Health Physicist (Radiation Safety Officer)

This position is in the Assistant Medical Center Director's Office located at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center (CVAMC) in Cincinnati, Ohio. The CVAMC is a highly active, VA Medical Center. The primary purpose of this position is to perform professional or technical work in a clinical, testing, or research laboratory environment. Applies a professional knowledge of health physics to the protection of persons and their environment from unwarranted exposure to ionizing radiation.
Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 12/01/2023.
Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12 grade level. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.
You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:
Individual Occupational Requirements. .
Basic Requirements:

1. Degree: natural science or engineering that included at least 30 semester hours in health physics, engineering, radiological science, chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, and/or calculus. (Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree that included a major field of study or specific course requirements generally as stated in paragraph A in the individual occupational requirements).

   OR,

2. Combination of education and experience -- courses as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or other education; or certification as a Health Physicist by the American Board of Health Physics, plus appropriate experience and other education that provided an understanding of sciences applicable to health physics comparable to that described in paragraph A. (The quality of the combination of education and experience must be sufficient to demonstrate that the applicant possesses the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform work in the occupation, and is comparable to that normally acquired through the successful completion of a full 4-year course of study with a major in the appropriate field. In addition to courses in the major and related fields, a typical college degree would have included courses that involved analysis, writing, critical thinking, research, etc. These courses would have provided an applicant with skills and abilities sufficient to perform progressively more responsible work in the occupation. Therefore, creditable experience should have demonstrated similarly appropriate skills or abilities needed to perform the work of the occupation).

Specialized Experience, GS-13:
To meet this requirement, applicants must have at 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 grade level performing the following tasks:
- Implements and evaluates tests, procedures, and reporting mechanisms to ensure proper Radiation Safety measures within the facility.
- Possesses the primary responsibility for implementing the Medical Center's Radiation Safety program.
- Administers the personnel dosimeter program and arranges for processing of personnel monitoring devices and evaluates personnel exposure data and reports.
-Implements Radiation Safety program for a complex installation which typically includes clinical, consultation and research functions.
-Designs, implements, and evaluates strategies to improve radiation program quality assurance and quality management for diagnostic x-ray and radioactive materials use.
-Represents the organization in agency and peer group committees to develop new policies and procedures.
-Assumes lead responsibility assuring patient Radiation Safety through regulatory compliance, maintenance of quality assurance programs and continuing quality improvement.
-Serves as a Radiation Safety Officer for the organization.
-Resolves highly complex Radiation Safety problems.
-Consults with installation medical staff and scientists, equipment vendors and operations personnel to resolve highly complex and unprecedented issues arising from research protocols, new equipment capabilities, applications, or environments.
-Participates in the development and implementation of new diagnostic procedures, radioisotopes, and radio- pharmaceuticals in humans and supervises the safe usage of radioisotope in humans.
-Coordinates medical physics testing of x-ray equipment, oversees performance of equipment quality assurance testing, and documentation, tracking and appropriate follow-up of patient exposure in accordance with FDA, The Joint Commission (TJC) and National Health Physics Program (NHPP) requirements.
-Conducts Radiation Safety orientation lectures and demonstrations for house officers, research and clinical technologists, nursing personnel, housekeeping personnel, etc.
-Instructs personnel in use of monitoring equipment, safe laboratory practices, decontamination methods, etc.

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.
Physical Requirements:
???????The job requires considerable walking and the ability to lift to 50 pounds. Standing, stooping, bending, kneeling, and climbing are frequently necessary during inspections and other surveillance activities. Duties include wearing a lead apron while working with x-rays. Office duties require a considerable amount of time sitting at a desk, keyboarding, and reviewing documents on a computer monitor.
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: There is no educational substitution at this grade level.
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: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.Employment Type: FULL_TIME