To enjoy a successful career as a health visitor you need to have a strong sense of community. Health visitors must be strong, positive people who are able to share valuable health messages with a cross-section of society, without being patronising. It is a largely female-dominated profession, although the NHS are actively recruiting both sexes, with benefits including a solid career path, a stable future, flexibility regarding childcare and career breaks and the possibility of earning a good salary.
NHS and Private Opportunities
The vast majority of health visitors in the UK are employed by the NHS, under local health care trusts, although some private health care providers employ health visitors for particular services, such as smoking cessation or midwifery. The NHS employs health visitors primarily for home visits, although it also uses health visitors for special clinics, again including smoking cessation (an important focus for the NHS at the moment), weight loss (including healthy eating), diabetes maintenance and stress management.
The Role of the Health Visitor
The core purpose of a health visitor is to promote good health in the community, as such, much of their work is done in the homes of the public. They tend to visit at set times following a request from the person’s GP, following the birth of a baby, the requirement to check on the health of a child or adult or to assess the progress of the person after attending one of the special clinics.
With health visitors going into people’s homes, they need to be strong and confident and appreciate that they will often be needed in deprived areas or with at risk groups. Consequently, it can be a very demanding, often stressful role.
Training
The vast majority of health visitors are trained nurses or midwives who then take extra training to become a fully qualified health visitor. This is usually completed in addition to working full time, although you can choose to work part time and study part time, or gain additional practical experience.
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The starting salary for a qualified health visitor is around £25,000, not including London weighting (which is around a further 20%) or allowances for bank work, overtime or shift work. After gaining three years experience, this basic salary rises to around £33,000, with a further three to five years experience yielding around £40,000 basic salary.
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Working Hours
Most health visitors tend to work ‘normal’ office hours of 9am-5pm because they are able to arrange appointments, clinics and home visits within these hours. However, you must be prepared to work unsociable hours if needed, or to be on call at least once a month.
The Right Character
It is clear from the job description of a health visitor that you need to be hard working, focused on health and wellbeing and good with people. You need to be a good listener and be able to pick up on signs, rather than being bossy and dominating as you will be in potentially damaging domestic situations. It is not a glamorous role, but rather a fulfilling, rewarding and ultimately satisfying career for a health professional.
More Roles in the Caring Profession
For other careers in the caring profession, including Becoming A Midwife and A Nurse, visit our Caring and Education Category.
Thank you in advance.
Thank you
I am really interested in becoming a health care assistant, but really need to know the way to get into it?
I currently work as fitness instructor and personal trainer in the community Leisure industry and am looking for a change.
My knowledge on Health/fitness/Rehabilitation is high.
I also carry out respite care for a disabled 2 year old on a weekend basis, controlling medication and his indivdual needs.
Can anyone help me apply?
Many thanks.
Thank you,
Mei-Mei
Many thanks
Many thanks
Lisa
How do I go about undertaking this career change please?
thankyou
Thank you in advance Sophie.
To qualify as a registered nurse or midwife you need to complete a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) approved degree. To get onto an approved course you need to meet some general requirements set by the NMC. These include:
* providing evidence of your literacy and numeracy skills, good health and good character, and recent successful study experience
* meeting the minimum age requirement for nurse training – 17.5 years old in England
* agreeing to have a CRB check (a criminal conviction does not automatically exclude you from working within the NHS).
Course providers can set their own academic entry requirements, which can include:
* nursing and midwifery degrees – five GCSEs (A-C) in English and maths/science, plus two A levels (biology may be preferred).
If you do not meet the course entry requirements listed above, please check with universities because alternatives such as an Access to Higher Education course may also be accepted. You should apply for a nursing or midwifery course ( degree) through UCAS.
For more information on routes into nursing or midwifery, please check the relevant job profiles.
You will usually need a driving licence to work as a health visitor.
What further training and development can I do?
Training as a health visitor involves taking a (shortened) degree or postgraduate course in specialist public health nursing or health visiting. You could study on a one-year full-time, or two years' part-time basis. NHS Careers and the NMC have details of relevant course providers.
As a nurse or midwife in the NHS, your employer may support you financially through your health visitor training. You can get more information about funding from the Community Practitioners and Health Visitors Association (CPHVA).
During training you would study areas such as:
* community practice
* public health
* health promotion
* counselling
* social policy.
You would also spend time on practical placements, working under the supervision of an experienced health visitor.
As a qualified health visitor you would be expected to keep your skills up to date, and continue to develop your level of expertise.
Return to practice – if you are a former registered nurse wishing to return to the profession, you could take a return-to-practice course. Courses are available throughout the UK; contact your local NHS Trust for details.
Hope this helps good luck
I am looking for a substantial career change with a view to becoming a health visitor.
I have 11 A - C GCSE grades along with a number of NVQ qualifications and more recently an AAT diploma
I would appreciate if you could send me some information on the courses I would need to complete, along with the entry requirements.
I mostly would like to know whether I can go straight into University or whether I would need to complete a college course and then progress to university. I have attended college for 3 years to complete my AAT course but understand that this is a totally different field.
Any guidance would be very much appreciated
Thankyou for your attention
to Qualify to be a nurse or health visitor.
And if You dont go to uni does this mean you can not fully qualify.
Thank you.
Many thanks
Nike
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