My regular work schedule is Wednesdays and Fridays at a medical spa in Irvine. I work when there are patients scheduled for me, and today was not that day. I think I had one patient scheduled for a laser scar treatment, but her work schedule has been pretty busy so she rescheduled and that was all who was on my schedule for today. Friday is a big day of training on our new Motus AZ painless laser hair removal, so this week is pretty chill. So I figured I’d make use of my momentum and post again.
I’ve spent so long searching my dashboard to find out how to change the header photo of this blog and I couldn’t figure it out or the server wasn’t responding to allow me to revise. So I changed the theme of the layout so that there wasn’t a header. Oh well, that was my semi-solution for the time being. And as for yesterday’s post, apparently I was creating a bulleted list and I didn’t even realize it until I saw my post today on my phone, and it showed it as bullets. I also noticed that my previous posts cut off after a certain point and it continued on with a click to expand the post. I forgot how to do that. Geez. Guess I’ll have to dive back into my old posts to see what sort of command I used for that. I really really don’t remember jack since the pandemic has eaten away at my brain.
So cosmetics huh?
OK so yeah, cosmetics was super random. From a nursing perspective in particular. My journey so far as an RN has gone from cardiac step-down to ICU, to SAHM for about a year and a half, then relocated to CA from the east coast and took PRN job in outpatient surgery (preop and recovery) for a super brief period until I was able to find a full-time nursing position. It was between being a lead Wound Care RN to help expand a wound care center at Torrance Memorial Medical Center or a Field RN Case Manager. I opted for the one that was more flexible for daycare/preschool events, drop-off and pick-up for Jia, and one that would allow Jeff the time he needed to commute from Torrance to Santa Monica five days a week, which was the case management job. Then promotion to supervisor once Jordy was born and I returned to work, then we relocated to the OC and I still kept that supervisory job.
Then COVID happened, and I worked my buns off until we got Jordy’s autism diagnosis. Getting that diagnosis put my work-life balance in to perspective. I was sick of balancing the laptop on my lap while Jordy was on the toilet, sitting with my laptop while I turned on TV all day, and worked through meals when Jia was basically needing to be 90% independent learning remotely in 2nd grade. Mentally it was a lot to wrap my head around, trying to coordinate preschool for Jordy with speech therapy and other therapies. With Jeff having moved his office into our master bedroom so I could still have my office in the townhome, we would barely see him during the day which meant I was still doing all the parenting, keeping Jia on track with remote learning, being present during therapy, cooking the meals, getting the groceries, while working… and then working until midnight or 1 AM every night to get ahead of the next day of work before my attention was pulled by what was happening at home.
So I tried to go part-time with my supervisory job but that didn’t work. For reasons I won’t mention here, I just wasn’t supported enough to actually make a clean part-time transition. I would’ve still ended up working a full time job but gotten paid half-time. So I resigned. It was the best thing ever. I was able to fully focus on the kids, take them out for excursions, plan out meals, and best of all, ditch that laptop. But then months went by and I felt like I needed to make use of my nursing license.
I think one of my friends had mentioned that she needed botox, and she followed these local aesthetic injectors on instagram… and that I should do that. So I went and looked at their instagram pages and Beauty Boost Med Spa had this youtube channel where the owners/partners introduced themselves and told the story of how they came to be aesthetic NP’s or PA’s (the founder, Anisa, is an NP and she got her DNP from Univ of San Diego just 5 years after I graduated with my MSN, but she had this vision in cosmetics and just did the damn thing).
I thought: wow, that could be really cool, and it seems like not the most stressful thing in the world.
So then…
So I did what any mid-30’s mom does in this day and age. I went to the Facebook moms group in my area and posted a question, asking my fellow RN’s any advice as to where I could get “training” on injectables or cosmetics nursing. The owner, and NP, of Complete Care Medical Spa, was one of those who commented on my post. She suggested watching YouTube videos on various cosmetics procedures, and commented that any clinic is going to want to train RN’s themselves if you were fresh to the industry, rather than saying “hey, I attended this one training course that I spent $4500.00, hire me!” because that may very well be a waste of money investing before even landing a job in cosmetics. I messaged her directly and asked if they were looking to hire part-time, and she said they may be looking at hiring one… She was on vacation that week, but invited me to meet with her the day after she returned and ask her any questions about getting into the industry. So, I took it upon myself to treat that as a job interview.
I literally came with no prior knowledge about cosmetics. Like, at all. I’d never gotten anything injected into my face. I’d never had any lasers, peels, performed on my face. Truthfully the last facial I received was probably when I was in college, and with my mom on a holiday break. The most I knew about skincare was what I’d learned about selling Rodan + Fields. So I wasn’t coming in with any foundational knowledge. My baseline was zero. I had to YouTube “what’s the difference between botox and fillers,” and I took notes on it. That was my baseline. They don’t teach you this stuff in nursing school! I think BOTOX for lines/wrinkles was still a pretty new thing back in 2010 when I graduated!
I was so excited to meet with the owner of this spa. I remember reviewing the notes I took on those YouTube videos. I called my old classmate from nursing school, asking her to talk to me about cosmetics stuff. She was the classmate who always had glowing skin, long lashes, perfect lips. We’d stayed in touch over the years, and she even asked me a few years prior, if I wanted to open a med spa with her. Back then, I thought “med…. spa? I don’t even know what that is, so no, I’m good.” I got offered a job, I was elated and fortunate to be able to squeeze into this competitive industry. I will be forever grateful for Alison taking a chance on me. So funny how things work out.
So here I am now. My job scope at the practice is laser treatments, microneedling with radio frequency (RF micro needling), dermal fillers, neurotoxin (BOTOX Cosmetics, Dysport, and Xeomin), IPL (intense pulsed light, aka photofacials) for sun damage, PRFM (platelet-rich fibrin matrix) injections, Sculptra, and some facial bar stuff like mid-dermal chemical peels, hydra facials and microdermabrasion. I am the only RN at the practice, so treatments are done with the owner, PA Alison, or myself, while she runs the medical side of her practice (she specializes in endocrine disorders). I’m trying to help the practice grow as much as I can. There is still so much to learn, I feel like I have a decent grasp on the things we offer. Having an aesthetics nursing job in the Beauty Belt (SoCal, Texas, Florida) is a huge honor, but it also means that there’s a standard and expectation in terms of level of expertise to hold that title. As mentioned in the last post, I go back and forth between wanting to have a social media following on my aesthetics accounts, and just learning and doing. The latter is probably because as of yet, the following has been slow to take; though, organic. So I guess, whatever shall be, will be.
(and since starting, I’ve only used some really good skincare products and had neurotoxin injections for those pesky wrinkles!)
Below: Posts that have made me happy.
