Supervisory Audiologist – Service Chief

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. 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). English Language Proficiency: Audiologist candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English as required by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f). Education: Must have a doctor of audiology (AUD) from an audiology program recognized by the Accreditation Commission for Audiology Education (ACAE) or Council on Academic Accreditation (CAA) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). OR Other doctoral degree in hearing science or a directly related field from an institution accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. NOTE: Effective January 1, 2007, the CAA in Audiology and Speech- Language Pathology of ASHA accredits only doctoral degree or AUD programs in audiology. Foreign Education: To be creditable, education completed outside the U.S. must have been submitted to a private organization specializing in the interpretation of foreign educational credentials. Such education must have been deemed at least equivalent to that gained in conventional U.S. programs. Licensure: Individuals must hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to practice audiology at the doctoral level in a United States state, territory, commonwealth, or the District of Columbia. Grade Determinations: GS-14 Experience: Must have at least three years of experience as a professional audiologist, with at least one year comparable to the next lower grade level of GS-13 and must fully meet the KSAs at that level. GS-13 Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs): Skill in communicating established performance benchmarks to a service or equivalent organizational department. Skill in implementing continual performance improvement activities to meet performance benchmarks. Ability to perform a full scope of managerial responsibilities. Ability to lead audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and/or other professionals within associated disciplines. Ability to develop contingencies to ensure continual service operations. GS-14 Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs): In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs: Skill in promoting collaboration to accomplish goals Skill in translating management goals and objectives into efficient service operations Skill in balancing operational resources to ensure appropriate delivery of service operations Ability to supervise a diverse staff Ability to effectively interact and collaborate with local, VISN and/or national leadership Ability to establish and monitor productivity standards, production and performance priorities to achieve management goals and objectives Assignment: Supervisory audiologists spend 25% or more of their time providing technical and administrative supervision. Supervisory audiologists in this assignment serve as service chiefs. Audiologist service chiefs at this level typically manage programs in Complexity Level 1 (high complexity) facilities. The service or organizational entity is a major component of the medical center and the services or programs supervised are highly professional, technical, and complex. They are responsible for all professional, management, and administrative aspects of the service or organizational entity. They have broad and overall responsibility for a service-level organizational unit and have full responsibility for clinical practice, program management, education, human resources management and supervision for the service. They autonomously manage substantive parts of specialized, complex, professional services that significantly impact Veterans’ care. They provide leadership with objective, independent assessments and recommendations for policy, operational and administrative issues and initiatives requiring decision and action. They monitor work performance to ensure that requirements are satisfied; interpret and process a wide variety of data related to program planning and specialized needs of the Veterans, the service and the medical center; and ensure policies or issues have been fully coordinated, vetted and staffed. Audiologist service chiefs advise executive leadership on implications, key issues, and relationships to interest groups (both internal and external) and recommend courses of action. They coordinate and negotiate resolutions to complex problems. They assure compliance with accrediting agencies and regulatory requirements and corrective action is initiated as needed. They are responsible for professional and administrative management of an assigned area, including budget execution. They maintain interdepartmental relationships with other services to accomplish medical center goals. They may prepare special reports and responses, Congressional responses, briefing papers, issue briefs, and decision papers for the medical center leadership, which may be highly sensitive, confidential and of a complex nature. They develop policies and procedures and may develop performance standards, position descriptions, and functional statements. They monitor the clinical performance of staff, conduct performance appraisals, perform other clinical, and administrative responsibilities to ensure that the mission of the service and the medical center has been satisfied. They may set training objectives for staff and delegate responsibilities to subordinate sections. Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-14 Physical Requirements: The work requires an ongoing mix of sitting, standing, walking, bending, and carrying light weight items. Many of the positions major duties require a high degree of manual dexterity and accuracy. All patient care activities require PC keyboard and mouse use for data entry in the electronic patient record. In some instances, interaction with patients, caregivers, and staff can become intense, and the employee may be placed in a position of stress.
The duties and responsibilities of the Chief, Audiology and Speech Pathology Services are carried out throughout the Salt Lake City, UT, VA Healthcare System, including the Community Based Outpatient Clinics. Incumbent is responsible for managing administrative and clinical standards of practice within the area of responsibility. This includes overseeing business processes and organizational policies directly related to the area of responsibility.