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Health visitor

Health visitors work with families in their own homes to promote healthy lifestyles and prevent illness.

Average salary (a year)

£26,250 Starter

to

£41,000 Experienced

Typical hours (a week)

38 to 40 a week

You could work

evenings on a rota

How to become a health visitor

You can get into this job through:

  • working towards this role

Work

You can apply for training if you're a registered nurse or midwife. Any branch of nursing is acceptable.

You'll complete a course in Specialist Community Public Health Nursing - Health Visiting, approved by the Nursing & Midwifery Council.

Courses can be full time or part time and last between 1 and 2 years.

More information

Registration

Further information

You'll find more details about how to become a health visitor from Health Careers.

What it takes

Skills and knowledge

You'll need:

  • customer service skills
  • the ability to work well with others
  • the ability to use your initiative
  • to be flexible and open to change
  • sensitivity and understanding
  • to enjoy working with other people
  • the ability to come up with new ways of doing things
  • knowledge of teaching and the ability to design courses
  • being able to use a computer terminal or hand-held device may be beneficial for this job.

Restrictions and requirements

You'll need to:

What you'll do

Day-to-day tasks

Your day-to-day duties may include:

  • giving advice to new parents on feeding babies, hygiene, safety and sleeping
  • supporting parents with their children’s development needs
  • coordinating child immunisation programmes
  • organising special clinics or drop-in centres
  • supporting children with special needs
  • advising on how to reduce the risk of accident and injury
  • working closely 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 progress to team manager, community matron or a management role in another department of the NHS.

You could also go into nurse education and training.

Training opportunities

Apprenticeships In England

We can't find any apprenticeship vacancies in England for a health visitor right now.

The Find an apprenticeship service can help you with your search, send alerts when new apprenticeships become available and has advice on how to apply.

Courses In England

Access to Nursing Midwifery & Allied Professions Level 3

  • Provider: OLDHAM COLLEGE
  • Start date: 02 September 2019
  • Location: OLDHAM

Access to Nursing

  • Provider: WEST THAMES COLLEGE
  • Start date: 09 September 2019
  • Location: Middx
Find courses near you

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