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. Master's degree or higher in a physics, science, or engineering discipline recognized by an accredited college or university with at least 30 semester hours in medical physics, health physics, radiological science, physics, engineering, chemistry, or biology; or an equivalent foreign degree and coursework substantiated by the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services.
- Board Certification. Persons hired or reassigned to TMP positions in the VHA must be board certified in the field of therapeutic medical physics by an approved certifying body. The board certificate must be current and the applicant must abide by the certifying body's requirements for continuing education.
- Approved Certifying Bodies
- The American Board of Radiology (ABR) in any of the following field titles:
- Therapeutic Medical Physics
- Therapeutic Radiologic or Therapeutic Radiological Physics
- Radiologic Physics or Radiological Physics
- The American Board of Medical Physics (ABMP) in the subfield of Radiation Oncology Physics.
- The Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine (CCPM) in the subfield of Radiation Oncology Physics.
- Loss of Board Certification. TMPs must maintain a full, valid and unrestricted board certification to remain qualified for employment. Loss of board certification may result in termination of employment.
- Physical Requirements. See VA Directive and Handbook 5019.
- English Language Proficiency. TMPs must be proficient in spoken and written English as required by 38 U.S.C. 7402(d), and 7407(d).
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).
Creditable Experience
Knowledge of Current Medical Physicist Practices. To be creditable, the experience must have required the use of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) associated with current professional TMP practice. The experience must be post-master's degree or above. Experience satisfying this requirement must be active professional practice, which is paid/nonpaid employment as a professional TMP.
Quality of Experience. Experience is only creditable if it is obtained following graduation with a master's or doctoral degree in medical physics, physics, or another relevant physical science or engineering discipline from an accredited training program and includes work as a professional TMP directly related to the position to be filled. Qualifying experience must also be at a level comparable to TMP experience at the next lower grade level. For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher level duties must consist of significantly larger scope, administrative independence, complexity (difficulty) and range of variety as described in this standard at the specified grade level and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time.
Part-Time Experience. Part-time experience as a professional TMP is creditable according to its relationship to the full-time workweek. For example, a TMP 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.
Clinical Training/Clinical Residency. TMPs go through a post-graduate clinical training program in therapeutic medical physics before they are eligible to work as a TMP. The post-graduate clinical training may be substituted for creditable experience on a year for-year basis.
Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates.
GS-14 Therapeutic Medical Physicist (Advanced Level) Experience. In addition to the basic requirements, completion of a minimum of 1 year of progressively complex experience equivalent to the next lower grade.
Employees at this level who are not supervisors are able to carry out assigned tasks independently in all areas of radiation therapy requiring TMP competencies which substantially exceed the full performance level and require advanced knowledge in all areas of radiation therapy. Regardless of the nature of the specific assignment, the work must be of sufficient scope and complexity to meet the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform at this grade level.
Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs:
1. Advanced expertise and experience in the safe and efficient use of all radiotherapy devices for external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy.
2. Highly developed expertise with commissioning linear accelerators and treatment planning systems for complex clinical use, to include project management, performance testing, data acquisition, beam modeling, and validation testing.
3. Advanced knowledge (treatment simulation, planning, dosimetry, and treatment methods) of the scientific, clinical, and technical applications of one or more specialized procedures including, but not limited to, high dose rate brachytherapy, low dose rate brachytherapy, stereotactic body radiation therapy, stereotactic radiation therapy, intensity modulated radiation therapy, volumetric modulated arc therapy, total body irradiation, advanced image-guided therapy, and adaptive therapy.
4. Advanced expertise in acceptance testing, clinical commissioning, and (when applicable) calibration procedures for a variety of ancillary radiation oncology delivery, imaging, dosimetry, metrology, and computational systems.
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-14, which is the actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for.
Physical Requirements: Work is sedentary but also demands standing, walking, bending, twisting, and carrying light to medium heavy items and QA equipment such as Map Check/ Arc Check , Water Phantoms, Solid Water, Electron cones. These devices range from 10-40 lbs. and sometimes need to be lifted overhead and into the treatment machine.
Work is performed in an office/clinic setting with minimal risks that requires normal safety precautions; the area is adequately lit, heated, and ventilated. However, the work environment requires someone with the ability to handle several tasks at once in sometimes stressful situations, as well as with time constraints. There is no exposure to pathogens or radiation and no special PPE is required beyond PPE for normal patient care if needed.