : 14770F

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Requirements

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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.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• 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 ( 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.
• Must pass pre-employment physical evaluation.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• 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.

Upon completion of your trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements :

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• English Language: Must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, part II, chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3j.
• Experience, Education, or Training:
• Six months of general experience. (Experience must demonstrate the ability to acquire the knowledge and skills to perform the work of an NA); OR
• One year above high school with courses related to the NA occupation; OR
• Completion of an intensive, specialized, occupation-related course of study of less than one year which resulted in attaining certification as a nursing assistant may also meet in full the experience requirements for GS-3.

May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).

a. Creditable Experience.

(1) Knowledge of Current Practice. To be creditable, the experience must have required the use of knowledge, skills, and abilities associated with the current practice.

(2) Quality of Experience. To be creditable, NA experience must be documented on the application or resume and verified in an employment reference, or through other independent means.

(3) Part-Time Experience. Part-time experience as a NA is creditable according to its relationship to the full-time workweek. For example, a NA employed 20 hours a week, or on a 1/2-time basis, would receive 1 full-time workweek of credit for each 2 weeks of service.

Grade Determinations : In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates.

GS-3: None beyond the basic requirements.

GS-4: One year of specialized experience as a nursing assistant or experience in another medical field (LPN, health technician, hospital corpsman, etc.) performing technical and nursing skills requiring knowledge of the human physical and emotional states, therapeutic communication, and technical skills required for basic and intermediate treatments; OR Education: Successful completion of 2 years above high school in an accredited institution with courses related to nursing care, health care or in a field of study appropriate to the specialization of the position, such as education in a program for psychology, psychiatric, or operating room technicians;

AND

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) that include the following:

1. Ability to provide a range of patient/resident care and contribute to the completion of the nurse care plan and recovery of patients/residents.

2. Ability to observe patients/residents or resident's physical or emotional status of refer deviations and/or problems to supervisor in a timely manner.

3. Ability to properly use equipment, materials and supplies in simple diagnostic and treatment procedures such as bladder scan, continuous passive motion device, blood glucose monitoring machine, specimen collection, etc.

4. Ability to communicate effectively with patients/residents, their families and other health professionals.

GS-5: One year of progressively responsible assignments and experience equivalent to the GS-4 level which demonstrates knowledge, skills, and abilities that are directly related to the specific assignment. In addition, the candidate must demonstrate the professional KSAs below;

OR

Education: Successful completion of a 4 year course of study above high school leading to a bachelor's degree that included 24 semester hours of courses related to health care or possession of a bachelor's degree;

AND

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) that include the following:

1. Ability to assist in the full range of nursing care to patients/residents with physical and/or behavioral problems in a hospital, long term care or outpatient setting under the direction of a Registered Nurse and/or Licensed Vocation Nurse/Licensed Practical Nurse.

2. Ability to communicate orally with patients/residents, families, interdisciplinary team and other personnel. This includes serving as a preceptor to new nursing assistants by assisting with coordination of their orientation and overseeing/assessing their practical experience while in a clinical setting.

3. Ability to recognize and react to emergent patient/resident care situations and intervene while waiting for assistance. For example, recognizing need for basic life support, controlling bleeding and assisting with behavior crisis, etc.

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-5. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is in the range of GS-3 to GS-5

. Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit

Physical Requirements: The physical requirements of this position include lifting, prolonged standing and sitting, frequent bending, walking (distance), climbing, reaching (overhead, extensive/repetitive), pulling, pushing, repetitive motion and stooping. The mental/sensory requirements include recall, reasoning, problem-solving, hearing, speaking clearly, writing legibly, keyboarding, reading and logical thinking, depth perception, hearing (aide permitted); near/far vision correctable to meet Driver's License requirements. The environment's pace can vary from steady to a sometimes-fast pace requiring handling of multiple priorities, frequent, sometimes intense customer interactions, and the ability to adapt to frequent changes in a sometimes-noisy environment. There may be the need to use personal protective equipment to prevent exposure to disease, illness and hazardous materials. Work requires extensive walking, standing, stretching and bending in caring for patients.

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: 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:

Additional information

Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.

VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health-related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority.

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.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

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