Summary

The VAMHCS Inpatient Medicine Senior Social Worker provides comprehensive social work services to inpatient Veterans and their families on their assigned inpatient medicine team(s). The social worker establishes and maintains effective therapeutic relationships with veterans and their families who are experiencing a variety of psychiatric - medical - and social problems utilizing individual - group - and family counseling skills.

Qualifications

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:

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy
• Education: Have a master's degree in social work from a school of social work fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE)
• Graduates of schools of social work that are in candidacy status do not meet this requirement until the School of Social Work is fully accredited
• A doctoral degree in social work may not be substituted for the master's degree in social work
• Verification of the degree can be made by going to http://www.cswe.org/Accreditation to verify that the social work degree meets the accreditation standards for a masters of social work
• Licensure: Persons hired or reassigned to social worker positions in the GS-0185 series in VHA must be licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work at the master's degree level
• Current state requirements may be found by going to http://vaww.va.gov/OHRM/T38Hybrid/
• English Language Proficiency: Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f)
• Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019 - Employee Occupational Health Services
• The work is primarily sedentary
• It may require some lifting (10-20 lbs.) occasionally
• Reaching above shoulder
• Frequent keyboarding (4-7 hours per day)
• Sitting (4-7 hours per day)
• Walking up to 6 hours per day)
• Standing (up to 8 hours per day)
• Infrequent climbing/descending of stairs
• Some bending
• Ability for rapid mental and muscular coordination simultaneously
• Correctable near sighted and far sighted vision
• Hearing (Aid permitted)
• 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)
• Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements for employment - the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates
• GS-12 Senior Social Worker Experience/Education Requirement: The candidate must have at least two years of experience 9 post advanced practice clinical licensure and should be in a specialized area of social work practice of which - one year must be equivalent to the GS-11 grade level
• Senior social workers have experience that demonstrates possession of advanced practice skills and judgment
• Senior social workers are experts in their specialized area of practice
• Senior social workers may have certification or other post-masters training from a nationally recognized professional organization or university that includes a defined curriculum/course of study and internship or equivalent supervised professional experience in a specialty GS-12 Senior Social Worker Licensure/Certification Requirement: Senior social workers must be licensed or certified by a state at the advanced practice level which included an advanced generalist or clinical examination - unless they are grandfathered by the state in which they are licensed to practice at the advanced practice level (except for licenses issued in California - which administers its own clinical examination for advanced practice) and they must be able to provide supervision for licensure
• GS-12 Senior Social Worker Knowledge - Skills and Abilities Requirements: In addition to meeting the licensure and experience for the GS-12 level - candidates must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: Skill in a range of specialized interventions and treatment modalities used in specialty treatment programs or with special patient populations
• This includes individual - group - and/or family counseling or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial and/or case management
• Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice
• Knowledge in developing and implementing methods for measuring effectiveness of social work practice and services in the specialty area - utilizing outcome evaluations to improve treatment services and to design system changes
• Ability to provide specialized consultation to colleagues and students on the psychosocial treatment of patients in the service delivery area - as well as role modeling effective social work practice skills
• Ability to expand clinical knowledge in the social work profession - and to write policies - procedures - and/or practice guidelines pertaining to the service delivery area
• GS-12 Senior Social Worker Assignments: For all assignments above the full performance level - the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope - complexity (difficulty) - and variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time
• Senior social workers are licensed or certified to independently practice social work at an advanced level
• Senior social workers typically practice in a major program area such as but not limited to: Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center or Polytrauma Network Site
• a Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Center - or a national VHA referral center - such as a national Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or a national Transplant Center - or other program areas of equivalent scope and complexity
• The senior social worker may be assigned administrative responsibility for clinical program development and is accountable for clinical program effectiveness and modification of service patterns
• Assignments include clinical settings where they have limited access to onsite supervision such as CBOCs or satellite outpatient clinics
• The senior social worker collaborates with the other members of the treatment team in the provision of comprehensive health care services to Veterans - ensures equity of access - service - and benefits to this population - ensures the care provided is of the highest quality
• The senior social worker provides leadership - direction - orientation - coaching - in-service training - staff development - and continuing education programs for assigned social work staff
• They serve on committees - work groups - and task forces at the facility - VISN and national level - or in the community as deemed appropriate by the supervisor - Social Work Executive or Chief of Social Work Services
• This assignment is to be relatively few in number based on the size of the facility/service and applying sound position management
• This assignment must represent substantial additional responsibility over and above that required at the full performance grade level and cannot be used as the full performance level of this occupation
• Preferred Experience: Minimum of 2 years of acute inpatient medical and/or surgical social work experience
• Weekend social work experience preferred
• Reference: For more information on this qualification standard - please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/
• The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-12
• Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary
• It may require some lifting (10-20 lbs.) occasionally
• Reaching above shoulder
• Frequent keyboarding (4-7 hours per day)
• Sitting (4-7 hours per day)
• Walking up to 6 hours per day)
• Standing (up to 8 hours per day)
• Infrequent climbing/descending of stairs
• Some bending
• Ability for rapid mental and muscular coordination simultaneously
• Correctable near sighted and far sighted vision
• Hearing (Aid permitted).

Duties

• VA Careers - Licensed Clinical Social Worker: https://youtube.com/embed/U_xC25QsN0w Social Work: vacareers.va.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/Total-Rewards-of-a-Social-Worker-Career-Flyer.pdf Duties include but not limited to: The Inpatient Medicine Senior Social Worker is a member of the health care team and assesses and treats the psychosocial problems that impact on the ability of Veterans to adjust health care issues
• The incumbent independently performs a variety of interventions in the amelioration of bio psychosocial stressors and within the confines of a fast-paced inpatient work environment
• Typical interventions include high risk screening - psychosocial assessments - discharge planning utilizing VA - Medicare - Medicaid - and/or private insurance benefits - adjustment to illness counseling - end of life counseling - advance directives - resource education and referral - and coordination of care
• The incumbent possesses the knowledge and ability to independently implement treatment modalities and provide counseling for individuals - families and/or groups
• They participate in interdisciplinary rounds/meetings as scheduled by their assigned teams and work collaboratively with the interdisciplinary treatment team to ensure good patient flow throughout the continuum of care
• The Senior Social Worker demonstrates expertise in effectively managing competing priorities and effectively developing and implementing discharge planning from VA acute medical/surgical settings to an array of inpatient and community-based settings including home - assisted living facilities - and VA and community skilled and chronic care facilities - and also demonstrates expertise in effective and timely coordination of care to meet unique needs including substance abuse treatment - homelessness - end-of-life care - and complex medical follow up (i.e
• medical or radiation oncology services - dialysis - etc.)
• The incumbent is the sole social work clinician providing crisis and urgent social work services in the Medical - and Surgical Care Clinician Centers during specified weekend hours and they identify high-risk patients and provides crisis intervention and discharge planning/coordination of care services that cannot be addressed in an adequate or timely manner if not handled on the weekend tour
• .The incumbent works as an extension of the weekday social work staff and collaborates with multiple interdisciplinary treatment teams to ensure continuity of care and good patient flow throughout the continuum of care
• .They support the goal of access to timely social work services for urgent needs that arise in the Medical and Surgical Care Clinical Center during weekend hours
• .They serve the patients of the Emergency Department to address urgent psychosocial needs and help patients coordinate for needed services in the community to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions during their assigned weekend tour of duty
• Work Schedule: Sunday- Thursday 8am-4:30pm Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): No Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): No Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases
• When setting pay - a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of higher or unique qualifications or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade)
• Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave - 13 days of sick leave - 11 paid Federal holidays per year) Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual - based on prior [work experience] or military service experience
• Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment - up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth - adoption - or foster care placement of a child
• Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment - full time employees with a total family income below $144 -000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66
• Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement) Functional Statement #: 0000 Permanent Change of Station (PCS): No \"Whole Health is an approach to health care that empowers and equips people to take charge of their health and well-being and live their life to the fullest
• The VA is committed to Whole Health and values Veteran and Employee health and wellbeing
• As a VA employee - you will practice Whole Health in an environment that supports personalized and proactive care.\