Medical Instrument Technician (Echocardiography)

Description:

This position requires a highly skilled Sonographer with a comprehensive, specialized education in the medical and technical aspects of diagnostic cardiac sonography. This position is located with the Specialty Service line working under the Chief of Medicine, Cardiologist and Cardiopulmonary coordinator at the Martinsburg, WV, VAMC.

Requirements:

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

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.
• Education: There are no specific educational requirements for this occupation. Education may be substituted for experience only at the GS-4 and GS-5 levels.
• Licensure or Certification: Licensure or Certification is not required for this occupation; however, it is strongly desirable at GS-6 or above as evidence of possession of the essential knowledge, skills, and abilities. (For all specialties identified in this standard, Basic and Advanced Cardiac Life Support certifications are desirable. Training which does not result in official certification does not meet this definition.)
• Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019.
• English Language Proficiency: Medical Instrument Technicians must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with chapter 2, section D, paragraph 5a, this part.

Grade Determinations :
GS-6 Medical Instrument Technician (Echocardiography).

(a) Experience: At least one year of experience comparable to the next lower grade level (GS-5) which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics related to the duties of the positions to be filled.

• GS-5 Experience includes:
  • Knowledge of standard medical terminology to interpret physician orders or instructions.
  • Knowledge of common physical disabilities and ability to position patients for the examination or treatment.
  • Ability to learn the normal and abnormal results for routine procedures to recognize and report obvious abnormalities.
  • Ability to operate the equipment to administer routine/standard diagnostic treatment or procedures.
  • Ability to perform standard operator maintenance on the equipment including the ability to disassemble, clean, reassemble, and calibrate the machine.

(b) GS-6 Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: In addition, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs:

• Knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the heart and great vessels.
• Knowledge of cardiac arrhythmias and their relationship to hemodynamic conditions of the cardiac cycle.
• Knowledge of basic cardiac ultrasound physics and the acoustic mechanisms by which high quality cardiac images are obtained.
• Ability to set up and adjust the ultrasound equipment to meet the conditions of the examination and the patient and to operate the equipment for standardized, routine procedures.
• Ability to interact with patients explaining procedures and positioning the patient for the procedure.

(c) Assignment: Echocardiography technician assignments at this level involve performing routine, standardized cardiac ultrasound examinations under the supervision of a fully qualified cardiac sonographer. The work involves generating adequate gray scale images to define cardiac borders and learning to perform Doppler integration of cardiac valves for determination of flow velocities.

GS-7 Medical Instrument Technician (Echocardiography).

(a) Experience: At least one year of experience comparable to the next lower grade level (GS-6) which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics related to the duties of the positions to be filled. This would be experience which provided the individual with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to independently conduct difficult but standardized echocardiographic examinations.

(b) GS-7 Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: In addition, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs:

• Ability to scan transthoracic echocardiograms in all views with colorflow and some Doppler.
• Ability to conduct cardiac testing to determine the severity and variety of cardiac problems, i.e., calcular dysfunction, myocardial wall kinesia, effusions, endocardial lesions, et.
• Knowledge of the set-up for transesophageal echocardiograms.
• Ability to set up and adjust the ultrasound equipment to meet the conditions of the examination and the patient and to operate the equipment for more complex, but standardized procedures.

(c) Assignment: At this level, medical instrument technicians (echocardiography) perform a range of standard, but complex, echocardiographic examinations with responsibility for calibrating all instruments prior to the procedure. They are expected to keep an accurate record of tests, daily logs, and videotapes. They maintain cidex logs.

GS-8 Medical Instrument Technician (Echocardiography). Full Performance Level (FPL).

(a) Experience: At least one year of experience comparable to the next lower grade level (GS-7) which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics related to the duties of the positions to be filled. This would be experience which provided the overall knowledge, skills, and abilities to conduct diagnostic echocardiography examinations in compelx and unusual cases.

(b) GS-8 Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: In addition, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs:

• Ability to produce diagnostic quality images and Doppler frequency shift recordings using M-mode, two-dimensional, pulsed and continuous wave Doppler spectral display, and colorflow Doppler imaging.
• Knowledge of normal echocardiographic findings and deviations produced by a wide variety of cardiovascular diseases.
• Ability to perform complex procedures such as cardiac studies of the four chambers of the heart and valves using sector scanning techniques to detect stenotic and incompetent valves, chamber enlargement, and pericardial effusion and cardiovascular studies deriving pressure gradients across obstructed valves, etc.
• Ability to perform complementary ultrasonic examinations (including noninvasive) transthoracic, Bubble studies and contrast echocardiography, (invasive) stress echocardiography, and transesophageal echocardiography.
• Ability to adapt transducer positioning, instrument controls, and examination techniques to the individual patient being studied and the problem being evaluated including recognizing pertinent abnormalities and documenting abnormal findings.

(c) Assignment: This represents the full performance level. Echocardiography technicians at this level identify and record anomalies indicative of disease, injury, or other medically significant condition from ultrasound imaging and simultaneous recordings of the Doppler. They incorporate the causes and results of a variety of symptoms and conditions into a plan of ultrasonic diagnostic examination. They change and develop sounding techniques to accommodate such variables as limited patient mobility, variation in physical condition or dimension of the patient, presence of prosthesis or foreign objects, and ultrasonic response of different body parts. They produce diagnostic quality images and Doppler frequency recordings using M-mode, two-dimensional, and Doppler ultrasound.

Preferred Experience: Certification by the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) and Cardiovascular Credentialing International (CCI) with 1-3 years as a cardiac sonographer is preferred.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/ .The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-8. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is in the range of GS-6 to GS-8.

Physical Requirements: The physical requirements of the position (i.e. standing, bending, stooping, sitting, pulling, pushing, etc.) Requires standing, bending stooping, sitting, pulling and pushing patients must be able to perform gross and fine coordinated hand movements.