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Health visitors work with families in their own homes to promote healthy lifestyles and prevent illness.
You could work: evenings; on a rota
As part of your day-to-day duties, you could:
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.
You can get into this job through:
If you are a qualified registered nurse or midwife you may be able to do a specialist community public health nurse (Master's) degree apprenticeship.
This typically takes 18 months to complete as a mix of 50 percent workplace learning and 50 percent academic study at an accredited university.
To do this apprenticeship, you'll need:
You need to be a registered midwife, adult, child, mental health or learning disability nurse to apply for health visitor training.
You then complete a course in Specialist Community Public Health Nursing - Health Visiting, approved by the Nursing & Midwifery Council.
Courses are at degree level, can be full-time or part-time and last between 1 and 2 years.
You'll need to:
When applying for jobs you'll be expected to have an understanding of how NHS values apply in your work.
You'll find more details about how to become a health visitor from Health Careers.
You could specialise in a area like working with teenage parents or people in need of mental health support.
With experience, you could progress to team manager, community matron or a healthcare management role.
You could also go into nurse education, training or academic research.
You'll find more details about how to become a health visitor from Health Careers.