I'm A Health Visitor - AMA

[MaryPoppinsisreal]

Just that really. I've seen a lot of negativity over the past few years, would be really interested to know if people have an understanding of our role, or have any questions about it.

How do you become a health visitor? Are there different routes into the profession?

Do you follow all the advice you give out?

I do find the 'by the book' approach health visitors promote puts us parents in a difficult position. I in particular am struggling with weaning and have done in the past switching milks because I was too invested in what the health visitor told me.

You have to either be a nurse or a midwife, then undertake another years training to become a health visitor. We are extremely well qualified these days, as nurses & midwives we are already eductated to degree standard.

I'd just like to thank you and the health visitors.

Mines is brilliant and they have a brilliant team set up. Always at the end of a phone even for the smallest of things, great advice and always reassure.

I've not needed mine often outwith the milestone visits but I appreciate that when I have, they've been there and offered to come out etc.

So no questions, just thanks! 💐

P.s- I know I'm very lucky and not everyone has it so good with theirs.

Should I be worried that my 8 week old is only 7lb 8oz? She was 5lb 3 when she was born and is formula fed. Our HV just said to re weigh in 4 weeks?

Well I can only speak from experience in terms of following the advice we give out. In all honesty, for the 'most' part I did, but there were definitely things I did that aren't recommended. ie. gave up breastfeeding, had a sleepyhead (for daytime) still gave a bottle at two years old, but a lot of the advice we give around safe sleep etc is there for a reason, and a lot of us have had first hand experience of sad outcomes. I think a lot of what we say comes across as 'preachy', which I think is sad, we have to offer flexibility to parents and be realistic.

How much training/education do you have on developmental disorders like ASD?

I’m a childminder and many of our parents are told that they should move their child from the care of a Cm to a nursery at their two tear check? Why is this? The reasons seem to indicate they don’t know a lot about childminders.

@EAIOU that is great to hear! I'm so glad you have a supportive team of health visitors. That's exactly how is should be.

Thanks @MaryPoppinsisreal.

Great career choice and like someone else has already said, when you get a good health visitor it's great.

What is the most frustrating or irritating part of your job?

And yes thanks from me too. Health visitors are sometimes seen as busybodies but mine was great.

@20viona I can't give exact advice, because I don't have all of baby's specific details, but if the hv says reweigh in 4 weeks then they're obviously not too concerned, and it sounds as if baby is gaining weight. You can take the baby to be reweighed whenever you like, you don't have to wait for 4 weeks if you need reassurance before then. If baby is having lots of wet nappies, bowels are open everyday and gaining weight then I would take that as a positive, but please call or visit your health visitor if you are worried.

I liked my health visitor, A lot of the information she gave I had researched already but I was so tired the hour and half visit killed me the first time and I really don’t remember much about it other than hoping she went away as baby was sleeping and I so wanted to join him . I felt I had a lot of the information she gave ( i later sessions ) but was glad if the confirmation of what I was doing was the best way with today’s information

@MaryPoppinsisreal thank you that's reassuring.

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat honestly I've never heard of that advice! CM can be fabulous settings for little ones, I find it bizarre that anyone would advise that. It's whatever works best for the children/families at the end of the day, nursery may suit one family where others are happier with a CM.

I fear the Health visitor role has become impersonal. I got the courage to make the call to ask for help and advice on my 5 month old. Call went to a switchboard, I pushed the number for the area I was in, spoke to someone. I got upset when I was explaining my concerns. I Was promised a call back from a HV and never got one. Maybe my issues weren’t major.
But I lost a little faith, I didn’t follow up the call.
Do you feel the roles changed over the years?

When you're visiting before a birth, what are you looking for? Do you care how tidy the house is/how well the nursery is set up?

That’s good to hear, I hope the word spreads to these parts

@StealthPolarBear it's frustrating that a lot of our role has become safeguarding, and the things that we are trained in and enjoy are being farmed out to other services. I find it really sad that there a lot of negative opinions about our role, largely because either people have had bad experiences from people giving outdated/wrong advice, or because they haven't felt supported by us - because we're too busy doing safeguarding and simply don't have the capacity for what we would consider a 'universal' service.

@Dinosauraddict we are looking for 'normal'. We don't care how your nursery is set up, as long as the cot isn't stuffed with toys/pillows/duvets/cot bumpers, and even if it is, it's just because parents are not aware of the dangers. We're not judging, just giving advice. People assume because you can buy it in the shops it' safe, sadly that's not always the case. And no, we don't care if your house is messy. Sometimes it can ring more alarm bells if it looks like a show home. It's hard to explain in writing, but there is a very distict difference between lived in and neglected, but when you see it..you know. Think overflowing ashtrays, bins, old food on the floor, piles of cat/dog poo etc. You get the picture!

@PollyPocket2 that's really sad to hear. In a lot of areas, our administrators and calls etc have moved to a central hub. This 'should' in theory make it easier to contact a HV, rather than just a random phone ringing in an empty office, it's a place that is always manned and contact rates should be improved. It does however feel a bit more impersonal, rather than just having the mobile number of your health visitor who you can call anytime. Sadly, with caseloads increasing all the time and staff reducing at the same rate, it's hard to continue that way of working, but I agree it's a shame.

What is the best and worst thing about your job? I'm thinking about becoming one but I'm finding the idea of being a nurse first quite daunting it must be hard work studying.

I understand HVs have an important role to play, but not everyone finds them useful or wants the support. Lots of people on MN say you can refuse the visits but I was too scared to do that and so when I had my daughter I tolerated the visits, nodded, smiled etc but it was really a waste of the HV’s time and mine. My question is, what really happens if you refuse the visits?

@Moonshake not anywhere near enough in my opinion. We are trained in what is 'expected' in terms of milestones, then refer on to paeds for diagnosis or further support. We have one specialist health visitor for special needs, but that is across the whole of an entire county! There is a big void currently between initial referral and eventual diagnosis, where is the support for these families? It's something that we are looking at currently, but I don't think there will be any quick solutions. Most of us know only very basic information about ASD etc, often not more than a parent could google for themselves.