Registered nurses' perspectives on medically safe practices and sound ethical standards in aesthetic nursing: An interview study

Abstract

Aims and objectives: To explore the views of registered nurses experienced in aesthetic nursing regarding medically safe practices and sound ethical standards.

Background: Aesthetic nursing is an emerging field of modern-day healthcare encompassed within aesthetic medicine. There is a distinct lack of research regarding how registered nurses who specialise in this area of care view medically safe practices and sound ethical standards. This is important to explore, because, in the absence of mandatory regulations within the sector, and it is the aesthetic nurse's own obligation to uphold professional, medical and ethical standards.

Design: Qualitative study.

Methods: Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 registered nurses who had worked in aesthetic nursing for at least two years. The interview transcripts were categorised using qualitative content analysis. The COREQ checklist was used to report the study.

Results: A main theme was generated during the analysis: Considering my professional, the clinic's and the patient's needs. The participants described that they considered medical and ethical aspects pertinent to their professional roles as registered nurses but also undertook practices in addition to what they already did as registered nurses, such as creating professional networks using social media. They also described the importance of establishing local medical and ethical guidelines for their clinics, and that they considered patients' individual needs such as using individual information relating to their patients' previous experiences.

Conclusions: The study points to the positive tendencies of registered nurses in aesthetics to develop their own professional networks and create local medical and ethical guidelines until more robust mandatory regulations are in place.

Relevance to clinical practice: Considering that aesthetic nursing is a young industry, registered nurses are in an excellent position to utilise their professional networks and work with professional bodies to develop standards of professional nursing practice and education for this field.