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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:
morechocolateneededtoday · 21/12/2021 20:59

@Wishingitwassummer

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!
You seem to keep missing the point that we don't have enough nurses because working conditions and pay are awful. If they want to retain nurses, they desperately need to improve the conditions of employment to do so.

Would you say similar for someone who benefitted from funding for teaching then taught in private sector not long after qualifying?

Instead of throwing money at the training for these professions, they need to address the issue of staff retention but they can't be bothered to see the bigger picture

Pippa12 · 21/12/2021 21:08

A couple of years ago I’d of agreed with you wholeheartedly as I was passionate about nursing and nurturing students. But after the last couple of years I’ve realised nurses are treated like fools, I’m totally and utterly exhausted with the who facade and think good on them, the joke is on us still in the nhs that turn up day in day out.

I spent my 25 minute commute last night crying thinking of career changes after 15 years, 13 of those on critical care. Perhaps your on your something!

FeelingSoGrinchy · 21/12/2021 21:19

@Hertsgirl10

But there's no legal requirement to be qualified or insured to do fillers in the UK? People should be qualified and insured sure, but legally they don't have to be? And they don't need to be a nurse etc to be qualified, so therefore don't need to put themselves through 3 years of something that they don't want to do?

Shadedog · 21/12/2021 21:19

I’ve worked in the nhs for years but when I qualified I worked in the private sector because it suited me for childcare. I shall fetch my hair shirt. My degree was free but so were the degrees of my schoolmates who did geography or art at university. Why don’t they have to lash themselves to public sector jobs? I got a bursary, which was way less than a wage and I don’t feel particularly guilty about taking it.
I hate this “angels” and “it’s a vocation” narrative. Just an excuse to get women to feel guilty about taking money for what what people perceive as being a perpetual mummy-ing.

Atla · 21/12/2021 21:31

The NHS certainly gets its money's worth out if student nurses and I have no problem with people working in the private sector.

Aesthetics is under-regulated and very competitive. It's really hard to make money unless you are a prescriber, so anyone hoping to make big bucks quickly is prob in for a disappointment...

housemaus · 21/12/2021 21:34

@Wishingitwassummer

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.
They were accepted on to the course to become qualified in nursing.

If the government wants them to work in nursing, they should make it worth their while. Which it's not.

They do enough hours for free during training to justify the cost of their bursary.

Blame the government if we desperately need nurses, try and entice them into nursing with bursaries to study the course, then make the actual profession so unappealing they take that knowledge elsewhere after a few years of working for free before they qualify.

Original poster
Wishingitwassummer · 21/12/2021 21:37

Agreed that the NHS is underfunded and mismanaged. It is the same in my field.
I have heard about the non medical prescribing being almost essential now to make the money. How would newly qualified nurses do this? Can they pay to do this privately?

OP posts:
Atla · 21/12/2021 21:38

@Shadedog 100% agree the whole 'angels' and 'vocation' narrative is so damaging.
@Pippa12 I feel exactly the same. I'm doing a SPQ at the moment and I just keep thinking 'why am I putting myself through this for a miniscule pay increase and 5 times the pressure?'

Nomoreusernames1244 · 21/12/2021 21:47

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?

Lawyers don’t get bursaries for uni.

Pay nurses a decent wage and you wouldn’t need to subsidise their uni fees.

Atla · 21/12/2021 21:53

@wishingitwassummer
Someone could fund themselves to do a non-medical prescribing course, they would need to complete a portfolio/ supervised practice and get it signed off by a registered practitioner. I imagine that's much harder to arrange independently.

FlorenceNightshade · 21/12/2021 21:57

I've mentored a few students who were planning on becoming aesthetic nurses. One hid it very well, was interested and asked questions etc and I remember one who was blatantly disinterested in anything that she thought was irrelevant to her future plans. I had to tell her that while it's great to have a goal you'll only meet it if you pass your course so wind your neck in, stop sulking and answer the buzzers!
She now has her own wee business doing what she wanted without working a day for the nhs. Her choice ultimately in my opinion. I think until university admissions realise that it's a career path a lot of people are interested in them students will hide it incase they are judged

UsernameInTheTown · 21/12/2021 22:09

I know of several doing the same in my locality. Don't blame the player blame the game.

Changemaname1 · 21/12/2021 22:10

I do see your point but Fair play to them I say it’s a huge industry at the moment a lot of money to be made so can’t say I blame them

Bunnycat101 · 21/12/2021 22:19

I’d like to see aesthetics properly regulated. There are some very dubious operators out there and some of the procedures are risky. Whether a medical degree is necessary is up for debate but protected titles and standard qualification would provide a bit more assurance about the quality of practitioners.

BathshebaKnickerStickers · 21/12/2021 22:26

I remember being horrified when Dr Leah was on The Apprentice. She won funding setting up high street fillers clinics. As part of her training she must have saved lives and brought new lives into the world. She would have cared for elderly people and people with mental health challenges. She would have seen people die and seen the miracles of life. And her medical doctor training lead her to believe her life work was to make money injecting fillers into paitients and making a profit from it

LouiseLaChain · 21/12/2021 22:26

So. Someone can do a maths degree, which would be free in Scotland, then go and earn shit tons at a bank.

But a nurse, who has also worked, for no salary, through their degree, should 'pay it back" by having to work in the NHS??

WHAT??? In England, they would both come out with the same debt for course fees. But one can earn what ever they like, while one should be forced to work in the NHS?

AnotherOneWithNoGoodName · 21/12/2021 22:28

Nurses in training pay £10k a year for the privilege of being unpaid skivvies on the ward, qualify and get shit on by everybody while being paid way less than most other graduates despite a crippling level of responsibility.

If they want to qualify to work in those kind of clinics, let them.

Veeveeoxox · 21/12/2021 22:34

YANBU I'm training to be a nurse everyone and their dog wants to do aesthetics it will be become massively oversaturated you need to build up a client base and do your independent prescribing to make good money. It costs a lot of money in start up before you get clients it might work out ok as a bit of part time pin money but I think people hoping to make a full-time income will be disappointed.

Thehop · 21/12/2021 22:37

@Bubblty

Maybe they should say they have to work 1 year in the NHS once they qualify or pay back the funding?
This would be a brilliant idea.
Nomoreusernames1244 · 21/12/2021 22:37

*So. Someone can do a maths degree, which would be free in Scotland, then go and earn shit tons at a bank.

But a nurse, who has also worked, for no salary, through their degree, should 'pay it back" by having to work in the NHS??*

No. If they’re in scotland where education is free then they can take their degree and do what they like.

Anywhere anyone is offered a bursary or finance for completing a particular degree, then yes, then there is an obligation.

A better comparison in england at least is a maths graduate with £x debt can work in banking and pay it off, so why should someone earning a shit ton of money in aesthetics graduate with less debt?

The armed forces used to (still do) finance students through degrees. You always had to sign up for a certain length of service after.

Nomoreusernames1244 · 21/12/2021 22:39

WHAT??? In England, they would both come out with the same debt for course fees. But one can earn what ever they like, while one should be forced to work in the NHS?

Sorry, to clarify in england a maths graduate would come out with a much bigger debt, as the nursing graduate would be paid bursaries. They would not come out with the same level of debt at all.

Thehop · 21/12/2021 22:40

There are many many aesthetic practitioners in my area that do not have a medical background.

Lots don’t even have a beauty background. Just do a Botox or fillers course and get a prescriber on board for backhanders.

BurntO · 21/12/2021 22:43

YABU.
Nursing is a thankless task with shit pay.

They can work 9/5 and get a decent wage this way

riotlady · 21/12/2021 22:43

@Wishingitwassummer

I find it deceitful, as a university application will look for why you want to be a nurse. Do you honestly think that if a prospective student nurse was to write how they want to work in aesthetics, that they would get a place on the course?
I do think it’s normal to embellish your love of the subject for a uni application to be fair, “I love literature and am inspired by Jane Austen” sounds better than “English is my best subject at school and my mum and teachers say I have to go to uni”
slaybell · 21/12/2021 22:52

What about teachers who then go to work in the private sector?

To me it's no different. It's completely up to them what they do with their qualification.

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