This position is located in the Audiology and Speech Pathology Service at West Palm Beach VA Medical Center. The duties and responsibilities are carried out throughout the medical center and outpatient clinics including all clinical and patient care areas involved with the service. Incumbent is the Supervisory Audiologist for the Audiology and Speech Pathology Service. 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: Citizenship. Be a citizen of the United States (U.S.). Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with 38 U.S.C. § 7407(a). English Language Proficiency. Audiologist candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English as required by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f). Education (1) Doctor of Audiology (AUD) from an audiology program recognized by the Accreditation Commission for Audiology Education (ACAE) or Council on Academic Accreditation (CAA) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). HR office staff and management officials may verify a program's accreditation from ACAE at acaeaccred.org and CAA at caa.asha.org. -OR- (2) Other doctoral degree in hearing science or a directly related field from an institution accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. NOTE: Effective January 1, 2007, the CAA in Audiology and Speech- Language Pathology of ASHA accredits only doctoral degree or AUD programs in audiology. Licensure-Documentation Submitted. Individuals must hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to practice audiology at the doctoral level in a United States state, territory, commonwealth, or the District of Columbia. Loss of Credential. In collaboration with HR office staff, management officials must immediately relieve employees of the duties and responsibilities associated with the occupation who fail to maintain the required licensure, which may also result in separation from employment. Grandfathering Provision. All individuals employed in VHA in this occupational series or in another occupational series performing the duties described in the qualification standard on the effective date of the qualification standard are considered to have met all qualification requirements for the grade held, including positive education and licensure. Foreign Education. To be creditable, education completed outside the U.S. must have been submitted to a private organization specializing in the interpretation of foreign educational credentials. Such education must have been deemed at least equivalent to that gained in conventional U.S. programs. Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, candidates must meet the following grade-determining criteria for appointments at grade levels specified. Supervisory Audiologist, GS-13. Experience: At least two years of experience as a professional audiologist, with at least one year comparable to the next lower grade level. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs). In addition to the KSAs required at the full performance level, the candidate must demonstrate the KSAs identified below. Skill in conflict resolution to facilitate positive working relationships between employees, team leaders, and managers. Skill in applying evidence-based practices in a professional area. Ability to analyze organizational and operational challenges to develop and implement solutions. Ability to develop the abilities and strengths of current employees. Ability to balance responsibilities, set priorities, and delegate tasks to meet multiple deadlines. Ability to analyze data to manage workload, quality, performance, and productivity within the section. Assignment. For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, complexity and range of variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time. Supervisory audiologists in this assignment serve as section chiefs. They supervise staff, plan, schedule and assign work. Section chiefs have broad program management responsibilities for a specific program or programs that are designed to deliver specialized, complex, highly professional services, which are important program components of the facility and significantly impact the health care provided to Veterans. Programs include but are not limited to hearing health, compensation and pension examination (C&P) programs, inpatient, outpatient and residential audiologic rehabilitation, neuro-audiologic assessments, diagnosis and treatment of tinnitus, externship and postdoctoral fellowship training programs, and management of an off-campus site. Typically, at facilities of lower complexity, section chiefs have audiology program oversight and serve as the audiology executive responsible for coordinating operations throughout the facility and its affiliated clinics. The type of programs managed and the scope of responsibility are critical aspects of the assignment at this level. Section chiefs manage key clinical, training, research or administrative programs including the day-to-day activities of these programs. Section chiefs in this assignment supervise and provide input for strategic plans to ensure the provision of high-quality services to meet the needs of the Veterans. They develop and implement short and long-term goals and objectives consistent with the program's strategic plan. They provide oversight of administrative and programmatic resources and deploy those resources to support the program needs. They develop and implement programs, policies and procedures to meet program goals, VHA policy and external accreditation requirements. They monitor outcomes using data-driven quality assurance processes and implement strategies for improvement based on data analysis. Preferred Experience: Supervisory experience preferable but not required References: VA Handbook 5005/152 , Part II, Appendix G29 The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-13. Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Service. ["Incumbent is the Supervisor of the Audiology Section. Incumbent is responsible for the supervision, administrative management, and direction of the audiology program in a unified audiology and speech-language pathology service. Incumbent has responsibility for general or technical supervision of key clinical or training programs and overall technical and administrative oversight of audiologists and technicians. EDUCATION Provides orientation and training of new audiology staff. Assists in the training and supervision of students, trainees, and fellows, providing feedback on progress toward established educational goals. Keeps current with theory and practice through continuing education programs, journals, textbooks, and other literature, and in-service programs. Provides patient and family education including informed consent. Serves as clinical and administrative director of the Audiology Intern program. ADMINISTRATIVE In carrying out the administrative duties and responsibilities of the position, the incumbent: Develops, organizes, directs, manages, supervises, controls, and implements policies and procedures in focused clinical programs. Plans, assesses, and evaluates programs to ensure proper coordination between health care delivery within the section and the overall delivery of health care; Makes decisions that affect staff and other resources associated with the section with wide latitude of control and independent judgment; Exercises supervisory responsibilities such as planning and scheduling work, assigning work to employees, accepting, amending or rejecting completed work, assuring that production and accuracy requirements are met, appraising performance and recommending performance standards and ratings, approving leave, and effecting disciplinary measures. Uses knowledge of contemporary audiology practice; Uses ability to articulate and communicate assignments, projects, problems to be solved, actionable events, and objectives, as well as advise on work methods, practices, and procedures; Uses ability to coach the clinical team in the selection and application of appropriate problem solving methods and techniques; Shows potential to monitor and report on status and progress of work, evaluate program quality to ensure that methods, deadlines and quality have been met; and make adjustments to accomplish the workload in accordance with established priorities; Serves as facilitator and/or negotiator in coordinating initiatives and consensus building activities among clinical team members with wide divergent backgrounds, interest, and points of view. Performs VISTA Scheduling in conformance with VHA Guidelines CLINICAL The incumbent is fully responsible for provision of the full range of diagnostic and rehabilitative audiology services to patients of all ages and all communicative and cognitive levels. Work Schedule: 8:00am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday Telework: Available, ad-hoc basis Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 40322F Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required"]
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest integrated health care system in the United States, providing care at 1,321 health care facilities, including 172 VA Medical Centers and 1,138 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity (VHA outpatient clinics) to over 9 million Veterans enrolled in the VA health care program. VHA Medical Centers provide a wide range of services including traditional hospital-based services such as surgery, critical care, mental health, orthopedics, pharmacy, radiology and physical therapy. In addition, most of our medical centers offer additional medical and surgical specialty services including audiology & speech pathology, dermatology, dental, geriatrics, neurology, oncology, podiatry, prosthetics, urology, and vision care. Some medical centers also offer advanced services such as organ transplants and plastic surgery.