Chief of Physical Medicine-Speech Pathologist Incumbent manages substantive parts of medical centers that deliver specialized, complex, professional services, and significantly impact the care provided to veterans. Incumbent has responsibility for general supervision of clinical and/or training programs, and overall technical and administrative oversight for operations within the service.

Duties

The VA Midwest Health Care Network advocates for a Whole Health System of care in each of the Medical Centers. This is an approach to healthcare that empowers and equips people to take charge of their health and well-being and live their lives to the fullest. As an employee operating in a Whole Health System of care, you will operate in a model with three core elements, seeking to create a personalized health plan for each Veteran. This is done in the context of healing relationships and healing environments and a connection back to the Veteran's community. This aligns with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Mission Statement to Honor America's Veterans by providing exceptional health care that improves their health and well-being. Duties include, but are not limited to: Education: a. Provides orientation/training of medical staff. b. Assists in orientation and training of new staff. c. Assists in the training and supervision of students, trainees, and fellows, providing feedback on progress toward established educational goals. d. Keeps current with theory and practice through continuing education programs, journals, textbooks, and other literature, and in-service programs. e. Provides patient and family education including informed consent. Administrative: a. Develops, organizes, directs, manages, supervises, controls, and implements policies and procedures for complex service-level departments. b. Has overall responsibility for planning, assessing, and evaluating programs to ensure proper coordination between care delivered by the service and the overall delivery of health care within the facility. c. Makes decisions that affect subordinate section or assistant chiefs (if applicable), clinical, and clerical staff, and other resources associated with the department and are made with great autonomy. d. Has full responsibility for developing and directing educational and training programs; negotiating affiliation agreements with academic partners; and setting training objectives. e. Delegates responsibilities to subordinate section or assistant chiefs (if applicable), 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; assigning delineated clinical privileges; approving leave; and effecting all levels of disciplinary measures. f. Exercises supervision, administrative management and direction of both professional areas in a unified audiology and speech-language pathology service or equivalent service-level department, or administrative management and program direction of other rehabilitation-related areas. g. Shows potential ability to supervise, motivate, and manage effectively a diverse clinical staff applicable to a service-level department in a large, complex, or multi-division facility. h. Shows potential skill in assessing qualifications and abilities of current and prospective employees. i. Establishes and monitors productivity standards and production and performance priorities. j. Organizes work, sets priorities, delegates tasks and responsibilities. k. Manages and directs the work of others to accomplish program goals and missions. l. Accommodates to new and changing work conditions and contingencies, staffing. m. Translates management goals and objectives into well-coordinated and controlled service operations. Work Schedule: Full-time; Monday-Friday, 0730-1600 Telework: If approved, will be on an ad-hoc basis 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

Requirements

Qualifications

All requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement. 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 and Experience: A master's degree, or its equivalent, in speech-language pathology, communication disorders or a directly related field from an accredited college or university and one year of creditable experience. or A doctoral degree in speech-language pathology, communication disorders and sciences or a related field, from an accredited college or university. Foreign Education: To be creditable, education completed outside the U.S. must be deemed at least equivalent to that gained in a conventional U.S. program by a private organization specializing in the interpretation of foreign educational credentials. Licensure: Individuals must hold a full, current and unrestricted license in a U.S. state, territory, commonwealth or the District of Columbia. English Language Proficiency: SLP candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with 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: GS-14 Supervisory Speech-Language Pathologist Experience: In addition to the basic requirements at the GS-13 level, completion of one year of professional experience comparable to the next lower level, GS-13. These requirements include: Knowledge of scientific principles and contemporary, evidence-based practice in differential diagnosis and treatment of speech, language, voice, swallowing and cognitive-communication disorders as it relates to a specialized clinical program; Skill in prioritizing program goals and objectives; Ability to build consensus among clinical team members with divergent backgrounds, interests and points of view; Ability to gather and evaluate outcome data to determine program quality and effectiveness; Ability to serve as a resource to other health care providers regarding a specialized clinical program. AND Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs): In addition to the experience requirements, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: (a) Skill to translate management goals and objectives into efficient service operations. (b) Skill in providing clinical and administrative oversight of service operations within complex facilities and/or multiple sites. (c) Skill in conflict resolution to facilitate positive working relationships between employees, team leaders and management. (d) Ability to effectively collaborate with local, VISN and national leadership. References: VA Handbook 5005/153 Part II Appendix G30 The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-14. Physical Requirements: You will be asked to participate in a pre-employment examination or evaluation as part of the pre-employment process for this position. Questions about physical demands or environmental factors may be addressed at the time of evaluation or examination. Grandfathering Provision. All persons employed in VHA in this occupational series or in another occupational series that are also performing the duties as described in the qualification standard on the effective date of this qualification standard are considered to have met all qualification requirements for the grade held, including positive education and licensure. For employees who do not meet all the basic requirements required in this standard but who met the qualifications applicable to the position at the time they were appointed to it, the following provisions apply: (1) SLPs may be reassigned, promoted up to and including the full performance level or changed to a lower grade within the occupation, but may not be promoted beyond the full performance level or placed in supervisory or managerial positions. (2) If SLPs who are retained under this provision leave the occupation, they will lose protected status and must meet the full VA qualification standard requirements in effect at the time of re-entry to the occupation. (3) SLPs initially grandfathered into this occupation, who subsequently obtain additional education and/or licensure that meet all the basic requirements of this qualification standard, must maintain the required credentials as a condition of employment. (4) SLPs 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.

Education

IMPORTANT: A transcript must be submitted with 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: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Contacts

• Address VA Black Hills Health Care System 113 Comanche Road Fort Meade, SD 57741 US
• Name: Adam Abbott
• Phone: 612-629-7067
• Email: [email protected]