U.S. Office of Personnel Mgt.

United States Office of Personnel Management

Operating Manual

Qualification Standards for General Schedule Positions

Individual Occupational Requirements for

GS-651:    Respiratory Therapist Series


The text below is extracted verbatim from Section IV-B of the Operating Manual for Qualification Standards for General Schedule Positions (p.IV-B-108), but contains minor edits to conform to web-page requirements.

Use these individual occupational requirements in conjunction with the "Group Coverage Qualification Standard for Technical and Medical Support Positions."

Specialized Experience (for positions at GS-4 and above): Qualifying specialized experience must have demonstrated a knowledge of basic equipment used in respiratory therapy and included duties such as:

  • Making regular rounds on hospital nursing units to review or collect clinical data to insure that the respiratory equipment is operating properly and in compliance with physicians' orders.
  • Transporting, setting up, or testing the operation of and changing simple oxygen administering devices, e.g., masks and nasal cannulas with cylinder or centralized medical gas systems.
  • Disassembling, cleaning, assembling, and sterilizing reusable respiratory equipment such as oxygen analyzers and regulators, including recognizing and reporting variations from expected results.

Examples of qualifying experience include work as a practical nurse, nursing assistant, medical machine aid, medical technician, or respiratory therapy aid if the above duties were performed.

OR

Education and Training:
For GS-4: Successful completion of a 2-year accredited course of study leading to an associate's degree in respiratory therapy.
For GS-5: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree in respiratory therapy.

Page created 22 March 1999