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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU - Training as a nurse - to work in Aesthetics only!

158 replies

Wishingitwassummer · 21/12/2021 18:56

I’ve came across this a fair few times now. Student nurses completing their nursing degrees as they want to work in aesthetics (and aesthetics only).
This is just such a waste of government funding. I’m in Scotland - so we don’t pay tuition fees and the bursary is still available.
Now I know this will only be a very small minority of people who are doing this but it just doesn’t sit right with me at all.
AIBU?

OP posts:
Cocomarine · 21/12/2021 19:55

@Bubblty

Maybe they should say they have to work 1 year in the NHS once they qualify or pay back the funding?
Have they not already given valuable time during their placements that would effectively give the same payback?
Thepineapplemystery · 21/12/2021 19:56

@Wishingitwassummer

It seems a bit deceitful to me. As I would put money on it that they didn’t tell their interviewers for the course that their aim was to have an aesthetics business. We are crying out for nurses - and not to get our faces filled.
Two issues: there's not huge competition for university places, people don't want to be nurses, only unsuitable people don't get (or those without the entry requirements). The other is there isn't an option not to receive funding really, it's sort of all or nothing (bursary availability reduces student loan entitlement).
FeelingSoGrinchy · 21/12/2021 19:57

At the moment you don’t have to be a nurse. But I think they are pushing for it to become a regulated industry and this would stop beauticians/hairdressers etc from doing it (legally, anyway).

At the moment, anyone can advertise themselves as being able to do fillers for example, without any training at all. The push is to require people to be required to have training and qualifications in aesthetics, not to be medically trained.

PlayingGrownUp · 21/12/2021 19:58

As a student nurse If I were to get paid NMW for the amount of unpaid work that I have to do for the NHS then I’d make almost three times what I receive in bursary. As far as I’m concerned I’ve paid that bursary back by the time I’ve graduated.

Original poster
Wishingitwassummer · 21/12/2021 20:00

Ok, fair point about the funding.
It’s more the fact they were accepted on to course to become a nurse, in the areas where we NEED nurses. I don’t think aesthetics falls under that category.

OP posts:
Nomoreusernames1244 · 21/12/2021 20:02

It’s funny how it’s only predeominantly female workforces and caring jobs that are grudged earning money , no one moans when police go off to work in private security after being funded by the public

Police aren’t funded to train. Or not yet anyway.

If nurses get a bursary or any kind of funding to complete their degree, then I think the expectation should be they “pay that back” by working within the NHS.

If they want to go straight into aesthetics, private work, or work abroad, then they can get loans like any other student on any other degree, then they are free to take their skills they’ve paid for wherever.

I had two offers to fund my degree. Both expected me to sign up with that company post graduation for a minimum term, or pay the funding back. And that was years ago.

Royalbloo · 21/12/2021 20:03

Why do you mind? If someone goes to law school and ends up as a celebrity criminal barrister or doing pro-bono work, why does it matter? Same skills, different job, no? Nurses don't have to be martyrs?

Royalbloo · 21/12/2021 20:04

And I did a masters fully funded by my employer but nothing was expected of me. In fact, they made me redundant just before I graduated?! Life is weird!

Original poster
Wishingitwassummer · 21/12/2021 20:05

Because we are consistently told we don’t have enough nurses. That the NHS is falling apart. Constant advertising campaigns to get nurses to join the NHS… who do the training, and leave as soon as qualified!

OP posts:
PlayingGrownUp · 21/12/2021 20:06

There are two people on my course who are qualifying to do aesthetics. Both already have businesses and their own client list but want to qualify then do the additional training to prescribe because as it stands they currently pay a lot of money to nurses/ doctors to do that for them as in 4 figures a week.

Plus they would also need to meet their minimum requirements including number of hours actively nursing to maintain their registration so they still would be working in more traditional fields of nursing too.

Bramblesr · 21/12/2021 20:06

Police don’t get paid to train? So while they are training they have to have a second job to pay their expenses? Or do they have to save up beforehand?

Did they expect you to work in the company for free full time for months at a time during your studies?

maa32 · 21/12/2021 20:07

I'm doing my nursing degree, I have no intention of working in aesthetics but at least we know they're trained and certainly eager, it's not easy

redbigbananafeet · 21/12/2021 20:07

[quote Wishingitwassummer]@ichifanny Sorry, I hope I’ve not offended you but you have made it quite personal. You have obviously given so much and especially over the last couple of years. I commend you for that.
I don’t think that I own you at all.[/quote]
But you begrudge her he right to use her degree to earn more that 25k a year

WutheringHeights66 · 21/12/2021 20:08

I agree with you OP.

Teaandcakeordeath83 · 21/12/2021 20:08

I can see it from both ways really. Most health professional courses come with some sort of (shitty) government support, whether it's medics having year 5 fees paid or bursaries etc. It seems fair that if you have some sort of funding from the organisation you are training in then you "pay it back" by working for them for a set amount of time. I work in the NHS and have done for 13 years- if I do any additional higher education courses through my department then I have to commit to either staying their for a set amount of time or pay it back if I leave so it's already a policy in trusts.

That said working for the NHS is crap. Our pensions are worse than civil service equivalents, pay progression points are awful now they've jiggled the bands, and our payrise in claps and NI rises is hardly the draw the politicians think it is. As a student nurse you work long hours (as part of the numbers even though you're not really) so can that be said to be paying it back? Plenty of hcp students do these courses with the intentions of setting up their own practices- private physio etc. Would you be having this reaction if these students wanted to go into anything other than aesthetics in a private capacity?

HappyGreen · 21/12/2021 20:10

Aesthetics isn't all botox and fillers though. I know a very experienced and in demand nurse who does cosmetic tattooing on patients who've had surgery, mainly mastectomies, she gives women back their nipples! And lots of patients have aesthetic treatments for medical conditions.

Bramblesr · 21/12/2021 20:10

What do you mean actively nursing? I’m not actively nursing I spend majority of time writing reports and planning but I still maintain my registration as my job is still a nurse just not what the public understand as being ‘a nurse’

PlayingGrownUp · 21/12/2021 20:15

@Bramblesr

Do you mean me?

My understanding is that you have to being working in a recognised nursing role for a certain number of hours per month therefore the two ladies I know would need to do this as well as their aesthetic work to maintain their registration.

It’s not something I have any interest in so I have a vague understanding.

GrumpyTerrier · 21/12/2021 20:32

Ire shouldnt be directed at nurses who want to earn more than a living wage. It should be directed at the system that makes 'essential' nursing so underpaid.

Also, a nursing degree is bloody hard work. Hundreds of hours of work on wards and in healthcare settings, nights, 14 hour shifts on your feet, cleaing up (and measuring!) urine and poo and sick and stoma fluids, seeing death, grief, pain....as well as assignments. Anyone who gets through that has earned their right to do as they wish.

Bramblesr · 21/12/2021 20:44

@PlayingGrownUp

It is a recognised form of nursing, you’d easily maintain your registration as long as you do the hours and cpd

Hertsgirl10 · 21/12/2021 20:46

@Wishingitwassummer

**Absolutely none at all which is why I don’t get the need to be a nurse but trust me this industry is wild, the nurses are the ones pushing this.

So then I also find it interesting, that newly qualified nurses advertise their services as being performed by a nurse, as if this makes them better than say, beauticians.

@Wishingitwassummer

I don’t think that newly trained nurses are doing it on a big scale, I haven’t come across any straight off their degree, I see many nurses that have been in the nursing industry years and leave to do aesthetics.

What people don’t understand is that medics and non medics do the same Botox and fillers training, there is NO special training where nurses learn more about facial anatomy than non medics.
Nurses say they’re much more superior in aesthetics because they know how to deal with complications better than non medics - which is debatable…. But they can’t and don’t say that they learnt more about facial anatomy.

There’s lots of terrible training academies which is the actual problem, and nurses try to belittle others in aesthetics by calling them ‘beauticians’ in a derogatory way.
Beauticians do not do aesthetics, nurses don’t do aesthetics either. There’s many ways to get into the industry but I have never been a beautician or worked as one, I am trained and trained a long time ago before the crazy sudden popularity in a new practitioner and dodgy training academies popping up everywhere and the nurses I would say is a new thing, maybe the last 2/3 years I would say it’s become much more obvious that nurses have got involved.

I see nurses doing facial, facial peels, LED facials, mesotherapy, dermaplaning etc ALL beauticians work but they have an issue with people that do Botox and filler that are trained and not doing nurse work.

Wrongkindofovercoat · 21/12/2021 20:56

At the end of the day it comes down to money, a nursing student with no parental assistance, can end up with debt of 70k plus, they can work for the NHS for just over 25k on qualifying or do something else for 40k .

Toomanyradishes · 21/12/2021 20:56

Do you begrudge doctors (more traditionally male) going into plastic surgery or just nurses (more traditionally female)

Are dentists and dental nurses okay to do private work, or should all solicitors do only legal aid type work for the first to years? What about newly qualified teachers going straight to teaching at a private school?

What if a nurse does the degree, get pregnant during the course and becomes a sahm? Or is that okay because its stll caring?

Why does a nurse (girl, in your eyes) have to go into it to be caring? Thats rarely said about doctors. Why cant they just want a career?

We dont have a shortage because people are taking up places who dont have a good enough reson, in your eyes, we dont have enough nurses because they arent paid enough, their rare payrises do not match cost of living rises and the nhs chews them up and spits them out because its underfunded and mismanaged. Heaven help those who may have been nurses deciding to make a more sensible life choice, how dare they! Hmm

AdditionalCharacter · 21/12/2021 20:57

There is a new beauty shop opened up near me that is ran by 4 nurse friends. They work at the local hospital and also run this business as a sideline. It always looks busy whenever I pass.

Hertsgirl10 · 21/12/2021 20:58

@FeelingSoGrinchy

At the moment you don’t have to be a nurse. But I think they are pushing for it to become a regulated industry and this would stop beauticians/hairdressers etc from doing it (legally, anyway).

At the moment, anyone can advertise themselves as being able to do fillers for example, without any training at all. The push is to require people to be required to have training and qualifications in aesthetics, not to be medically trained.

@FeelingSoGrinchy

No they can’t?

Don’t think anyone understands that to train in a decent place in them treatments you need to meet certain requirements and hairdressing is definitely not one of them.

You have to be insured and to be insured you need to be qualified.

The media has done a GREAT job feeding so much bollox to people about non medics in the industry - Hence why people are deciding to train in nursing to become a medic. Which is not needed, there needs to be a middle ground here where the industry is regulated but a long course should be mandatory, for medics and non medics.

It costs thousands to train at a decent training place, it’s not 1 day courses and not anyone can just do it, people that think that have been seriously manipulated by the media mad bitchy nurses in the industry that constantly bash non medics.

This whole medic non medic issue has just been an issue since nurses realised people were out here making money and they wanted to, which is understandable but they’ve turned the whole thing quite nasty, go back 4/5 years ago there was a lot of support for each other in the industry and the horror stories we hear now were not as often, because even when a nurse makes a mistake, they say it’s a ‘beautician’ that trained in the back of the local kebab shop or something as ridiculous as that.
When I trained I was on a course with a doctor and her daughter was a trainee nurse, we all learnt the exact same.

Honestly it’s getting exhausting I’m glad I am established and not just starting up now.