Summary

The Madison VA, complexity level lb, has a diverse teaching, research, medicine, and transplant hospital, and an extensive, multisite, Ambulatory Clinic Program. The Acute Care Pharmacy Supervisor provides strategic, clinical, and operational leadership for acute care pharmacy services. This role is responsible for the daily professional and administrative oversight of clinical pharmacy services within the acute care setting.

Duties

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FUNCTIONS or SCOPE of ASSIGNED DUTIES:

A. Clinical Program Leadership and Inpatient Practice - The Acute Care Pharmacy Supervisor partners with the inpatient pharmacy management team to provide leadership, oversight, and support for the delivery of high-quality clinical pharmacy services across all acute care areas. The supervisor establishes the framework, philosophy, and environment for effective clinical practice while also contributing direct patient care when operationally necessary. Key responsibilities include:

• Provides clinical leadership and oversight for pharmacists delivering acute care services, ensuring consistent, evidence-based practice standards across all inpatient units.
• Serves as a clinical resource and may provide direct inpatient pharmacist support as needed, modeling best practices and ensuring continuity of care.
• Ensures pharmacist evaluation of medication orders for appropriateness, including assessment of drug interactions, allergies, contraindications, and potential adverse reactions.
• Guides and oversees clinical interventions to promote rational, safe, and effective drug therapy, ensuring interventions are documented according to policy.
• Ensures adherence to formulary management processes and supports staff in identifying therapeutic and cost-effective alternatives to
  non-formulary requests.
• Provides leadership in drug therapy monitoring and ensures pharmacists deliver accurate, evidence-based medication information to the healthcare team.

B. Operational and Administrative Leadership:

• Responsible for planning, developing, organizing, coordinating, directing and evaluating an integrated acute care pharmacy program designed to provide a full range of pharmacy services.
• Assists with the management and coordination of daily operations across all areas of the inpatient pharmacy.
• Along with members of the pharmacy leadership team, interviews, evaluates, and selects new employees according to current federal laws and VA policies regarding EEO and Veterans preference.
• Supports the acute care pharmacy management team in implementation, revision, and interpretation of pharmacy service policies and procedures.
• Assists with coordination of staffing in the central pharmacy and acute care areas, ensuring appropriate resource allocation based on volume, acuity, and program needs.
• Coordinates staff resources in collaboration with Pharmacy Supervisors and Lead Technicians to support operational efficiency and clinical service delivery.

C. Education, Competency Oversight, and Staff Development

• Ensures staff engagement, communication, and participation in the development, revision, and implementation of inpatient pharmacy policies, procedures, and clinical practice standards.
• Oversees and supports patient and staff medication education initiatives across acute care areas, ensuring consistency, accuracy, and alignment with evidence-based practice.
• Maintains personal professional competency by staying current on new drugs, evolving therapeutic standards, and innovations in pharmacy practice, and integrates new knowledge into clinical and supervisory responsibilities, practice, and integrating this information into his/her daily practice.
• Supports the acute care management team in the training of new acute care pharmacy staff.
• Provides leadership in staff competency assessment, supporting ongoing education, skills validation, and development activities for pharmacists and technicians.

VA Careers - Pharmacy: https://youtube.com/embed/Fn_ickNBEws

Work Schedule

Telework: AD-HOC

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Functional Statement #: 10138F

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Available

Requirements

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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.
• 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 identification 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 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:

• 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. Pharmacists must be proficient in spoken and written English as required by 38 U.S.C. 7402(d), and 7407(d).

Education:

(1) Graduate of an Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) accredited College or School of Pharmacy with a baccalaureate degree in pharmacy (BS Pharmacy) and/or a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree. Verification of approved degree programs may be obtained from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, 20 North Clark Street, Suite 2500, Chicago, Illinois 60602-5109; phone: (312) 664-3575, or through their Web site at: http://www.acpe-accredit.org/. (NOTE: Prior to 2005 ACPE accredited both baccalaureate and Doctor of Pharmacy terminal degree program. Today the sole degree is Doctor of Pharmacy.) (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED)

OR,

Foreign Education:

(2) Graduates of foreign pharmacy degree programs meet the educational requirement if the graduate is able to provide proof of achieving the Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Examination Commission (FPGEC) Certification, which includes passing the Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Equivalency Examination (FPGEE) and the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT). (CERTIFICATION REQUIRED)

LICENSURE:

Full, current and unrestricted license to practice pharmacy in a State, Territory, Commonwealth of the United States (i.e., Puerto Rico), or the District of Columbia. The pharmacist must maintain current registration if this is a requirement for maintaining full, current, and unrestricted licensure. A pharmacist who has, or has ever had, any license(s) revoked, suspended, denied, restricted, limited, or issued/placed in a probationary status may be appointed only in accordance with the provisions in VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Chapter 3, section B, paragraph 16.

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).

GS-13 GRADE DETERMINATION:

Specialized Experience: Must have 1 year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level GS-12. Experience includes but not limited to: designing, implementing, assessing, monitoring and documenting therapeutic plans utilizing the most effective, least toxic and most economical medication treatments; helping achieve positive patient centric outcomes through direct and indirect interactions with patients, providers, and interdisciplinary teams in assigned areas; performing physical assessments; and ordering laboratory and other tests to help determine efficacy and toxicity of medication therapy.

**** NOTE: Experience must be well documented in Resume/CV to qualify for the position. ****

Assignments: Candidates at this grade level are to be in one of the assignments listed below. The higher level duties must consist of significant scope, administrative independence, complexity (difficulty) and range of variety as described in this standard at the specified grade level and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time.

Pharmacy Supervisor. Responsible for the professional and administrative management of an assigned area in pharmacy service, to include budgetary execution. Such individuals have responsibilities for supervising multiple pharmacists and technicians. Manages people, maintains effective interdepartmental relations, and cooperates with other services to accomplish the medical facility's mission and goals. Develops performance standards, assures that the program area is compliant with all regulatory and accrediting body requirements, designs and implements orientation and training programs for staff, and develops and maintains systems to monitor the performance of staff activities. Develops policies and procedures relative to their assigned area. Pharmacists assigned to this position must demonstrate the following KSAs:

GS-12 KSA's

• Knowledge of professional pharmacy practice.
• Ability to communicate orally and in writing to both patients and health care staff.
• Knowledge of laws, regulations, and accreditation standards related to the distribution and control of scheduled and non-scheduled drugs and pharmacy security.
• Skill in monitoring and assessing the outcome of drug therapies, including physical assessment and interpretation of laboratory and other diagnostic parameters.

In additional GS-13 KSA's

• Ability to effectively supervise subordinate staff.
• Ability to communicate orally and in writing to persuade and influence clinical and management decisions.
• Expert understanding of regulatory and quality standards pertaining to pharmacy.
• Skill in managing people or programs.

Preferred Experience:

• Successful completion of a PGY1/2 Health-System Pharmacy Administration and Leadership Residency.
• Pharmacy Supervisory Experience.

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-13. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-13.

Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019

Education

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Additional information

During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

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Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

Benefits

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