New route to health visiting sees nursery nurses realise their careers

A new programme has seen eleven nurses take the next step in their careers towards becoming health visitors across the east of England.

Using a new pathway, the cohort of community nursery nurses based in health visitor teams applied to train as adult nurses through salary support funded by Health Education England, and are now proceeding with health visitor training to become fully qualified. Eleven of twelve students have graduated onto the health visiting programme for completion in September 2016, with six given first class honours for their pre-registration nurse training.

The focus on health visiting through ‘a call to action’ in 2011 highlighted the lack of career pathway for community nursery nurses, and the negative impact this was having on health services. In areas that are traditionally challenged in recruitment and retention of health visitors, this model could provide a solution due to the completion and high academic achievement of all the students. The placements were based with Anglia Ruskin University, University of East Anglia, University Campus Suffolk, University of Essex and the University of Bedfordshire.

Julia Whiting, Health Visitor Programme Lead for the East of England at Health Education England, said:

This shows that the ‘grow your own’ approach has huge potential for meeting long term challenges with the healthcare workforce in a cost effective way, whilst giving opportunities for existing staff to develop their skills and further their careers. I’m so proud of all our graduates, and I have every confidence that they will become great health visitors.

Gemma Bidwell, one of the students on the pathway, said:

The new pathway has been an amazing opportunity that has given me a wealth of new professional skills and knowledge.  It has opened up new possibilities to me that I had not considered before, and given me a new sense of professional purpose and pride within the services I can offer.