When a patient books an appointment with someone who describes themselves as a nurse, I think there are certain assumptions they reasonably make. They assume that person has trained as a nurse, is registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), works within a professional code and can be held accountable to a regulator if something goes wrong.
What many patients may not realise is that while “Registered Nurse” is a legally protected title, the word “Nurse” on its own currently is not.
In practice, this means someone can use the word “nurse” without necessarily being a Registered Nurse with the NMC. This could include someone who has never been a qualified nurse, or someone who was previously registered but is no longer on the register. The Government itself has acknowledged that this can give patients the impression that someone has qualifications, professional standards and a level of clinical expertise that they may not actually have.
I find that particularly concerning in medical aesthetics, where patients are already faced with a confusing landscape of qualifications, training courses and professional titles. If someone describes themselves as a nurse, how many patients would think to ask whether they are actually registered with the NMC? Most, I imagine, would simply take the title at face value.
The UK Government has now launched a Call for Evidence on protecting the professional title “Nurse”, something I very much welcome. BAMAN will be submitting an organisational response, and as a member of the BAMAN Board of Directors, this is an issue that feels very relevant to the work we have been doing around standards and patient safety within medical aesthetics.
A title comes with expectations
For Registered Nurses, those five letters represent years of education, clinical practice and professional development. Registration with the NMC also means practising according to a professional code and remaining accountable for the care we provide.
Patients aren’t necessarily familiar with the details of professional regulation, nor should we expect them to be. Most people simply see the word “nurse” and understand it to mean a regulated healthcare professional. That trust has been built over generations.
If the title can also be used by someone who is not registered with the NMC, it becomes much harder for the public to know what qualifications, regulation or accountability actually sit behind it.
Medical aesthetics is a clear example of why professional titles matter. Patients today are faced with an enormous range of practitioners offering injectable treatments, often using very similar terminology to describe themselves and their services. Unless you work within healthcare, understanding the differences between qualifications, professional registrations and training courses can be very difficult.
Social media can make that even harder. A polished profile, a clinic setting and an impressive-sounding title can create an immediate sense of credibility, but they don’t necessarily tell you what professional regulation sits behind the person providing the treatment.
When somebody uses the title “nurse”, however, I believe patients should be able to take something concrete from it. They should be able to expect that the practitioner is actually a Registered Nurse.
Regulation doesn’t guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong
Being a Registered Nurse doesn’t mean complications cannot happen, and a professional title alone doesn’t make somebody an excellent aesthetic practitioner. What regulation provides is a guideline of standards and accountability.
Registered Nurses have responsibilities and expectations that include assessing patients appropriately, working within our competence, obtaining meaningful consent, maintaining records, recognising and managing complications, undertaking continuing professional development and putting patient safety first. We remain professionally accountable for the decisions we make.
I regularly encourage patients to research their practitioner before having aesthetic treatment. Check their qualifications, ask questions, find out what products they use and make sure you understand who will be responsible for your care. But there also has to be a reasonable limit to how much detective work we expect patients to do.
Professional titles should help people make sense of who is treating them. If someone describes themselves as a nurse, a patient shouldn’t have to investigate further to establish whether they are actually registered as one.
This is why I believe the discussion around protecting the title is about giving the public clear and reliable information.
I have been a nurse for over two decades, and nursing has shaped the way I practise aesthetics: how I assess patients, how I think about risk, how I approach consent and how I decide that treatment isn’t appropriate.
So I welcome the Government’s decision to look at whether greater protection is needed. BAMAN will be contributing to the Call for Evidence on behalf of nurses working within medical aesthetics, and Registered Nurses can also submit their views individually until 8 October 2026.
Whatever changes ultimately follow, I hope we arrive at a position where the meaning of the word “nurse” is completely clear to the public.
