Clarification from the agency

This vacancy announcement is only open to current permanent VA employees. Applicants will be referred in the following order: Orlando VA Health Care System employees, then rest of VA employees. NOTE: The 2-page Resume requirement does not apply to this position. For more information, refer to Required Documents below.

Duties include but are not limited to the following:

• Coordinates a variety of activities including outreach, multidisciplinary activities, consultation and/or education to medical center staff and community service providers. The incumbent will also be responsible for the collection and maintenance of statistical data, program planning, evaluation, and modification.
• Promotes systems and practices that enhance the women Veterans' satisfaction and trust in the healthcare delivery of CBOCs for their unique needs.
• Communicates effectively, both orally and in writing, with people from varied backgrounds. Has working knowledge and skill in data management. Has the ability to establish and maintain positive working relationships with employees, volunteers, consumers and stakeholders within the VA and outside community agencies.

Administrative Duties:

• Develops and monitors sex specific quality indicators and monitors outcomes in health care delivery to women Veterans.
• Provides consultation and technical assistance to CBOC leadership/providers/staff on women Veterans' issues at the Orlando VA Healthcare System.
• Serves as an advocate for women Veterans.
• Maintains effective working relationships with CBOC clinic directors, nurse managers, and women's health teams as a liaison for the Women's Health Program to ensure dissemination of policy changes and outreach materials.
• Monitors and provides reports to the WVPM, VISN and VHA on performance standards at the CBOCs.
• In the absence of the WVPM, serves as OVAHCS's representative regarding the Women's Health program during external site visits or reviews (e.g. JCAHO, VISN, OIG)
• Conducts assessments to identify CBOC VA staff/provider education gaps related to women's health and works with the facility WVPM to develop or adapt educational programs, materials, and resources where gaps are identified.
• Designs and manages promotional events and actions that encourage utilization of existing services.
• Assists in the development of technical data, estimates, statistics, suggestions, and other information useful to higher level managers in determining goals and objectives, and other management strategies.
• Conducts monthly Women Veteran Roundtable group.
• Assesses and actively facilitates the implementation of preventive care and health promotion, targeting sex-disparity gaps with staff, provider, and Veteran educational initiatives
• Responds to the Voice of the Women Veterans by conducting needs assessment, developing and facilitating targeted outreach activities, and systematically evaluating Veteran outcomes annually
• Represents VA and collaborates with community agencies to design, develop, and implement outreach activities to enhance Women Veterans' awareness of available health care services.
• Initiates or leads quality improvement teams to collect data, analyze results, and design practice changes to enhance and evaluate health care outcomes.

Clinical Duties:

• Documents independently in the medical record utilizing paper and/or electronic formats.
• Highly developed professional, clinical and advanced practice skills are routinely used to assist Veterans with complex problems. Utilizes professional judgment and advanced practice skills to review all data, subjective and objective, to complete clinical assessments that identified the needs and strengths of Veterans and make psychosocial diagnoses.
• The Social Worker will fulfill ethical responsibilities to Veterans, colleagues and VA.
• The incumbent evaluates their practice on an on-going basis through participation in professional peer review, case conferences, research studies, or other organized means. Is active in and accepts responsibility for the development and maintenance of professional standards of treatment.
• The position requires the ability to operate a government vehicle and may include transportation of passengers (employees and/or Veterans) to carry out job functions. This includes maintaining a valid driver's license.
• Provides supervision to unlicensed and/or Social Work interns within Orlando VA HCS.
• May serve as a graduate student field instructor.
• Participates in all assigned supervisory meetings to include individual, team huddles, and will participate in, both social work and matrix, staff meetings.
• Utilizes standardized instruments in the assessment of mental health problems/conditions including the use of Measurement-Based Care.
• Utilizes knowledge and ability to implement Evidenced Based treatment modalities, provide individual group or family psychotherapy, supportive contact and psychosocial education to Veterans and families.

Work Schedule: Monday through Friday; 8:00 am to 4:30 pm
Telework: Eligible for ad hoc telework only
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: Senior Social Worker, 81560F.
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Must pass pre-employment physical examination.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications at time of application.

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.
• English Language Proficiency. Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f).
• Education-Transcript Submitted. 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-Documentation Submitted 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/.
  • Loss of Licensure or Certification. Once licensed or certified, social workers must maintain a full, valid, and unrestricted independent license or certification to remain qualified for employment. Loss of licensure or certification will result in removal from the GS-0185 social worker series and may result in termination of employment.
• Grandfathering Provision. The following is the standard grandfathering policy for all title 38 hybrid qualification standards. Please carefully review the qualification standard to determine the specific education and/or licensure/certification/registration requirements that apply to this occupation.
  1. All persons employed in VHA in this occupation on the effective date of this qualification standard are considered to have met all qualification requirements for the title, series and grade held, including positive education and licensure or certification that are part of the basic requirements of the occupation. For employees who do not meet all of the basic requirements in this standard, but who met the qualifications applicable to the position at the time they were appointed to it, the following provisions apply:
  2. Such employees in an occupation that requires a licensure or certification, may be reassigned, promoted up to and including the full performance (journey) level, or changed to lower grade within the occupation, but may not be promoted beyond the journey level or placed in supervisory or managerial positions.
  3. Employees 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.
  4. Employees initially grandfathered into this occupation, who subsequently obtain additional education and/or licensure/certification/registration that meet all of the basic requirements of this qualification standard must maintain the required credentials as a condition of employment in the occupation.
  5. If an employee who was retained in an occupation listed in 38 U.S.C. § 7401(3) under this provision leaves that occupation, the employee loses protected status and must meet the full VA qualification standard requirements in effect at the time of reentry to the occupation.

Grade Determinations:

• Experience/Education. 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.
• Licensure/Certification. Senior social workers must be licensed or certified by a state at the advanced practice level which included an advanced generalist or clinical examination, unless they are grandfathered by the state in which they are licensed to practice at the advanced practice level (except for licenses issued in California, which administers its own clinical examination for advanced practice) and they must be able to provide supervision for licensure.
• Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, candidates 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.

This position requires a current, valid driver's license to drive a government vehicle on a regular and recurring basis to perform the duties of this position.

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

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.

Physical Requirements: Physical aspects associated with work required of this assignment are typical for the occupation, see Duties section for essential job duties of the position. May require standing, lifting, carrying, sitting, stooping, bending, pulling, and pushing.
May be required to wear personal protective equipment and undergo annual TB screening or testing as conditions of employment.

Work Environment: Work is performed in an office/clinic setting with minimal risks that requires normal safety precautions; the area is adequately lighted, heated, and ventilated. However, the work environment requires someone with the ability to handle several tasks at once in sometimes stressful situations.

How you will be evaluated

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

Employees will be referred in the following order:

• Current permanent employees of the facility
• All other current permanent VA employees

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

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.

The Department of Veterans Affairs performs pre-employment reference checks as an assessment method used in the hiring process to verify information provided by a candidate (e.g., on resume or during interview or hiring process); gain additional knowledge regarding a candidate's abilities; and assist a hiring manager with making a final selection for a position.

It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.

To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package which includes:

• Social Worker Licensure - Advanced Practice level
• Resume
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
• Transcript

Special Note for Applications: To complete your application, please use the following link https://vacareers.va.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/Resume.docx to download the standard Clinical Resume Document. This one-page document does not need to be modified and must be uploaded into the two-page restricted 'Resume' document upload field.

Your full resume/CV may be uploaded without page limitation into the 'Other' document upload field.

The following documents are accepted, and may be required if applicable to your eligibility and/or qualifications for this position. Please ensure you have included all documents required for your application, such as a copy of your transcript (if using education to qualify), SF-50's (current/former Federal employees), etc.

• DD-214/ Statement of Service
• License
• Resume over two pages
• Social Worker Licensure - Advanced Practice level
• Professional Certification
• Resume
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
• Transcript

Veterans' Preference: When applying for Federal Jobs, eligible Veterans should claim preference for 5pt (TP), 10pt (CP/CPS/XP), or for Sole Survivor Preference (SSP) in the questionnaire. You must provide a legible copy of your DD214(s) which shows dates and character of service (honorable, general, etc.). If you are currently serving on active duty and expect to be released or discharged within 120 days you must submit documentation related to your active duty service which reflects the dates of service, character of service (honorable, general, etc.), and dates of impending separation. Additionally, disabled veterans and others eligible for 10-point preference (such as widows or mothers of eligible Veterans) must also submit an SF-15 "Application for 10 Point Veteran Preference" with required proof as stated on the form. Documentation is required to award preference. For more information on Veterans' Preference, please visit Feds Hire Vets - Veterans - Job Seekers - Veterans' Preference.

Veterans' preference does not apply for internal or other current permanent Federal agency employees.

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