Fighting the good fight: striving for recognition as a medical specialty

Over many years I have heard colleagues repeatedly say that we may have lost the battle but we haven't yet lost the war. Many battles have been fought and continue to be fought by healthcare professionals (HCPs) who passionately believe that aesthetic medicine is an important branch of modern-day medicine, and one that it is deserving of respect and recognition as a medical specialty. Many continue to fight tooth and nail to protect our professional integrity and to keep medical aesthetics a medical discipline. It has been an upward struggle to fight against many obstacles, the biggest being the lack of government intervention to stop the unaccountable rogues and cowboys that perform medical treatments within a healthcare sector where they have no right or entitlement to be.

Hope represents an ability to conceptualise our goals and to find pathways to reach these goals despite the obstacles that stand before us. Optimism sparks the feeling of hope. It takes great courage to find optimism when all around seems so skewed. I want this first column of 2019 to generate some hope and optimism. I believe that aesthetic nurses are a force to be reckoned with, and if we stand collectively we can shape the future of aesthetic medicine in the UK. It is sometimes necessary to lose the small battles in order to win the war.