With spring well and truly upon us, here at the British Association of Cosmetic Nurses (BACN) we have had a busy and productive start to 2023, preparing for another exciting year ahead. Our national and regional meetings shall begin from May and will run monthly across a variety of locations. These events bring fantastic educational opportunities to our members, such as meeting regional leaders, listening to speakers covering a variety of topics, networking with fellow aesthetic nurses, as well as hearing the latest innovations from sponsoring companies. Full details of dates, locations and agendas can be found at www.bacn.org.uk These meetings are also an excellent opportunity for mandatory professional updates for BLS, which can be booked online.
The BACN continues to work in collaboration with the Web Marketing Clinic to deliver a ‘Digital Drop In’ plan, which features a new series of digital events focusing on teaching digital marketing techniques and skills to enhance members' presence online. Each month, Digital Drop In will cover a specific topic within digital marketing to help aesthetic nurses develop their brand both on and offline. These sessions are suitable for BACN members at all stages in their practices and careers. In addition, at the BACN, we are also delighted to welcome a forthcoming webinar in April from the Rare Consulting Group, a market research and data company, to provide insights into the specialism of medical aesthetics. The webinar is titled ‘What is driving patients to get aesthetic treatments?’ Registration for these events can be booked online via the BACN website and are free to attend. This includes non-members, who are encouraged to contact admin@bacn.org.uk for more information prior to booking.
We are delighted to announce that our BACN Spring Symposium returns for its second year on Friday the 21st of April at 1 Wimpole Street. The carefully curated agenda has been tailored towards advanced practitioners and is open to registered nurses, doctors and dentists. We are proud to showcase a fantastic line-up of speakers and topics with Church Pharmacy as headline sponsors for our flagship event. We are excited to welcome founding BACN board member, Liz Bardolph, who will reflect on her extensive career in medical aesthetics and share an overview of the establishment of the BACN in 2009. Constance Campion will discuss ‘advancing aesthetic nursing and wellness in the aesthetic medical clinic’; additional esteemed speakers include Dr. Yusra Al-Mukhtar discussing ‘Psychology in aesthetics,’ Tracey Dennison sharing her expertise on ‘Beyond the needle: diversity in the wellness arena’, as well as Dr. Lee Walker presenting ‘injection strategies: Improving aesthetic outcomes and lowering risks with soft tissue fillers’. Aesthetic Nurse Dawn Attewell will be sharing her experience in ‘machine based treatment’, and BACN Vice-Chair Sharon King will explore the use of vitamins in aesthetic practice, along with Dr. M.J. Rowland-Warmann who will discuss ‘managing dermal filler complications using ultrasound’. The Spring Symposium has sold out; further speakers and sessions will be announced soon.
More recent and exciting developments to share are that the BACN have begun the process to set up the BACN Charitable Foundation to coordinate our education and training activities with a focus on patient safety and protection for the public. We will be able to share further progress with this in due course. We have also completed an extensive consultation with BACN regional leaders on how to improve services to our members. We are pleased to announce that our BACN membership currently stands at 1200 aesthetic nurses, with between 25-50 new members joining each month. We are also working on collaborative projects on psychological aspects around medical aesthetic treatments. At the BACN, we are delighted to have launched a specialist ‘Assessor Programme for Aesthetic Nurses’ with MAP IQ. The initial phase will be 12 months, with phase 2 expected to be introduced later this year. Please contact BACN directly to express interest, or to enquire for further information, including eligibility criteria.
It's been a productive and exciting start to 2023 for BACN with exciting developments underway for our membership. Watch this space!
