I'm a health visitor AMA

[CosmicTeacup]

I'm going to regret posting this aren't I?

Why do Health Visitors give such different advice to each other? Is there standardised training or how does that come about

What would you say is the best benefit of HV as a profession as opposed to just having nurses, doctors and social workers?

(I come from a country without them, you usually rent scales when you have a newborn and unless there are issues I think people take their DC to the paediatrician for check ups/jabs. I’ve found our local HVs to be nice but mildly patronising but I have a completely average DC and no extra issues)

Do Health Visitors really just mostly give whatever advice worked with their own children? This is the only reason I can come up with for why they all say different things.

Also, are they really just going 'to wash their hands'?

One last thing. When they say 'Oh you look tired,' is there a check box for that?

Is there some kind of incentive to discover post natal depression. Mine never shut up about it and when I pointed out I struggled during pregnancy, the comment went over her head. On with prattling on with hers speech about post natal depression

If someone refuses to see a health visitor at all because they don't think they need one does it look bad for the parent? As in do you think maybe they're trying to hide something?

Oooh I would love your job! Please tell me about your training.

How much time do you spend my families & children and how much time do you spend at meetings around a child etc.

Is there a lot of paperwork?

charityhallet beat me to it! How do I get your job? What's the pay like? Would I have to have a science background? Are their similar jobs for people with a background in education?

What's the worst part of the job? How varied is it? Do you like your job?

@LapinR0se advice should be standardised within each trust but obviously things change over time so the advice given can depend on how recently the HV received training. Also evidence varies on some things so depending on where the trust's guidelines are evidenced from can also have an influence.

@Camomila I think the main advantage is that because the service is universally offered to all parents HV are well placed to pick up on issues that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. You'd be surprised at the way some families live and believe to be normal.

My fundamental question - why do so few HVs give consistent advice?

Why are so few HVs trained in specialist areas (such as prematurity)?

Why are so many people with really poor 'people' skills recruited to the position? Is it just that they get pushed out of nursing as they can't operate in a pressured environment or as part of a team?

This may be slightly (!) negative but 3 children in 2 different areas- and I am yet to meet a competent HV. I made a formal complaint about my HV which led to the Trust apologising that the HV service was so poorly trained & would instigate better training programme.

@redrobin1000 as I said above advice should be standardised but having children does give you the benefit of being able to tell people what's worked for you. HVs do spend a lot of time hand washing because of the nature of the fact that you're handling small babies. And sometimes asking about tiredness opens up conversations about support, PND and even DV so while there's no tick box it can be useful.

@Moominfan there's no incentive but it's an important part of our assessment. That doesn't sound like great practice from your HV, listening to the reply is a big part of it too!

I'm also a HV. My own was shocking so totally get the frustration with the service.

Will be interested to see how this goes

@Aftereights91 it would all depend on the family really. An experienced family with several children declining an antenatal visit, no but a family with a history who are clearly struggling then yes, that would raise suspicion. I think it's frowned upon in general if someone declines from the very beginning because the children are still on our caseload and we'd be held to account to a degree if anything happened and the children hadn't been seen but we can't force the service on anyone if there's no child protection plan already in place.

Why does my health visitor plot my premature child's weight back to his due date but not his height?

How much time is allocated to a routine visit? Do you have to cram loads into one day? My HV is quite helpful and spent a good hour with us when I requested extra support but I found the routine visits very rushed and felt like she wasn't listening to me, just nodding and keeping an eye on her watch.

What do you think of your admin staff? Do you think they do a good/important job?

Why do you think they get such a bad rep (which is mainly unjustified and some of these replies are rude)?

@charityhallet and @blinkineckmum you have to be a qualified nurse or midwife with experience to train as a HV. You then do a post graduate degree at either BSc or MSc level depending on your nursing/midwifery qualification level. The training is very intensive with a lot of academic work. Probably around 4-5 hours of my day are spent visiting families and the the rest is spent on admin, child protection meetings, case conferences etc. There is a lot of paperwork, especially for children on a plan.

HVs do spend a lot of time hand washing because of the nature of the fact that you're handling small babies.

So there's no information gathering going on during that? Because I couldn't believe how many times our HV went to wash her hands! Surely a gel wash would be quicker?

@blinkineckmum a qualified HV is paid a band 6 NHS salary. The worst part of my job is the child protection part. I work in a fairly deprived area so there's a lot of poverty, that's hard too.

@zzzzz as I said, band 6 salary so maybe 3 HVs to one GP. I don't think HVs are more important but they have a different function don't they? The GP isn't going to go out and support with breastfeeding, nor are they going to attend child protection meetings sadly.

@namechangedtoday15 I think I've answered the inconsistent advice question. As for the specialist HVs, there just isn't the funding to employ and train them. I wish there was!