Health visitor
Health visitors work with families with a child aged 0 to 5 to identify health needs, promote healthy lifestyles and prevent illness.
What you'll do
Day-to-day tasks
As a health visitor, you could:
- advise new parents on baby feeding, hygiene, safety and sleep
- support parents with their children's development needs
- coordinate child immunisation programmes
- organise clinics or drop in centres
- work with social services and other organisations to safeguard and protect children
Working environment
You could work at a client's home, at a health centre or at a GP practice.
Your working environment may be physically and emotionally demanding and you'll travel often.
Career path and progression
With experience you could:
- specialise in an area like working with teenage parents or people that need mental health support
- progress to team manager, community matron or a healthcare management role
- move into education, training or academic research
What it takes
Skills and knowledge
You'll need:
- sensitivity and understanding
- active listening skills
- the ability to work well with others
- the ability to understand people’s reactions
- knowledge of psychology
- the ability to use your initiative
- to be flexible and open to change
- administration skills
- to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device
Restrictions and Requirements
You'll need to:
How to become
You can get into this job through an apprenticeship or by working toward this role.
If you are a qualified registered nurse or midwife, you may be able to do a Specialist Community Public Health Nurse Level 7 Degree Apprenticeship.
This typically takes a year and 6 months to complete as a mix of learning on the job and study.
Entry requirements
To do this apprenticeship, you'll need:
- to be a registered nurse
More Information
You can apply for health visitor training if you're a registered midwife or nurse in any branch of nursing.
You'll need to complete the Specialist Community Public Health Nursing - Health Visiting course which is approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
Your training can be full time or part time and will last between 1 to 2 years.
Registration
- you'll need to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council
Career tips
You'll be expected to understand how the NHS values apply in your work when applying for a course or an apprenticeship.
Further information
You can get more advice about how to become a health visitor from Health Careers.
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External links
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.