A defining moment for aesthetic nurses

Abstract

ISSN 2050-3717 Printed by Pensord Press Ltd, Blackwood, NP12 2YA CONSULTANT EDITOR Cheryl Barton Aesthetic Nurse and Managing Director, Aesthetika, Sheffield EDITORIAL BOARD Julie Brackenbury Aesthetic Nurse Consultant, Bristol Susie Byass Aesthetic Nurse Practitioner, Rejuvenating Solutions Ltd, Berwick Upon Tweed Annie Cartwright Advanced Aesthetic Practitioner and Director, Skin & Face Clinics Ltd, Cardiff, Wales Leslie Fletcher Aesthetic Nurse Specialist, USA. Founder of the InjectAbility Institute for Aesthetic Education Trudy Friedman Aesthetic Nurse Practitioner, Aesthetic Skin Centre Sarah Holness Clinic Director, Sarah Holness Aesthetics, Kent Yvonne Senior Advanced Aesthetic Nurse Practitioner, Independent Prescriber and mentor. Trainer and co-founder of PIAPA Nicola Webster Clinical Director and Aesthetic Nurse, Rejuven8, Doncaster Lynn Warren Clinic Director, The Retreat Beauty Clinic and Cosmedical Ltd, Leeds EDITOR: Natasha Devan natasha.devan@markallengroup.com GROUP CLASSIFIED MANAGER: Rachel McElhinney rachel.mcelhinney@markallengroup.com CIRCULATION DIRECTOR: Sally Boettcher PRODUCTION MANAGER: Jon Redmayne PUBLISHER: Anthony Kerr anthony.kerr@markallengroup.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Julie Smith COMMERCIAL MANAGER: Hanette Ibrahim hanette.ibrahim@markallengroup.com CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER: Ben Allen MANAGING DIRECTOR: Jon Benson O n 5 June 2015, the British Association of Cosmetic Nurses (BACN) and the Private Independent Aesthetic Practices Association (PIAPA) released a joint statement over their shared concern regarding the promotion and marketing of voluntary registers, and questioned whether these registers can claim ‘safer’ clinicians (BACN and PIAPA, 2015). Both the BACN and PIAPA, who hold a ‘register’ of their members, are participating in the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) revalidation pilot group, the new process by which nurses and midwives demonstrate that they practise safely and effectively. They are also contributing to the work of Health Education North West London, which is leading the review of the qualifications required for the provision of non-surgical cosmetic procedures. The publication of a joint statement from BACN and PIAPA was a defining moment for professional aesthetic nurses. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first time that nurses from the two largest professional aesthetic nursing organisations have collectively combined and cooperated as one single voice. We were left in no doubt that the message given by them was both serious and weighty. The statement said: ‘We firmly believe that no nurse, doctor or dentist should feel the need to join a fee-charging voluntary registration body to reassure the general public as to their professional competence’. It continued: ‘Any voluntary register that is offering guarantees of professional practice beyond a premises check could not sustain this position if this is challenged by a patient. Any complaint would always find its way back to the governing councils. The voluntary registers therefore cannot offer any kind of guarantee of patient safety or access to a process for complaints without the approval of the governing councils.’ Although the NMC exists to ‘protect the public’, it remains reluctant to engage or even consult on any guidance for aesthetic nurses. On 8 June, the NMC (@nmcnews) sent a tweet stating ‘we have no plans at present to issue specific guidance on cosmetic nursing’. Meanwhile, the mandatory bodies of our colleagues are acting. The General Medical Council (2015) is now consulting on guidance for doctors offering surgical and non-surgical cosmetic interventions, to promote safe, patient-centred care, by ensuring doctors know what is expected of them. To my relief, I noted that there is an NMC registrant, who is also an aesthetic prescribing nurse, sitting on that group. Likewise, the General Dental Council is actively campaigning and even prosecuting non-compliant therapists who are illegally practising and training others on teeth whitening. It is the deafening silence of the NMC that remains the elephant in the statutory bodies’ room. Patients, the public and our professional colleagues rightly expect that we are delivering care as NMC registrants within agreed ethical, legal and practical standards. Aesthetic nurses are looking to their own mandatory body for leadership on how best to assure patients and consumers that those who carry out cosmetic procedures have the skills to do so. Further delay in addressing the issue of guidance for aesthetic nurses may risk the NMC again being labelled as ‘out of touch’ or ‘not acting in the public interest’. It is now time that the BACN and PIAPA, with their new found symbiosis and collective voice, clear their desks to urgently prepare and issue another joint statement, starting with something like this: Dear NMC...