Becoming An Aesthetic Nurse Injector

Hi Beauties,

So sorry that this post took me a while to get up. I’ve had my hands full since the new little addition to the family recently, but here we are. I have received countless inquiries from you asking how I became a Nurse Injector, or Aesthetic Nurse and it is my pleasure to share with you!

There is a quote, “There is a special place in Hell for women who don’t help other women.” I don’t want to go to hell  I want to help you. If you want to do aesthetics, I would love if this short article helped you, even if it is only to spark more interest on your path. I truly wish I could sit and have a face to face with every single one of you beauties that have asked me how to get into the field so we could come up with a plan and get you going with this innovative and extremely fun career. Because I love it when I see the woman next to me doing well, and you should too. So, here we go.

Laws for obtaining the proper license to inject and practice aesthetics on patients differ from state to state. With that being said, research what the requirements are in your state to be able to practice and legally function as an injector and laser specialist. I live in the state of California. Currently, you must have your RN license to practice as an injector. It doesn’t matter whether you have your ADN or BSN, just that you are a licensed Registered Nurse. Other medical pathways that also inject and perform laser treatments in CA are Nurse Practitioners, Physician’s Assistants, and of course, MDs, but I am writing specifically to those pursuing an aesthetic injecting position through an RN degree.

Now, nursing school is a completely different blog post, so I won’t really get into it. If you are curious, I went to Mount St. Mary’s University in Los Angeles and I loved it. It is an excellent school with nothing but the best hospitals for clinical rotations. So let’s move forward. You pass nursing school and your NCLEX exam and now you have your RN license. Assuming your goal is to work in the cosmetic/medical field, now what? First, be sure that you want to specialize in aesthetics because if you do a year or two doing laser and injecting Botox then try to get a job in the hospital doing something like ER or OR, it will be extremely tough since it may be believed that you have lost your clinical skills in the lovely little bubble of Botox injections.

Once you have fully dedicated yourself to the idea of aesthetic nursing, go for it! You have a couple of choices. You can shine up that resume like a mother and sweep the floor with your interview and get hired on to a practice as a new grad and the facility or doctor you work for will have so much faith in you that they take the painstaking time to train you themselves, also have reps from the injectable companies come out and train you, as well as spend their own money in sending you to symposiums and seminars to make sure you understand and are well trained in everything aesthetics. This is the less likely route but does happen. It happened to me.

However, the business has become much more competitive in the past 5-10 years and things have changed a lot. If you are lucky enough to find a practice that will hire you as a new grad or a nurse transitioning from hospital, you will usually start off doing less invasive laser treatments first, then build up to more aggressive laser treatments with a few injections thrown in here and there to get your feet wet until your doctor feels like you are ready to progress to more advanced procedures and techniques. This may be assisting with surgeries, pre and post op, a CO2 procedures, full liquid face lifts using filler, the list goes on. It takes years to develop your eye for the aesthetic procedures and if you find someone who is willing to train you and invest their time and money in you, dedicate yourself. It is worth it. I am forever grateful to the physician’s and nurse injectors that took their time to take me under their wing, who believed in me enough, to train me free of charge. My wish is to give back and start a training program of my own to make sure the safest and best care is given to patients by top of the line injectors!

The other route is to pay for classes and teaching seminars on your own and receive certificates through private companies that host the classes. I, personally, have never taken one of these classes. I have always had the trainers come to the office and do a more intimate training. However, I do know injectors that have taken the classes as a “crash course” introduction to the basics of injections and laser treatments and say that they are helpful in breaking into the field. Paletteresources.com is a good starting point if you would like to look into classes. Please feel free to comment on what classes you have taken or have heard good things about, because all the information is welcomed and I am sure you would be helping someone out. And that is the point, right? We all help each other out. If you are winning, I am winning. So, once you have received your certs in lasers and injectables, you can apply to an office and let them know that you do not have previous experience injecting as a profession, but that you have believed in yourself so much that you took it upon yourself to purchase your own classes and have received training on the basics of what is needed in the aesthetic office. Bingo, another route into aesthetic nursing.

I’m sure there are several other ways to get into the field as a nurse injector, but these two are the most popular at this time, and I really am just skimming the top of all the details that go into pursuing this career. Aesthetic nursing (not to be confused with estheticians- totally different) is a very unique position. You get to work in an atmosphere that evokes creativity and kindness. People learn to trust you with their faces, which is a huge deal! It tends to be a very autonomous job, which is great for a “leader” personality. Working in aesthetics has been just as rewarding as working in the ER and OR for me. Sure, I am no longer doing compressions on a cardiac arrest patients, but when I get to help a woman gain some confidence back, or aesthetically adjust a part of the face someone has been teased about since they were young, I feel great about it, and they do too.

Becoming an Aesthetic Nurse Injector is one thing, look out for my post on how to become a very successful one. Thanks for reading!

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