Health visitors are specialised nurses or midwives that are already registered in the UK. Health visiting is essentially a specialisation that registered nurses or midwives undertake in order to become specialist community health nurses. If you’re passionate about helping families with children aged 0 to 5 years in your community, health visiting might be the right healthcare job for you! This article will provide you with the answer to your question on how to become a health visitor in the UK.
Becoming a health visitor will, of course, require you to possess certain qualifications and skills, and we’re here to help you understand what you need in order to become a health visitor in the UK! Let’s get started and take a look at what a health visitor’s job description looks like.
Health Visitor Job Description
As a health visitor, your job will be focused on providing assistance to families with new babies aged 0 to 5. Your job is to apply your expertise and training to ensure that the right healthcare support is provided to the child as early as possible.
Health visitors often have to work with deprived families; this may also include homeless individuals, victims of addiction, or travellers with no resources.
Commonly, health visitors are required to promote healthcare and provide assistance by visiting people’s homes, as well as clinics and different groups. As a health visitor, your goal is to provide voluntary assistance to support the needs of children and their families.
The NHS has listed the various roles and responsibilities of a UK health visitor; take a look:
- Providing support to families while they finish transitioning to parenthood. This typically includes the weeks following the birth of their child.
- Advising and supporting the initiation of breastfeeding and ensuring that the infant or the young children are getting a healthy diet.
- Assessing the needs of the children’s growth and development and preparing health review reports based on the assessment.
- Assisting in providing the infant with the best start in speech and communication.
- Supporting maternal and infant mental health.
- Promoting the prevention of childhood obesity by supporting healthy nutrition conversations.
- Providing advice on illnesses, safety and preventing accidents.
So, this is what a health visitor’s day looks like. Your job will be focused on promoting health and assisting families with newborn children. Health visitors are also tasked with the very important role of protecting and identifying children that are in danger. For that, you will be partnering with social care workers, and you will be responsible for the following:
- Safeguarding and protecting the children who you believe are vulnerable.
- Identifying children who are at risk.
- Assisting in safeguarding arrangements and ensuring that the child is being heard.
Health visiting is a profession suited for people who are deeply passionate about caring for children and ensuring that their families are educated on healthcare and have the necessary support to provide their children with a safe and nurturing environment.
Now that you know what’s going to be expected of you, you might be wondering about what qualifications you need to be a health visitor.
Health Visitor Qualifications
In order to become a health visitor, you first need to be a registered nurse. Your specialisation could be in any field; you could be a registered midwife, adult nurse, child nurse, learning disability nurse, or mental health nurse.
As a registered nurse, you can take the health visitor training course called Specialist Community Public Health Nursing – Health Visiting (SCPHN – HV) to become a health visitor. The programme lasts 52 weeks.
So, that’s pretty much all the qualifications you need in order to qualify for a health visitor job. But there are also a few skills that are necessary to become a health visitor. Take a look:
- Passion for public health promotion and helping children
- Excellent communication skills
- Organisational skills
- Radiates confidence
- Leadership skills
These are the qualifications and skills you need in order to become a health visitor. Hopefully, we have answered your question on how to become a health visitor. These skills are something your employer will ask about in your health visiting interview as well.
If you’re wondering about what kind of benefits and pay you’re looking at, check out the next section.
Health Visitor Benefits And Pay
As a health visitor working for the NHS, you will start at band 6 on the Agenda for Change (AfC) pay system. Your working hours will be set at 37.5 hours a week, divided into various shifts. Health visitors also receive a generous pension scheme. You also get 27 annual holidays, as well as bank holidays.
Do keep in mind that these benefits are only for health visitors working for the NHS, private healthcare providers may have different benefits and salary systems.
And so, this was an answer to your question on how to become a health visitor. We hope that we’ve helped you understand the various qualifications and skills that are needed to become a health visitor in the UK. If you need help finding the perfect health visitor job, you can reach out to us. Primus Recruitment has years of experience in helping healthcare professionals find the right job for them! Get in touch with our healthcare hiring specialists.
