This position is responsible for the delivery of Whole Health Coaching and skill development of the local Medical Center's Whole Health Coach program, including provision of care through coaching and promotion and education regarding Whole Health Coaching to Veterans and staff.

Duties

*** Bargaining Position *** Health Coach Duties: The position works with individuals and groups throughout the facility in a client-centered process to facilitate and empower the client to develop and achieve self-determined goals related to health and wellness. Coaches support clients in mobilizing internal strengths and external resources and develops self-management strategies for making sustainable, healthy lifestyle behavior changes and more effectively managing chronic disease. While health and wellness coaches do not diagnose conditions, prescribe treatments, or provide psychotherapeutic interventions, they provide expert guidance and may offer resources from nationally recognized authorities. As partners and facilitators, health and wellness coaches support their clients in achieving health goals and behavioral change based on their clients' own goals and consistent with treatment plans as prescribed by individual clients' professional health care providers. Coaches assist clients to use their insight, personal strengths and resources, goal setting, action steps and accountability toward healthy lifestyle change. The following duties are performed: Contacts eligible participants for enrollment and explain the health coaching process. Provides health coaching for Veterans in order to reduce or eliminate high-risk behaviors while increasing healthy ones. Conducts interventions for Veterans using one-on-one, couple, or group modalities in outpatient and inpatient settings. Conducts Whole Health Facilitated Groups; participate in MOVE, smoking cessation, diabetes management, hypertension clinics, mental health, and other inpatient and outpatient groups as appropriate. Provides follow-up care through telephone clinics or secure messaging between face-to-face appointments. Program Development The position promotes the use of health coaching throughout the facility, educating internal and external customers on the benefits of a coaching approach, publicizing available resources, developing coaching clinics and groups, participating in outreach events, and serving as a champion for Whole Health Coaching. Health Coaches work with their facility and organization to promote healing relationships, healing environments, and a patient-centered approach to care across all service lines. They collaborate as needed with the local Healthy Living Teams, including the Health Behavior Coordinator, the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Program Manager, the Veterans Health Education Coordinator and the MOVE! Coordinator. The following duties are performed: Develops information for Veterans about the Whole Health Group and Individual Programs. Conducts outreach activities to inform Veterans and family members of available programs. Provides educational opportunities for staff-including lunch and learns, grand rounds, and presentations at staff meetings-in order to promote health coaching and encourage referrals to these services. Meets with external stakeholders to provide information about the Whole Health Group and individual programs and access to Veterans. Collaborates with internal and external resources for supporting the Veteran's Whole Health Journey by developing resource lists for well-being support within the facility and in the local community. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual/remote position. Position Description/PD#: Social Science Program Coordinator (Health Coach) / PD99581-S and PD99582-S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary. Some work may require movement between offices, hospitals, warehouses, and similar areas for meetings and to conduct work. Work may also require walking/standing, in conjunctions with travel to and attendance at meetings and/or conferences away from the work site. Incumbent may carry and lift light items weighing less than 15 pounds.

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 12/28/2023. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-7 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5. For a GS-9 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-7.The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. Individual Occupational Requirements Basic Requirements: Degree: behavioral or social science; or related disciplines appropriate to the position. Note: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree that included a major field of study or specific course requirements. The number of semester hours required to constitute a major field of study is the amount specified by the college or university attended. If this number cannot be obtained, 24 semester hours will be considered as equivalent to a major field of study. The nature and quality of this required course work must have been such that it would serve as a prerequisite for more advanced study in the field or subject-matter area. Related course work generally refers to courses that may be accepted as part of the program major. (Transcript Required) OR Combination of education and experience that provided the applicant with knowledge of one or more of the behavioral or social sciences equivalent to a major in the field. Note: The quality of the combination of education and experience must be sufficient to demonstrate that you possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform work in the occupation, and is comparable to that normally acquired through the successful completion of a full 4-year course of study with a major in the appropriate field. In addition, to courses in the major and related fields, a typical college degree would have included courses that involved analysis, writing, critical thinking, research, etc. These courses would have provided an applicant with skills and abilities enough to perform progressively more responsible work in the occupation. Therefore, creditable experience should have demonstrated similarly appropriate skills or abilities needed to perform the work of the occupation. (Transcript Required) OR Experience: Four years of appropriate experience that demonstrated that the applicant has acquired knowledge of one or more of the behavioral or social sciences equivalent to a major in the field. In addition to the above basic requirement, you may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: GS-7 Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-5 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include: knowledge of health coaching structure, process, skills and techniques; knowledge of ethical code and rules of conduct for health coaches; and existing VHA and community resources that support Veterans' personalized health goals, as well as other health and well-being programs available at a facility or in the community to support their personal health plans; ability to retrieve, track and trend information needed for reporting related to health coaching. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have 1 year of graduate-level education (18 semester hours) or superior academic achievement. S.A.A. is based on: 1. class standing: applicants must be in the upper third of the graduating class in the college, university, or major subdivision, such as the College of Liberal Arts or the School of Business Administration, based on completed courses., 2. grade-point average: a-3.0 or higher out of a possible 4.0 ("B" or better) as recorded on their official transcript, or as computed based on 4 years of education, or as computed based on courses completed during the final 2 years of the curriculum; or b-3.5 or higher out of a possible 4.0 ("B+" or better) based on the average of the required courses completed in the major field or the required courses in the major field completed during the final 2 years of the curriculum, or 3. honor society membership as outlined by the Association of College Honor Societies. Such education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. (Transcript Required) OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of specialized experience and education beyond a bachelor's degree. (Transcript Required) GS-9 Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-7 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include: knowledge of health coaching structure, process, skills and techniques; knowledge of ethical code and rules of conduct for health coaches; knowledge of current research literature related to health and wellness, including behaviors that promote wellness and those that are detrimental; knowledge of pertinent laws, regulations, policies and precedents to determine their impact on the customer service program and related support resources in the area studied in order to assist the Veteran in getting additional support or care when that is required, as well as navigate the personalized health inventory, personalized health planning, components of health and well-being, and existing VHA and community resources that support Veterans' personalized health goals, as well as other health and well-being programs available at a facility or in the community to support their personal health plans; ability to retrieve, track and trend information needed for reporting to health coaching; quality improvement analysis techniques and methods are required to refine information for comprehensive reports, addressing elements such as patient reported outcome measures, work measurement, trend analysis, efficiency, effectiveness, productivity; and, knowledge of inpatient and outpatient programs and operations, admissions, scheduling, sharing agreements, and travel as well as operational knowledge of laws and regulations related to the protection of the privacy of medical information. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed two (2) full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a master's degree or master's or equivalent graduate degree in a related field of the position to be filled. (Transcript Required) OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of specialized experience and graduate level education beyond the first year (18 semester hours). (Transcript Required)

Education

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Creative Thinking
• Customer Service
• Decision Making
• Organizational Awareness
• Oral Communication
• Self-Management

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

If your school has changed names, or is no longer in existence, you must provide this information in your application.

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 Thomas E Creek VA Medical Center 6010 Amarillo Boulevard, West Amarillo, TX 79106 US
• Name: VISN 17 SSU USAS Group
• Email: [email protected]