Job opening: Senior Social Worker
Salary: $103 129 - 134 068 per year
Published at: Aug 04 2023
Employment Type: Full-time
The Veterans Administration Maryland Health Care System (VAMHCS) is a multi-site medical system with an academic teaching mission that includes medical centers, rehabilitation facilities, community living centers, and community-based outpatient clinics. Services include primary health care, medicine, surgery, mental health and substance abuse treatment, home health care and geriatrics/long term care, respite, hospice, palliative care, and emergency care.
Duties
VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU
This position serves as the Outpatient Medical/Surgical Social Work Team Leader & Emergency Department Social Worker. Functions of the position include, but aren't limited to:
Provides time-limited/problem-focused social work services to Veterans presenting to the Emergency Department for non-psychiatric care.
Participates in rounds/huddles and works with the interdisciplinary treatment team to ensure good patient flow throughout the continuum of care.
The incumbent has a strong working knowledge of acute and chronic medical/surgical/mental health diagnoses and the needs of and services required for individuals with these conditions.
Provides brief solutions-focused case management interventions to high risk/high-need patients within the scope of their presenting problem and collaborates effectively with assigned PACT Social Work staff for routine outpatient social work needs or with the assigned inpatient medicine/surgery social workers for patients being admitted.
May provide clinical supervision toward advanced licensure and/or provide clinical instruction to MSW trainees.
Supports the goal of ensuring Veterans' access to high quality social work services in the outpatient medical/surgical settings by serving as a clinical team leader to outpatient medical/surgical specialty clinic social work staff. Duties include:
performing outpatient consult management including triage and assignment of consults and tracking of timely consult resolution
data management including but not limited to management of the open encounter and unsigned/uncosigned progress note reports
facilitation of difficult case consultation meetings for social work staff
clinical coaching/mentoring to support optimal patient care and staff development
proctoring for Focused Professional Practice Evaluations (FPPEs)
management of the overnight on-call scheduling for medical Emergency Department social work staffing
Work Schedule: Monday - Friday / 08:30 am - 5:00 pm
Telework: Available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 0000
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required
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).
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).
Grandfathering Provision. The following is the standard grandfathering policy for all title 38 hybrid qualification standards. Please carefully review the qualification standard to determine the specific education and/or licensure/certification/registration requirements that apply to this occupation.
All persons employed in VHA in this occupation on the effective date of this qualification standard are considered to have met all qualification requirements for the title, series and grade held, including positive education and licensure or certification that are part of the basic requirements of the occupation. For employees who do not meet all of the basic requirements in this standard, but who met the qualifications applicable to the position at the time they were appointed to it, the following provisions apply:
Such employees in an occupation that requires a licensure or certification, may be reassigned, promoted up to and including the full performance (journey) level, or changed to lower grade within the occupation, but may not be promoted beyond the journey level or placed in supervisory or managerial positions.
Employees who are appointed on a temporary basis prior to the effective date of the qualification standard may not have their temporary appointment extended or be reappointed, on a temporary or permanent basis, until they fully meet the basic requirements of the standard.
Employees initially grandfathered into this occupation, who subsequently obtain additional education and/or licensure/certification/registration that meet all of the basic requirements of this qualification standard must maintain the required credentials as a condition of employment in the occupation.
If an employee who was retained in an occupation listed in 38 U.S.C. ? 7401(3) under this provision leaves that occupation, the employee loses protected status and must meet the full VA qualification standard requirements in effect at the time of reentry to the occupation.
Grade Determinations:
Experience/Education. The candidate must have at least two years of experience 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.
Licensure/Certification. 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.
Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, 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.
Preferred Experience:
A minimum of 2 years of medical social work experience
Preference for both VA and private sector work experience and knowledge of both VA and community resources
References: VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39
The full performance level of 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).
Education
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:
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.
Contacts
- Address VA Maryland Health Care System
10 North Greene Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
US
- Name: Nikki Watson
- Phone: 410-605-7000
- Email: [email protected]
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