The Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Wichita, Kansas is currently recruiting for a Senior Social Worker - Inpatient Medicine.

Duties

The Senior Social Worker provides services to the acute medical, surgical and intensive care units within Social Work Service at the Robert J Dole VA Medical Center, a level 1C complexity facility with both an urban and extremely rural population base. The Senior Social Worker is also responsible for coordinating acute psych bed placement within the inpatient units. The incumbent performs specialized assessment, treatment, and care planning for Veterans with complex physical or mental illness. Incumbent incorporates complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment of Veteran patients, including making psychosocial and psychiatric diagnoses within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. In addition, consideration of medical illness, physical limitations, cognitive disorders, and psychosocial circumstances lead the treatment focus and discharge planning of Veterans in acute medical, surgical, and intensive care units. Additional duties include, but are not limited to: Providing advanced-level case management interventions used in the treatment of Veterans with complex and comorbid medical conditions, poly-trauma injuries, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, visual impairment, and mental health conditions, Collaborating with the inpatient psychiatric consult liaison for coordination of acute psych bed placement within the inpatient units, Using the Social Work process (psychosocial assessment, diagnosis, and treatment) to conduct an intake health status assessment or an update assessment for Veterans, Reviewing and monitoring list to minimize diversions, excessive lengths-of-stay and preventable discharge planning obstacles, Acting as a consultant to various interdisciplinary professions, including VA Leadership and should be considered the expert in care coordination at all points on the health care continuum. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday (7:30 am 4:00 pm) Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 000000 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required NPI/Taxonomy code: Required; must be eligible for an NPI number as a condition of employment.

Requirements

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/. Exception. VHA may waive the licensure or certification requirement for persons who are otherwise qualified, pending completion of state prerequisites for licensure/certification examinations. This exception only applies at the GS-9 grade level. For the GS-11 grade level and above, the candidate must be licensed or certified. At the time of appointment, the supervisor, chief social work or social work executive will provide the unlicensed/uncertified social worker with the written requirements for licensure or certification, including the time by which the license or certification must be obtained and the consequences for not becoming licensed or certified by the deadline.] 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). Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements as stated above, the GS-12 Senior Social Worker must meet the following requirements: Experience and Education. 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 judgement. 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/source of study and internship or equivalent supervised professional experience in a specialty. Licensure/Certification. Individuals assigned as senior social workers must be licensed or certified at the advanced practice level, and must be able to provide supervision for licensure. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: (a) 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, (b) Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice, (c) 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, (d) 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, (e) 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. 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 at the GS-12 grade level are licensed or certified to independently practice social work at an advanced level. Senior social workers typically practice in a major program 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 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: Case management and medicine social work. References: VA Handbook 5005, Part II Appendix G39 The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. Physical Requirements: Physical aspects associated with work required of this assignment are typical for the occupation and would generally not require a pre-placement examination.

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 Robert J Dole VA Medical and Regional Office Center 5500 East Kellogg Drive Wichita, KS 67218 US
• Name: Trellis Harris
• Phone: 316-685-2221 X53625
• Email: [email protected]