Work Schedule: SUN-TUES (W-TH OFF) FRI-SAT.
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

The Senior Social Worker provides social work coverage to multiple programs at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. On the weekends, incumbent provides social work services to the VA Palo Alto Division, covering all inpatient medical units (acute medicine, acute surgery, Intermediate Intensive Care Unit and Intensive Care Unit) and the Emergency Department, and provides consultation on clinical issues for the Defender's Lodge and Fisher Houses. Incumbent is the sole social worker on the premises and works independently without the support of an on-site supervisor or interdisciplinary team members. The other three (3) weekdays, the incumbent provides social work services to patients followed by the specialty clinics of Dialysis and/or Oncology and provides support to social workers in acute care medical units, as needed. Incumbent also serves as coordinator for ensuring social work coverage for weekend and holiday shifts 365 days/year, including providing training to ensure competence for the broad scope of social work duties. Incumbent manages the daily operation of the program, directs patient care services in the program area, develops policies and procedures for program operation and prepares reports and statistics for facility, VISN, and national use. The incumbent manages and controls the use of data related to these programs regarding day-to-day functioning and program evaluation.

Duties include but are limited to the following:

• Medicine/Surgery: On weekends, incumbent evaluates and provides complex, multiple services to individuals and families with a variety of social, emotional and health related problems. Services are timely, comprehensive, and effectively coordinated with services provided by other health care professionals.
• Emergency Department (ED): On weekends, incumbent provides services to Veterans with highly complex health and/or mental health problems who may be in medical or mental health crisis. Incumbent provides social work triage assessment, crisis intervention, brief counseling, and rapid referrals to VA and community resources.
• Intermediate Intensive Care Unit and Intensive Care Unit (ICU): On weekends, incumbent provides social work triage assessment, crisis intervention, brief counseling, bereavement support, referrals to VA and community resources, and discharge planning.
• Dialysis: On weekdays, incumbent provides support to the primary dialysis social worker. Incumbent is responsible for assessment and treatment plans for Veterans who receive dialysis at the VA hospital. Incumbent is also responsible for assisting the inpatient medical team in setting up Renal services in the communities in which a Veteran resides.
• Oncology: On weekdays, incumbent provides support to the primary oncology social worker. Responsibilities may include arranging for the delivery of services for Oncology and Hematology Clinics and several additional specialty outpatient clinics (i.e., Allergy, Andrology, Diagnostic Radiology Center, ENT, General Surgery, GU Oncology, Hematology, Interventional Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, Oncology, and Urology).

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• Designated and/or random drug testing may be required
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• You may be required to serve a probationary period
• Subject to a background/security investigation
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process
• Physical Requirements: This position is mostly sedentary and requires walking, kneeling, bending, standing, and light lifting

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/25/2020.
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: Must Possess a master's degree in social work (MSW) 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.In addition to meeting basic requirements, a doctoral degree in social work from a school of social work may be substituted for the required one year of professional social work experience in a clinical setting. [Transcripts must be submitted at time of application. Conferral of degree(s) must be stated on transcript(s). Unofficial transcripts(s) are acceptable].
• Licensure/Certification: Individuals assigned as social worker program coordinator must be licensed or certified at the advanced practice level and must be able to provide supervision for licensure.
• English Language Proficiency: Social workers must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3j.
• Physical Requirements: This position is mostly sedentary and requires walking, kneeling, bending, standing, and light lifting.

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).

Preferred Experience: The incumbent must have at least one year of advanced clinical and case management expertise. Experience should include Medicine and work on interdisciplinary treatment teams.

Grade Determinations: GS-12, 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.Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs:

1. 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.
2. Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 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.

References: VA Handbook 5005/120, PART II, Appendix G39, Dated September 10, 2019.

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-12.

Physical Requirements: This position is mostly sedentary and requires walking, kneeling, bending, standing, and light lifting.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Your application, résumé, C.V., and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect consideration for employment.

NOTE: The Professional Standards Board (a peer-review group) will review the selected candidate's education and experience and recommend the grade and salary at which the candidate will be placed. For internal selectees eligible for promotion, the board will recommend grade and HR will determine step in accordance with policy.

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.