The Supervisory Social Worker has personnel management responsibilities for a small to medium size professional staff. The incumbent is primarily responsible for the professional and administrative management of inpatient social workers assigned to acute medical, surgical, specialty, palliative care and critical care areas. 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: Citizenship: Be a citizen of the United States. (Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3g.) Education: Have 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. Licensure: Persons hired or reassigned to social worker positions in the GS-185 series in VHA must be licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work at the master's degree level. Specifically; Licensure for this position is at the Advanced Practice level. Advanced Practice Level is defined as the ability to provide independent and expert clinical practice in psychosocial and case management services within a specialized area of practice and provide supervision for licensure. English Language Proficiency: Social workers must be proficient in spoken and written English. Supervisory Social Worker, GS-12 Education and Experience. One year of experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level. Experience must demonstrate possession of advanced practice skills in a specialty area or in administration demonstrating progressively more professional competency and judgment. Candidate may have certification or other post-master's degree training from a nationally recognized professional organization or university that includes a defined curriculum/course of study and internship, or equivalent supervised professional experience. Licensure/Certification. Individuals assigned as Supervisory 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: Ability to independently organize work, set priorities, and meet multiple deadlines. Knowledge of supervisory duties which includes clinical supervision, consultation, negotiation with other departments and quality improvement. Ability to ensure provision of clinical social work services. Ability to provide staff training and development. Skill in interpersonal relationships in dealing with employees, team leaders, and managers. Advanced Practice Level. Advanced Practice Level is defined as the ability to provide independent and expert clinical psychosocial and case management services in a specialized area of practice to veterans who tend to have serious and severe crises, may lack any familial and community support, may be poor self-monitors, may frequently fail to comply with instructions and treatment, or may have major deficits in coping skills and require continuing professional psychological support. The advanced practice or Senior Social Worker has an increased depth and breadth of practice skills; has expertise in participating in the professional development of colleagues through mentorship and teaching; demonstrates leadership in developing and expanding professional intervention strategies; demonstrates leadership in defining and attending to professional practice issues; and has the ability to expand the conceptual knowledge of the profession. The advanced practice or Senior Social Worker will make independent professional decisions and recommendations for agency action; the consequences to the veteran of these decisions and actions may be quite serious. Work involves intensive social work services requiring the exercise of mature professional judgment and the flexible use of a wide range of complex social work practice skills not typically required in routine social work interventions. The advanced practice or senior social worker has mastered a range of specialized interventions and provides consultation to colleagues, renders professional opinions based on experience and expertise, develops new models of psychosocial assessment or intervention, and incorporates complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment. The advanced practice or Senior Social Worker utilizes outcome evaluations to further treatment and designs system changes based on empirical findings References: VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39, SOCIAL WORKER QUALIFICATION STANDARD, dated September 10, 2019 ["The Social Work Supervisor Inpatient duties include, but not limited to: Responsible for the professional and administrative management of inpatient social workers assigned to acute medical, surgical, specialty, palliative care, and critical care areas. Function in both a clinical and administrative capacity, providing direct acute medical social work services to Veterans and provide administrative oversight to those acute inpatient medical and social work and case management staff. Serves as primary point of contact and resource to the interdisciplinary team for community based social service agencies and VA programs. Intervenes with appropriate individuals and agencies regarding delays in service that may have an impact on quality of patient care, length of stay, or inappropriate patient admissions. Collaborates with nurse case managers when appropriate. Interacts with home care staff, community agencies and facilities to ensure safe and timely discharge of Veterans. Negotiates with interdisciplinary team follow up contact with patient/family, community agency or facility to evaluate the effectiveness of the discharge plans and identifies problems in service delivery. Reviews patient information for assigned caseload, determines anticipated length of stay and discharge plan and begins discharge planning process in collaboration with interdisciplinary team, patient, family. Coordinate community-based services with Community Care Team, including information and referral for additional services from other VA Programs, other government programs, and community agency programs by connecting Veterans to clinically appropriate resources to assist them as they transition back to life at home in the community. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm Telework: Available Financial Disclosure Report: Not required Recruitment/Relocation Incentive: Not authorized"]

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