Supervisory Dietitian (Clinical Nutrition)

Clarification from the agency

This job is open to current permanent Department of Veteran Affairs employees, first area of consideration is facility.

This position serves as the Supervisory Dietitian overseeing dietitians assigned to Inpatient Acute Care and Inpatient Mental Health, the Community Living Center (CLC), and the Domiciliary Program (DOM). The incumbent collaborates closely with Pharmacy, Supply Chain Management, Medicine, Surgery, Nursing, and Food Service, as well as with the DOM and CLC Program Managers, to coordinate patient care and program operations. This position also partners with the Diet Health Technicians Supervisor and Patient Dining Team to identify and resolve food service related issues and projects. During hurricanes or other emergencies, the incumbent is expected to support emergency response efforts and may be required to remain on-site as needed.

The Supervisory Dietitian duties include, but are not limited to:

• Serves as a professional and technical advisor to staff and other health care professionals.
• Represents the Clinical Nutrition Section on projects, committees and/or workgroups within the department and facility.
• Assumes full responsibility for planning, directing, and assessing the work and competence of subordinate staff.
• Collaborate with other managers in the medical center to negotiate and/or make decisions on NFS related matters affecting clinical operations.
• Provides Clinical Nutrition Section specific leadership and exercises a full range of supervisory and personnel management authorities and responsibilities.
• Develops procedures and guidelines for clinical operations and monitors compliance with regulatory standards and policies and procedures.
• Participates in performance improvement efforts within Clinical Nutrition section, acting on quality improvement data and plans.
• Leads the action planning process to attain goals and resolve deficiencies.
• Identifies and prioritize problems, sets long and short-term goals, identifies action plans for the clinical section and nutrition programs.
• Build and implements contingency plans within the section, ensuring continuity of clinical operations in all internal and external emergency situations.
• Executes the training plan for the clinical section and ensures staff remain up to date on advances and changes in medical nutrition therapy. Orients and trains employees related to clinical nutrition and appropriate policies and procedures. Assists with new employee onboarding.
• Ensures that materials utilized in Veteran education are evidence based, using current literature and research.
• Analyses data (i.e., event capture, clinic utilization) to recommend allocation of clinical nutrition resources.
• Ensures evidence-based guidelines are integrated into clinical practice.
• Ensures Veteran education materials are written based on evidence-based guidelines, current literature, practice, and research.
• Collaborates with the food operations staff, bridging the work of the clinical nutrition staff to the food services provided to Veterans.
• May perform other related duties as assigned which are appropriate for this grade and assignment.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday (8:00am-4:30pm).
Telework: Telework Eligible as determined by agency policy.
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required.
Incentives: Not Authorized
Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP)- Authorized
PCS: Not Authorized
Functional Statement Title/#: Supervisory Dietitian -Clinical Nutrition GS-0630-12 / 99521-S.

This position is at the GS-12 - Above Full Performance (Supervisory) Level.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• You may be required to serve a probationary period.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process.
• May be required to pass pre-employment physical examination.

Qualifications

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. Citizen of the United States. (Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified candidates in accordance with chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3g, this part.)

English Language Proficiency. Dietitians must be proficient in spoken and written English as required by 38 U.S.C. 7402(d).

Registration-(Documentation Submitted):

All applicants must hold the RDN credential from the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) the credentialing agency of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Note: Applicants who hold the RDN credential have met the education requirement (e.g. bachelor's degree or higher) of CDR, as such this occupation is considered professional and scientific with a positive education requirement and the procedures in Part I, Chapter 4 of this Handbook will be followed when applying Veteran's preference.

Loss of Credentials. An employee who fails to maintain the required registration must be removed from the occupation, which may also result in termination of employment. At the advanced level practice assignment, an employee who fails to maintain the required board certification must be removed from the assignment. At the discretion of the appointing official, an employee may remain at an appropriate assignment in the occupation when the credential is not a requirement and a placement opportunity exists.

Grandfathering Provision. All persons employed in VHA as a dietitian 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 registration requirements or board certification, if applicable. For employees who do not meet all 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 apply:

• Such employees may be reassigned, promoted up to and including the full performance (journeyman) level, or changed to lower grade within the occupation, but may not be promoted beyond the journeyman level or placed in supervisory or managerial positions.
• Dietitians 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.
• Dietitians initially grandfathered into this occupation who subsequently obtain additional education and/or 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.
• Employees who are retained as a dietitian under this provision and subsequently leave the occupation lose protected status and must meet the full VA qualification standard requirements in effect at the time of reentry as a dietitian.

GRADE DETERMINATION, GS-12 (Supervisory Dietitian):

Experience: In addition to meeting the basic requirements, to qualify for the GS-12 you must possess at least 1 year of experience as an RDN/RD equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-11) which demonstrates the following Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Knowledge of accrediting requirements in clinical nutrition to assess staff compliance and implement performance improvements.
• Skill as a nutrition expert to provide technical guidance, direction and staff development.
• Skill in Evidence-Based Nutrition Practice Guidelines to develop, implement and coordinate best practices.
• Skill in establishing goals and objectives to coordinate activities, evaluate accomplishments and solve problems.
• Ability to supervise subordinate staff (i.e., plan, organize, delegate, direct, control and review activities and performance).
• Ability to analyze data in order to recommend allocation of resources.

Assignments. For all supervisory assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, complexity, difficulty, variety and be performed by the incumbent as a major duty at least 25% of the time. The incumbent must spend 25% or more of their time providing administrative and technical supervision over staff at the full performance level or below and may supervise advanced practice and/or program coordinator Dietitian(s). Supervisory Dietitians Clinical Nutrition in this assignment oversees the Clinical Nutrition Section and serve as the professional and technical advisors to staff and other health care professionals. They represent the Clinical Nutrition Section on projects, committees and/or workgroups. Supervisory Dietitians provide Clinical Nutrition Section-specific leadership and exercise a full range of supervisory and personnel management authorities and responsibilities in planning, directing and assessing the work and competence of subordinate staff. They provide administrative management and direction of the clinical nutrition section. Supervisory Dietitians develop procedures and guidelines for clinical operations and monitor compliance with regulatory standards and policies and procedures. They lead the action planning process to attain goals and resolve deficiencies. Supervisory Dietitians build and implement contingency plans within the section, ensuring continuity of clinical operations in all internal and external emergencies. They execute the training plan for the clinical section and ensure staff remain updated on advances and changes in medical nutrition therapy. Supervisory Dietitians analyze data (i.e., event capture, clinic utilization) to recommend the allocation of clinical nutrition resources. They ensure evidence-based guidelines are integrated into clinical practice. Supervisory Dietitians collaborate closely with the food service section to enhance the Veteran dining experience and support the strategic goals of the food service section.

Preferred Experience: Prior supervisory experience overseeing a multidisciplinary clinical nutrition team across multiple levels of care (acute, long-term care, and residential settings). Experience leading quality performance improvement initiatives and ensuring survey readiness across these care settings.

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

How you will be evaluated

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

Area of Consideration - Eligible applications will be reviewed and referred in the following order:

1. Current permanent VA employees of the facility.
2. All other 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:

• Long-form resume/Curriculum vitae (CV)
• RDN credential from the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action

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.

• Cover Letter
• Long-form resume/Curriculum vitae (CV)
• RDN credential from the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
• Transcript

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