This position is located in the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service at the VA Medical Center in Albany, New York. The Recreation Assistant supports recreation therapists by planning, organizing, advising on, and administering recreation activities and programs to restore, remediate, and/or rehabilitate functional capabilities for Veterans with injuries, chronic illnesses, and disabling conditions, under the therapist or supervisor's direction.
***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** Major duties and responsibilities will include: Prepares areas for recreation activities and programs; Assists in preparations for community outings away from the facility, which are used to meet therapeutic goals; Arranges for equipment or supplies, checking them out to participants, ensuring they are returned, and checking the condition of supplies on their return; Takes inventory of authorized recreation supplies and equipment; Provides training for proper use of equipment and facilities and ensures compliance of rules of use for the facility; Assists with a wide variety of therapeutic recreation treatment, modalities, and procedures that are care planned and recommended by therapist, or by the Recreation Therapy Supervisor as part of the total plan of care of patients; Follows treatment plan to carry out recommended treatment; Evaluates the activity to determine if the treatment is causing an adverse effect and recommends changes or modifications of treatment procedures to the therapist or supervisor to determine appropriate modifications; Works with participants on an individual basis, in small groups, or large groups depending on treatment goals; Uses a variety of modalities such as art, music, hobbies, social recreation, creative communication, games, adapted sports, physical fitness, yoga, tai chi, special events, etc.; Documents progress towards the goals in the medical record of the participants; Performs related duties as required.
Work Schedule: Wednesday-Sunday; 7:30am-4:00pm; Candidates must be willing to work weekends and some holidays; the other days are negotiable, regular work hours and extended hours if determined by the needs of the service. Furthermore, candidates must be willing to be placed, detailed, or temporarily assigned to other related services and/or locations, if necessary. Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved
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: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.
VHANationalRecruitmentCenter@va.gov · (844)456-5208
This position is with Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs.
The posted pay range is $46848 – $60902/yr.
This position requires a Other security clearance.
Applications close on 2026-09-09.
This position is open under the 'Public' hiring path.
Source: USAJOBS.gov — U.S. Federal Government
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