After you have reviewed the role of the health visitor and considered your personal attributes that fit with this role, start planning your application.
1. Entry requirements
Students accessing health visiting programmes must:
- Be a registered nurse or midwife. Registration as a nurse can be in any field of nursing (adult, child, learning disability and mental health)
- Complete an enhanced DBS check
- Have a first degree (Academic entry requirements do vary according to HEI but most require a first degree).
2. Educational Programmes
The SCPHN education and training programmes are available at the postgraduate level (either a postgraduate diploma or master’s degree) and can be studied on a full-time or part-time basis. The specific course length will be determined by each Higher Education Institution approved to provide the training but will be no less than 45 weeks full-time. All the approved educational programmes that result in the SCPHN-health visitor qualification are listed on the NMC website.
Sponsorship opportunities for places on SCPHN programmes are commonly advertised on the NHS jobs website. Applicants may, in the first instance, secure a fixed-term training contract with a healthcare provider, such as an NHS trust or community health service, then complete an application to the partner HEI. However, it is common for NHS organisations and HEIs to work in partnership and share the recruitment and selection process.
3. Possible interview questions
- Why have you chosen to apply for a career in health visiting?
- What skills and/or qualities can you contribute?
- What are the commitments such a course involves?
- How do you think you will adapt to being a student and studying?
- In what ways do you consider yourself a professionally committed person?
- Can you tell us what you understand to be the role of the health visitor?
- What factors can you identify that may be impacting the way that services are delivered in the community?
- You arrive at a house to see a child and notice that the child has a slap mark injury to his / her face. Where are your responsibilities? To whom are you accountable and for what?
- Which other services do health visitors work with?
- Can you talk about the role of the health visitor and safeguarding children?
Frequently asked questions about becoming a health visitor
A: The short answer is ‘No’. You have to be registered as a nurse or midwife first and then apply for a Specialist Community Public Health Nursing – Health Visiting course.
At iHV we are keen to promote a more streamlined route into the profession, but this is not routinely available as yet.
A: The short answer to this question is ‘No’. There is no requirement for this. In fact, there are no ‘Return to Health Visiting’ courses.
As far as the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is concerned, your practice as a health visitor is dependent on maintaining your registration as a nurse or as a midwife through revalidation. Presently, revalidation should take into account the scope of practice of your intended role such as health visiting. As part of your evidence for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for revalidation, you need to align experience to the standards of proficiency for Specialist Community Public Health Nursing – health visiting. The standards of proficiency can be a useful reference point for considering how your previous practice, practice-related feedback, and CPD support your practice as a SCPHN-health visitor.
If you have maintained your registration as a nurse or midwife and your SCPHN qualification, but you have not been working as a health visitor, the NMC does not make any additional requirements for you to practise as SCPHN-health visitor. However, an employer may provide you with an extended programme of induction and preceptorship to ensure that they and you are confident that you can practise safely and effectively. The requirements set down by organisations may vary and could be supported by formal or informal CPD learning activities. However, this is not a formal NMC-approved ‘Return to Practice’ course.
If your registration as a nurse or midwife has lapsed, the NMC provides guidance on readmission to the register by undertaking an approved Return to Practice course. If you undertake a Return to Practice course, you should ensure that you discuss with the course provider that your intended field of practice is health visiting. This is so that practice experience can be relevant to your scope of practice in health visiting. Each person undertaking a course should be supported in returning to their intended area of practice. It is also possible to gain readmission to the register by passing the NMC test of competence.
When you seek readmission to the register, you must decide which additional qualifications need to be registered or recorded.
A: All registrants need to maintain their registration by revalidation every three years. This can be managed online through NMC Online where you can create your own account. There you can view your registration status, your entry on the register, when your revalidation is due, make payments of fees, and manage revalidation. There is comprehensive guidance on revalidation. There is also specific information on renewing your registration as a SCPHN.
Associated Pages
Preparation to become a health visitor
Here, we provide some useful web links and reading suggestions to familiarise yourself with policy affecting health visiting.
Careers in health visiting
The iHV has produced a Career Pipeline towards health visitor qualification and Career Pathway for Health Visiting which includes the different job roles in health visiting teams.