Your steps to apply
Nursing Assistant (Acute Care)
Veterans Health Administration · Seattle, Washington · Closes in 25 days
Sign in to save your progress. Free, with just your email. You can read all the steps without an account.
1 Check you can apply You are here
Who can apply: Federal employees - Excepted service, The public, Federal employees - Competitive service.
The job is open to the public. The conditions of employment say you must be a U.S. citizen to apply, although the qualifications section mentions that non-citizens may be appointed only when qualified citizens cannot be recruited.
Experience: Six months of general experience that shows you can learn the knowledge and skills of a nursing assistant is the basic requirement. For GS-4, you need one year of specialized nursing assistant experience or experience in another medical field, such as licensed practical nurse or health technician. For GS-5, you need one year of progressively responsible experience equal to GS-4, plus the required nursing skills.
Education: One year of education above high school with courses related to nursing assistant work can meet the basic requirement. For GS-4, 2 years above high school in nursing, health care, or a related field can qualify. For GS-5, a bachelor's degree or a 4-year program with 24 semester hours of health care courses can qualify. A short intensive nursing assistant training program under one year may meet the GS-3 experience requirement. Only schools accredited by the U.S. Department of Education count, and foreign education needs a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency.
Experience can be paid or unpaid, volunteer work included: if it matches the duties, it counts. The full rules are in the announcement.
2 Resume and documents
Write a federal resume for this job. For each job you held, give the month and year you started and ended, your hours per week and what you did, using the words of the experience the announcement asks for. Many announcements accept resumes of up to 2 pages: check this one.
3 Apply on USAJOBS
Closes in 25 days (November 30, until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time).
Yes. This is an open continuous announcement with a first cut-off date of 11/2/2026 for referrals. Applications received after that date are referred at regular intervals or as vacancies occur.
You sign in to USAJOBS with a Login.gov account, answer the questionnaire and upload your documents, then you submit. Answer the questionnaire honestly: your resume must show what you claim.
How they rate you: You will be rated on how well your questionnaire, resume, and documents show you meet the qualifications. VA verifies your information and may contact your references. Missing required information can result in an ineligible rating or a lower overall rating.
4 After you apply
In USAJOBS, under Applications, you can see where your application stands: received, reviewed, referred to the hiring manager or not, then selected or not. It can take a few weeks.
For the interview, prepare three examples with the STAR method: the Situation, the Task, what you did (Action) and the Result.
If they choose you: a tentative offer, then a background check, then the final offer with your start date.
Tips for this job:
- Your resume must list each job's title, duties, month and year dates, and hours per week, since vague entries may not be matched to the qualifications.
- If you use education to qualify, send your transcript, and only include schools accredited by the U.S. Department of Education.
- Complete the full online questionnaire and upload every required document, because missing items can lead to an ineligible rating.
Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.