October has officially arrived to signal the end of summer and the arrival of colder months, bringing along with it the approach of Halloween. This month also brings something new to the aesthetic sector, as the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) brings in a regulation regarding improvements to help overseas nurses join the NMC register (NMC, 2019).
While there seems to be no end to Brexit dominating headlines and screens being bombarded with stories describing the difficulties faced by European residents living in the UK, this regulation is a commitment to not only strengthen our international relationships, but also continue paving the way on the road to stronger aesthetic regulation. It was just last May that a ‘dramatic fall [in] the number of nurses and midwives from EU countries’ aroused feelings that safe practice could be taken back a step with a shortage of trained professionals (Campbell, 2019). However, the NMC regulation brings with it hope that the ongoing fight in regulating aesthetics is heading in the right direction, with victory nearer than ever before. The regulation will bring with it improvements ranging from a move ‘from a paper to an online application system’ to a ‘further reduction in the cost of the computer-based test’ (NMC, 2019). Such advancements not only ensure that highly experienced overseas nurses can become part of the UK workforce, thus ensuring patient safety and a continually improving standard of care, but also assists in evading often-avoidable delays which can prevent nurses from practicing.
This eased process of application to the NMC register means an increasing and well-trained force of overseas aesthetic nurses possessing the expertise necessary for safe practice. With unregulated practitioners and irresponsible cosmetic advertising now making headlines in mainstream news, regulation in the aesthetics sector is more important than ever. As the industry continues to grow rapidly, so does its exposure to the public domain, thus increasing the general attraction to both the role of the nurse and to aesthetic procedures. This exposure, as well as, at times, poor advertising practice, has led to a greater number of (mostly) young women, and even children as young as 13, seeking out aesthetic practitioners and procedures as a result of their low self-esteem (Gregory and Scott, 2019). One such example of the mainstream media focusing on aesthetic regulation is an article I read with great interest about a young woman seeking Botulinum toxin injections. It was with less surprise that I read that a registered nurse told the young woman she did not think she needed the treatment, while another ‘practitioner’ (title unmentioned) offered her the treatment ‘within seconds’ (Gray, 2019). Let's hope that this regulation brings with it a fresh generation of trained practitioners focused on patient safety and caring for others, who will help the sector on the road to regulation and that the Government, as this journal has long argued, bans unregulated practitioners' undertaking procedures that should only be completed by regulated nurses.