Health Visitor
Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust
Andrew S
00:00:00 My name’s Andrew S, I’m a health visitor. My job really is about supporting families in the community initially when parents have children we visit them at home and support those parents through the early years of the child’s life and enhance the community health, really.
00:00:18 What was I like at school? Gosh, you want the real version. At school, really, I was just probably, you know, I think people would identify me with it being just a lad at school. You know, I listened to what the teacher said but really, you know, I liked to have a bit of a laugh and a joke, really. I liked enjoying the time with my friends and my mates. I left school really with no sort of real ambitions, you know, I wasn’t really interested in what the careers advisor was saying and I went to work in a factory and really enjoyed that, really, but parents were saying, “You need a proper job,” you know, trying to stabilise, I think, a teenager.
00:00:59 So, at the time I was going out with a girl and her Mum said, “Oh, you’d make a good nurse,” and sent off for an application form for me. So, I was 18 at the time when I started nurse training and I was inspired, really in children’s nursing more than any other aspects of the course.
00:01:20 I moved to Wolverhampton in work and I applied for a job on a neonatal unit in the maternity services. I was working on the neonatal unit for a couple of years but got a bit tired, really, of the shifts, the night shifts, the rotation and left the NHS and took a job in the private sector. I really sort of just took the private sector as a job, really, it was a salary. You know, I’d met my current wife and needed to sort of settle down, the hours were more regulated but really my passion that I knew that I had in working with children and families wasn’t there.
00:02:00 So, I applied back to the NHS and took a job as a children’s staff nurse and at that time I took the job on I went forward in doing a Diploma in children’s nursing. One of the placements that we were seconded to was a health visiting team and the health visiting team mainly, you know, looked at a different focus of health, really, and more on the prevention and scaling of things as opposed to the reactive treatment.
00:02:28 That really sparked another spark inside of me, you know, lighted another spark inside of me. So, I went forth from doing my Diploma in children’s nursing, left and did my public health degree in health visiting and here I am today really, you know, practicing as a health visitor supporting families in their home that have got young children and really looking at the wider community and the public health influences on those.
00:03:00 Having sort of health visited in an area that I was brought up in, really, I’ve come across sort of families that I went to school with and they’ve been quite surprised, really, that that’s a vocation that I chose to do. But really enjoying my job, you know, and I get lots of sort of praises from, you know, old friends and current friends, really in carrying on my passion, really, of working with children and families.
00:03:28 When you’re in the supermarket and families that you’ve had dealings with are coming up to you and asking you questions outside of work you know that you’ve actually, you know, turned that key and allowed that person a signposting, direction, to say, “I can get support.” And that’s a good feeling, really, so I don’t think I’d, you know, change my job. I think I’m at the point now I know that I am at that point in enjoying the job that I do and I think this is what I’ll do until I retire.
00:04:00 ENDS
Andrew S is a Health Visitor working in Wolverhampton. A ‘jack the lad’ at school, it was a suggestion from an ex-girlfriend’s mum that lead him to nursing. He describes his route from nurse to health visitor and the satisfaction that he gets from helping families in the area in which he was brought up.
More information about Health associate professionals n.e.c.
The UK average salary is £29,813
There are 37.5 hours in the average working week
The UK workforce is 47% female and 53% male
Future employment
- Prescribes diet therapy and gives advice to patients, health care professionals and the public on dietetic and nutritional matters for those with special dietary requirements or to prevent illness;
- Diagnoses and treats disorders of vision and eye movements, monitors subsequent progress and recommends further optical, pharmacological or surgical treatment as required;
- Manipulates and massages patient to discover the cause of pain, relieve discomfort, restore function and mobility and to correct irregularities in body structure;
- Inserts needles under the skin, administers aromatic herbs and oils and massages body to relieve pain and restore health;
- Advises and prescribes in areas of complementary and alternative medicine.
