Case studies: Health visitor: Rosie

Rosie worked as a hospital nurse and a practice nurse before training as a health visitor. She graduated with a degree in specialist community health practice in 2007 and now works as a health visitor in Kent.

My first degree was in adult nursing. The degree course was interprofessional, so we shared some modules with people studying to go into other health professions. As part of the degree, I was able to undertake a variety of clinical placements in hospitals and the community. After I graduated, I worked in a hospital for two years, and this gave me the post-registration experience I needed to apply for a post as a practice nurse.

In my role as a practice nurse, I enjoyed running the various nurse-led clinics. I was also involved in giving specialist advice on healthy lifestyle areas such as smoking cessation and weight control. I saw lots of new parents, as I was responsible for the immunisation programme for their babies. I knew that I’d like to have a role that was out in the community specialising in this type of work, and after reading about the careers available, I realised that health visiting was the ideal job for me.

I arranged to spend two days work shadowing a health visitor. I was impressed by the variety of the job and by the high level of interaction the health visitor had with her clients. I found a university with a degree in specialist community health practice available (which leads to qualification as a health visitor) and decided to pursue it.

I really enjoy working as part of a team with other health visitors, community nursery nurses, staff nurses and health visitor assistants. I also love the variety of the job. There really is no such thing as a typical day. It’s great to have a job that involves getting out and about in the community and interacting with so many different people. One of my favourite parts of the job is working with babies and new parents and being able to offer support and advice. Another bonus is that there is no shift work in this role, and I’m able to work nine to five.

I suppose the only downside can be the bureaucracy. There is a lot of paperwork as well as ever-changing regulations, but this is probably true of most careers in healthcare. While it can seem onerous, the majority of it is a necessary function. Staff shortages can also be frustrating, but there are moves to increase health visitor numbers.

My advice to anyone considering this as a career is to research all the career areas available within nursing and healthcare first and to spend some time work shadowing professionals in careers that interest you. This particular role requires quite a bit of post-registration experience, as well as a further specialist qualification, so it’s important to be sure it’s what you want to do. I have no regrets about specialising as a health visitor. I really love my job, and I’m glad that I made the change.