To want to become a health visitor

[crymeanocean]

I'm a registered children's nurse and I'm considering trying to find a job in health visiting. However every Mumsnet thread I see, all just seem to be bashing their health visitors. Aibu to want to become one? Did anyone like/ find their health visitor useful ?

Are any of you health visitors and could tell me what your day to day job is like ? How flexible the hours are around childcare etc ?

Thanks

I'm not a HV but know a couple. I think lots of women do it because its much better and less antisocial hours than nursing/midwifery and the local NHS trust matches their salary to train. So I think it doesn't always attract people that 'want' to be HV as an actual job role.

I had a HV look at my 9 month old son who had dropped over two centiles in weight say 'he doesn't look like an underfed baby' and even when pressed didn't offer any useful advice on how to get him to eat/drink more or put on weight. She did reweigh him though incase I couldn't use the scales correctly. Later turned out he was losing weight due to a medical problem. I also on another occasion asked for advice on stopping bf (at about a year old) and was just told to stop and generally treated like an inconvenience.

I did meet a lovely HV when I was pregnant although she was pregnant herself so I never saw here again. I also have a friend who is a HV so I know nice HV exist. She is a supervisor of HV, very flexible hours but she has had to appear as a witness in court several times, focus is very much on working with at risk young children and families and not really something I would want to do. It may vary a lot area to area though.

My health visitor was amazing when dd was born. She was very supportive and I saw her often because of dd's weight (slow to gain).
I also go to a local breastfeeding support group and the health visitor there was so encouraging and sympathetic. Saved my sanity in more than one occasion.

Both HV I've met have been lovely.

It's really important that you understand that ALL babies must be on the 50th percentile, regardless of height.

My HV asked if I'd put out a cigarette on my sons head! It was, and still is, a red birthmark.

On the other hand my sister retrained as a HV and enjoys it.

My friend trained as a health visitor but didn't follow through with it because she found it very stressful. She had to deal with a lot of at risk children in challenging situations, and she found the responsibility a very big burden.

My own health visitor when I had dd was lovely but next to useless. She was bemused by my wish to continue breastfeeding past six months and she insisted that controlled crying was the only way of getting a child to sleep by itself ever. I just ignored her advice and we got along fine.

Mine has been absolutely amazing. Completely non judgmental and extremely approachable and kind. I have a disabled dd and our hv has referred us to countless services, helped us with dla forms and always been at the end of the phone. I don’t know what I would have done without her tbh.

Mine was lovely. She dismissed a couple of concerns though - they turned out to be the first signs of autism.

My dm was one. She enjoyed it for years (20+) and then it all went downhill.

@Grobagsforever huh? Who says that?

I liked my health visitor, she was really understanding and showed empathy. Something you don't often get as a first time mum. She helped me with ds when she came round one day and he was crying non stop, she listened to my concerns and actually worked towards solving them with me. She spoke truthfully about the difficulties she'd had when her children were younger and it made me feel normal.

I wasn't keen on the baby clinic and the HV's in there. It seemed like they really didn't care. The facilities were awful, a portacabin in a school field that was bloody freezing in winter but it explains why most of them seemed miserable. I went to one of the baby groups they had on and I was the only one in there... it just all seemed a bit pointless.

@crymeanocean slightly off topic, but do you enjoy child nursing? I start university next month to become a children's nurse and alot of people have asked why am I doing it, they could never do that job, you'll cry every day.
I feel I'm strong enough to cope but obviously I realise there will be times that will be tough.

I had three and all were useless.

I admin'd on an HV course. It's extremely competitive and the interview process was gruelling. Amazed how many seem to be so poor at it after all that.

My HV was brilliant. She'd been a HV for nearly 30 years & what she didn't know about babies & children well you could have written it on a matchbox.
She was extremely supportive & full of good advice. In some ways she was a like a very professional mixture of the wise older woman & your own Mum.

i am currently in training its the best decision but mumsnet are not your target so don’t expect good feedback safeguarding daily is what you do. Feel free pm me for a balanced view

I'm sure lots of health visitors do lots of great work, and mine was lovely until I was having health difficulties with my daughter. Then she just became condescending along with the other health visitors I brought it up with. I just got the silly smile and the 'is she your first by any chance?'. Turns out I was right to be concerned and there was an underlying problem. My daughter went through unnecessary discomfort and pain for months while my concerns were dismissed. I wouldn't have minded so much if they didn't do the patronising smile and question

It's really important that you understand that ALL babies must be on the 50th percentile, regardless of height.

No they don't.

@ChickenTikkaTellMeWhatsWrong
I enjoy it but it can be very difficult at times and sometimes I find myself thinking why did I choose this job, as there are lots of jobs out there that are a lot easier but then other times it is really rewarding and I enjoy it a lot. However I work in oncology and since having my own child I am finding it very sad/difficult and am looking to work in another area which is why I am considering health visiting.

My HVs were all utterly useless and very disinterested. I stopped going to see them very early on. I have no respect for them.

I love my hv. She's kind, funny, informative, listens to me etc. She's been a great help and I'm really grateful for her!

Not a HV, but am a Children's nurse and know plenty of HVs. It's lots and lots of safeguarding these days, though your caseload can vary depending on where you are based. I would honestly try to shadow one and see if you liked it first. Plenty do the training and then go back into clinical work, because they find it too stressful.

For alternative options, have you considered going into research or education? An oncology background would be advantageous for either.

ChickenTikka- Children's nursing is great and there are more options than you may think. Unless you work in PICU or oncology it's more happy than sad too.

I am a newly qualified midwife.

Health visiting is something I am potentially thinking about in future or a family practice nurse (that is actually more appealing as I like the continuity involved and long term care).

I have done a placement with the health visitors and was really interesting. Hours were great. Monday to Friday. No weekends and bank holidays.

LOTS of paperwork involved and safeguarding cases. Much of my time was at discharge planning meetings, child protection meetings ect. But safeguarding cases interest me a lot, so it depends on what you enjoy.

I love midwifery but just thinking long term if in my 50's when the kids are all grown up I still want to be working 12.5 hours shifts. At the moment I love just doing 3 shifts a week and having 4 days off but think that might suit me in years to come.

But I get what you mean. I hear so much negativity about HVs (and had bad experiences myself with very out of date information given and opinion rather than evidence based care being provided).

I've had 3 different HVs.

The first was useless in terms of advice ( eg "Wean the baby at 4m, this means 16w, start with mashed potato." "Sterilise everything they put in their mouth until 12m" - when dc1 was 6m, crawling and chewing toys, shoes, everything) but she was wonderful in terms of supporting my mental and emotional well-being.

The second was an experienced nurse, with dc of her own. Her advice was sound and flexible - she told me what the book said, but also what she thought. If I had contradictory opinions, she listened and respected my ideas. She gave me one of the best pieces of parenting advice I have ever had: that you don't need to be the perfect mother, or even the best mother you can be - you need to be a good enough mother. I had her for 5y and she was wonderful.

The third I saw once, when my youngest was 8m old, and she came to our house for his developmental check. She asked why I hadn't been bringing him to the baby clinic for weighing (IIRC we went only twice). I explained that I was an experienced mother, and had had no concerns. Besides, he had been born on the 99th centile for weight, and I did not want to be put under pressure to keep him on it. She replied "Why shouldn't he stay on it?" (Really? You expect a baby to stick rigidly to their birth-weight centile, which has more to do with the placenta than them?)

I refused all contact with them. Declined dds 2 year check aswell. I will never have one again due to bad experiences, I also don’t like the way they make it seem like you have to see them when in fact you don’t at all.

I've honestly never found them helpful at all. It doesn't help that when my daughter was jaundice we had them out to weigh her every other day and it was a new person constantly, who also wanted to know about the history and I just got fed up of repeating myself - don't they have any records at all?!?!

I weigh my kids at home myself now as that's all the HV's have been useful for IMO!

I could actually rant more about them, but I know that not all are the same, my experience has just been very poor and due to that I no longer have time for them and I have lost respect.

I've always found them perfectly nice but provide very outdated or inaccurate information on breastfeeding. I wish they would receive more training on breastfeeding so that this can be avoided.

Not sure of point of health visitors? But you are not being unreasonable to want to train as something you believe in regardless of other opinions on it. Good luck if it’s what you want.