The nursing associate in aesthetic practice

Over the past few weeks, I have read with interest several posts and questions unfolding on aesthetic forums from practitioners who have been approached to prescribe for nursing associates who wish to, or already do, work in aesthetic practice. I decided to dig a little deeper and examine the role of the nursing associate and where they might fit into this already diverse and underregulated sector.

The nursing associate is a relatively new role. They are members of the nursing team in England and help to bridge the gap between health and care assistants and registered nurses. The role concentrates on the core work of nursing, leaving the registered nurse to focus on more complex clinical care. The programme to train nursing associates started in 2017, and approximately 700 people were eligible to apply to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to register in early 2019. Around a further 800 joined the register in 2019. The first cohort did not have a qualification from an NMC-approved programme, but they were assessed against the NMC's standards of proficiency (2018a) under a provision in NMC legislation (article 13A) to allow for specific groups of pre-regulation applicants to apply to register. These included individuals on Health Education England (HEE) pilots or nursing associate apprenticeships who started their courses before July 2019. This cohort was assessed with a competence-based test (CBT) and the observed structured clinical examination (OSCE). There are now several NMC-approved programmes in England, and the role is unique to England and is not operating in other parts of the UK.