In this episode Vicky Eldridge sits down with the newly appointed Chair and Vice Chair of the British Association of Medical Aesthetic Nurses (BAMAN), Amy Bird and Alexandra Mills, as well as by Chief Operating Officer, Gareth Lewis. With a fresh vision for the future, they share their personal journeys into aesthetic nursing and the pivotal role BAMAN plays in supporting practitioners across the UK.
From hot topics like remote prescribing, the campaign to protect the title "nurse", and the safe administration of prescription-only medicines, to the support structures BAMAN provides for new entrants to the field, Amy and Alexandra offer a behind-the-scenes look at what it means to lead an organisation committed to standards, safety and professional growth.
Whether you're an experienced aesthetic nurse, new to the sector or simply curious about the direction of the industry, this episode offers valuable insights into the evolving sector of aesthetic nursing—and what BAMAN has planned next
Transcript:
Vicky Eldridge: Welcome to Hamilton Fraser presents the Aesthetics Business Cast. I’m Vicky Eldridge and I’m joined today by Amy Bird, who is the founder of KAST Aesthetics, and also Chair of the British Association of Medical Aesthetic Nurses, or BAMAN, and Alexandra Mills, the founder of AM Aesthetics and Vice Chair of BAMAN as well. We're together at the BAMAN Spring Symposium where I’ll also be joined later on by their Chief Operating Officer, Gareth Lewis: Lewis, and we're going to be talking today about leaders in aesthetic nursing and some of the issues that are facing nurses today. Amy Bird, Alex Mills, lovely to have you on the podcast.
Amy Bird: Hi, Vicky. Thank you very much.
Alex Mills: Thanks Vicky
Vicky Eldridge: As we get started, Amy, I will come to you first. Tell us a little bit about BAMAN. Introduce the association to our audience.
Amy Bird: Yeah. So, you know, we are in new positions, me and Alex. But BAMAN, formerly BACN, you know the biggest largest original association, recognising aesthetic, medical, aesthetic nurses and was founded by incredible nurses who recognise that, you know, we need to come together and guide and support, mentor, advocate, standards, professionalism, everything that we are today and ultimately we are an association of nurses for nurses to support you in every aspect of that independent practice.
Vicky Eldridge: Now, I'd love to hear a little bit about both of your career journeys into aesthetics. Alex, tell us a bit about how you got into aesthetics, what inspired you to get into aesthetics and your journey to now to becoming Vice Chair of BAMAN.
Alex Mills: Oh goodness, so long ago. I hope I can remember it all. I worked in the head and neck unit in Belfast. I was clinical educator and that's my background. And then about oh, 16 nearly 17 years ago now I went off with a few colleagues to help them set up an aesthetic clinic, as such. And two years later I took over the clinic. And so kind of I like to think aesthetics chose me. I didn't choose it. It was kind of. I was in a different head and neck background but and it's just went from. It's just grown since then, you know, kind of thing and I really enjoyed the time. It was a private clinic that I could have that we don't have in the NHS, even though I was a clinical educator, you know, I had four units to look after for 200 staff and so it was just, yeah, I enjoyed that but up until very recently, about five years, I still did some NHS work. I think that that was critical. And strengthens me as a nurse because, you know, we don't have a nursing standard as such within aesthetics, you know, there’s not a standard within aesthetics. So I worked to the nursing standards. So yeah. And the journeys been colourful ever since and I joined BAMAN, right back in 2009, I think. Yeah, that was just the first year, I think Aine Larkin got me into, our former regional leader. And yeah, that's kind of how I get on to it. Yeah. Got other stories in between. But as I said, it's a long time ago.
Amy Bird: Colourful.
Alex Mills: Yeah, it is, yeah.
Vicky Eldridge: Amy, what about you, tell us a bit about your journey into aesthetics
Amy Bird: Yeah. So I think Alex is right when you say kind of it chooses you, I don't, you know going back 10 plus years, you don't it, you know what, it was still very much small in comparison to what it is today. Yeah. You know, it's accelerated, you know, massively. But I was, you know, as a student, I remember absolutely enjoying plastic surgery. It was, you know, not just, I could feel it in my bones. I loved it. That's, that's where I really enjoyed myself and I then ended up on a path post qualifying as in cardiology, in cardiology medicine, and I went to work at a big tertiary centre and it was incredible. And I advanced quickly in terms of clinical ability, my prescribing etcetera. As a nurse practitioner. But the realisation was that was an extremely different environment to where I felt my passion was.
So I took that acute nursing those kind of early years of understanding and learning who you are as a nurse because that's critical. You know, you don't pop out of university, you know, and know how to be a nurse. It's learning on the job. And I took all that and got a position in a private cosmetic surgery group as ward manager there to implement change and safety, but also in an area of medicine that I knew I would love. And that was insightful.
Colourful and that's kind of where I really met the non surgical. And that was obviously, you know, I was on the upper level with the surgery and then the you know on the ground floor it was all the injectable skin etcetera and that really opened you know the world up for me and I'm very grateful for those experiences, actually.
So obviously plastic surgery is where I left to work independently within aesthetic medicine that is now we I think I just need to call it non surgical back then if I'm quite honest and yeah, I've been injecting now independently for KAST, 12 / 13 years. And I love it. But I don’t know how I’ve got here! I do call myself an aesthetic nurse when I’m working, I very much am grounded with my ethical compass that I that I had from those early days of qualifying. You know, I value my pin number incredibly. My core values as a nurse. You know, all that foundation training. And I look after my patients exactly the same. You know, with the same responsibilities of updating myself, etcetera. Yeah, it's all about that.
Alex Mills: Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. And I think medical aesthetic nursing is an advanced role for nurses and we both come from background of advanced. We're both nurse practitioners in our previous roles. So that does help you and the you know, it's really and it's it helps you steer that ship because it definitely is an advanced role.
Amy Bird: Yeah, I almost wanna say that me and Alex are probably old school in terms of our journey.
Alex Mills: The matron
Amy Bird: She's the matron. In our journey in having those things under our belt buckle of advanced nursing being with those poorly patients understanding holistically how to assess clinically how to assess and then to work safely independently cause ultimately to work independently is a very, very different neck of the woods than you know working on a ward in that safety environment with NHS or a private kind of sector at your fingertips.
Alex Mills: And a multidisciplinary team…
Amy Bird: You know, absolutely. So I'm very proud of the clinic and we've got nurses, doctors, therapists, you know, and we holistically treat our patients top to toe. But it's, you know, I always giggle when you can see people thinking I'm going to go into this to make a quick buck and it's easy. Umm, sometimes I think. Take me back to four nights a week.
Vicky Eldridge: Yeah, because you both run your own businesses, so that was one of my other questions.
Amy Bird: Yeah, sorry. Walked into that bit.
Vicky Eldridge: What would be a tip that each of you could give to somebody who's starting out, running their own business in aesthetics. Alex, I'll come to you.
Alex Mills: Well, what I always say, but maybe this, I haven't read enough Tony Robbins books is, start small and grow from there. You know, don't be that we we're inundated by conferences now which is amazing. It is amazing but it is a busy space. And there's certain things. Bread and butter things get very good at them. And go from there and you know don’ be feeling you rushing in to new treatments. New things be very good because it is about being fully competent in the areas and that that's what I would just say. Don't feel pressurised you know because like Amy said, you know going back to four nights a week you know.
I grew my business in Belfast, sold it and moved over to London seven years ago thinking Oh my goodness, the little girl from Northern Ireland, how we're gonna hit Harley Street and now employing people here and but I've always kept it quite simple in that regard and that would be my advice. I think it's very busy now and there's some fantastic different modalities. But there's a lot of basic things that really work and will be the foundation of your business.
Amy Bird: Yeah, definitely. And I think I totally agree with Alex that it's almost twofold. Yeah, you have to master being an independent experienced practitioner and mastering your trade in terms of patient safety, being an injector or a skin health you know I don't want to say the word specialist, but you're focusing more on skin cause not every nurse does injectables. Mastering that is one thing. But then also the business side too, it's definitely the two that run alongside each other.
But I think from a nurse perspective, mastering that initial foundation, professionalism standards, understanding the training and requirements, et cetera, et cetera, that has to come first. And I think visually looking at the sector nurses lose their weight easily because of the noise that comes from the industry, and we need the industry to we need the industry to survive. We need the industry to practise. We have to be aware of the pharmacies. We have to be aware of the new modalities and these companies.
But we also have to ground ourselves in a line with we are nurses, doctors and dentists and you know, regulated practitioners first. And we are responsible to our codes, to our regulators and behaving within that, remit first and then I firmly believe the business side grows from that.
Alex Mills: People respect you for that, you know?
Amy Bird: Absolutely. And then obviously, you know you've then go oh, actually don't know how to run a business because I am a nurse and that's, my whole career, you know? But then, you know, we are lucky that the industry, you know supports us with that. I have a business I can help you with this. You know, accounting. But it’s grounding with that, before getting into the flashy lights of the industry.
And I do say it like that because I do see that's what some nurses coming into the sector now see that it’s all about how fast can you get in a magazine? How fast can you get an article written? It's not actually understanding. Are you doing regulated activity that requires CQC registration? And that's where you should be focusing first, because that's your responsibility, as a nurse.
Vicky Eldridge: One of the things that's been talked about recently is remote prescribing. Now that's I know many nurses become prescribers as well themselves when they're when they go into aesthetics, but also remote prescribing has been an issue throughout the sector that I've been in it over 20 years and it's always been an issue and what's going on around that at the moment because we've had that, the NMC has.
Amy Bird: Yeah, absolutely. So for a long time, you're right, I think since Keogh. Yeah, the report remote prescribing has been, I suppose the easiest way to kind of like bring it down to simple terms is not advised. Yeah, but we've never had clear cut guidance from our regulator, which is the NMC in our sector,, because we've got to remember that we are still fighting and championing the fact that we're in a sector that isn't recognised as speciality RCN, NMC, etcetera.
That it's not really needed to have been, you know, on the list of priority. But we do know that things changed last year in terms of remote prescribing. I was involved in a round table discussion with the NMC, doctor David Sines. Sorry professor.
That's hilarious. I've just called him a doctor.
Alex Mills: He’s actually a nurse.
Amy Bird: And you know very important stakeholders discussing with the NMC of the concern around remote prescribing because we do see it as unsafe practice. And there are many of us who …
Alex Mills: It definitely wouldn't be considered good practice.
Amy Bird: It's not so from BAMAN, we have clear guidance for our members that is we do not advocate remote prescribing and we have done for a very long time and you know and rightly so, we've all agreed as that as members leaders and now current board we’ve always had that. And we know that there is going to be a statement. And a change in the NMC's position for clarity on our sector especially. And I'm going to absolutely welcome that when it comes out. And I think that's going to be very soon.
Note: Since this podcast was recorded the NMC has updated its position on remote prescribing affecting non-surgical cosmetic medicines. From 1 June 2025, all nurse and midwife prescribers must conduct face-to-face consultations before prescribing non-surgical cosmetic treatments. Read more in our article on the NMC update.
Vicky Eldridge: OK, so one of the things that's been in the news recently is the protection of the title nurse. So I wasn't aware that this wasn't a protected title. Can you tell us a bit about what's happening here?
Alex Mills: I know. Shocking that it wasn't protected. And I mean so misleading for the public. Well, Dawn Butler MP has taken the bill to Parliament, however.
Amy Bird: Sadly so, she had obviously the first reading, and this is something that Dawn has been gosh, this is not her first rodeo with this she's championing and years and years and years incredible woman. But unfortunately didn't get a second reading, which it's it's so insulting. It's so insulting.
Alex Mills: Didn't have time. It’s not important
Amy Bird: But she isn't going anywhere. She isn't a lady to surrender, and the bill will be back. And I think we as an organisation will be reaching out even more so to the RCN. We did support their, you know, that we will look again at what we can do to help.
Vicky Eldridge:Do you know Hamilton Fraser has just written well, a big article about all of these different terminologies and and it is important, isn't it? And and notice you were saying sector earlier and we're trying to move towards talking about the medical side not as an industry. Because there's very separate sort of commercial aspects and then these very medical aspects to it.
Amy Bird: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's so important, Vicky, if I'm honest, because we have to get simple terminology boxed off for the entire sector, you know you can't call yourself adoctor. You can't elude to yourself as a non medic. As a layperson, the nurses are the non-medics we go to do because medic is for a doctor.
Vicky Eldridge; Yes. And that's something I didn't know after 20 years.
Amy Bird: Nurses go to do a non-medical prescribing qualification. So our terminology has to get better and we can only do that from within to help with the big drive of public safety and understanding.
Vicky Eldridge: Absolutely amazing. So what about your congratulations to you both on being elected to the new board and this is exciting new chapter for BAMAN. I know that you're now gonna be the vice chair, Alex and you’re chair, Amy. What are your visions for the future and what are you both excited about in terms of this new chapter for BAMAN?
Alex Mills: Well, I've always been a champion of nurses at all stages of their career, so we're working very hard and that there's work being done and we want to continue to work harder on that and more education.
As I say, regulations everything. But I'm just really excited to be able to. I rn the London region alongside Constance for about 5 years now and really, really grew that and I've just seen the changes and I'm excited to be able to help in a more strategic way.
With our partners, our sponsors and just involve everybody because we're all inclusive and we're all in this together to be a safer, better, registered nurse.
But I also you know it. Yeah, the the terminology industry sector. You know, it's all. Yeah. But if we if you're striving for to be a medical specialty, we need to change our language. Yeah. But yeah, just kind of helping everybody along the way. I'm quite a fun person too I think. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Maybe wrong.
We want people to. That's what I think I injected into London. You know, it was one of the biggest, busiest region. Yeah. No, no, no bribes. You know, it's like we want people to enjoy and feel an open and transparent whilst overarching. Yes, we're working away on regulations and being professional, our standards and competencies, always working on them.
But it's about having fun and friendship that we all had in the hospital, in the ward and our colleagues that you feel, you know, ask a question rather than make a mistake or don't be embarrassed. And I I think that's what I want to bring in. It's not we're we're not going to judge, we just we'll help you. You know, we're all learning every day and just helping people out at all stages of their career and I'm quite excited to do that.
Vicky Eldridge: That amazing. Amy, what about you?
Amy Bird: Yeah, absolutely echo everything Alex has just said and I think.
You know the future is extremely exciting. Fresh ideas, new options, new avenues to go down. But ultimately, like Alex was saying, drive that voice of the nurse registered nurse.
Drive the standards, Drive the foundations of who we are as a speciality.
But also improve that networking. That education that kind of those foundations to really, really push BAMAN to the very, very top, you know,
Alex Mills: Where they belong.
Amy Bird: Where they belong. I mean the, you know, we had a video this morning about kind of a very quick timeline and history of what was basically, you know, BACN it's incredible what a just a couple of friends around the table and began. You're incredible you know and I feel very honoured to kind of have the baton passed on and want to do them proud. You know, but bringing a little bit of…
Alex Mills: Quite emotional.
Amy Bird: It was quite emotional. You know, bring like Alex said, different kind of things to the part, you know, just making a new cake. Almost. Yeah. Well, you know, the core ingredients are still exactly the same.
Alex Mills: Absolutely. We’ve so many fantastic members who, you know aren't in the cover of glossy magazines, or are you know. But they have so much to give. And you know the amount of friends I've met in London have learned, you know, from hormones that, you know, it's just. And that, you know, within that professional group, it's fantastic. As Amy said, we're, we're both really excited and honoured.
Vicky Eldridge: Ladies, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. It's great to talk to you and hear about everything that you're doing and good luck with everything for the future.
Alex Mills; Thank you.
Amy Bird: Thanks very much.
Vicky Eldridge: We're now also delighted to be joined on the podcast by Gareth Lewis: Lewis, who is the Chief Operating Officer at BAMAN. Gareth Lewis: , thanks for joining us.
Gareth Lewis: Lewis: Thanks, Vicky. Nice to see you.
Vicky Eldridge: How are you?
Gareth Lewis: Good yeah
Vicky Eldridge: You've been promoted. Got a new role at BAMAN. Just tell us a little bit about your career journey to now.
Gareth Lewis: Yeah, no worries. So I've been at it was BACN back then. So yeah, since October 2016. So I've been in it for a little while now, and I've worked in a variety of different fields, membership management, marketing, comms and then a few years ago I stepped into a head of operations role and now I have moved into a Chief Operating Officer role, which has a lot of similarities. I would, but I work a lot more closely now with our Executive Board of Directors and work a lot more on our strategic vision for BAMAN.
Vicky Eldridge: Now you recently won an award, didn't you? At the Aesthetic Awards, the company champion, was that right? And you were called the backbone of BAMAN. And that must have been really nice. How did you feel to be acknowledged?
Gareth Lewis: Yeah, it was really nice. A bit overwhelming, really. And I always think that when you sort of work for an association of nurses, you do want to lift up the nurses. So it's strange having like that moment. But yeah, they were so nice.
And I've had so many of our members come up to me and said I voted for you and I'm so happy for you and excited for you. So it was just really, really nice. And it was just a really nice moment to have a sort of bit of acknowledgment. So yeah, it was amazing. Real real exciting night.
Vicky Eldridge: So you must have seen a lot happen over the years that you've been here, and I think you know, it's fair to say that aesthetic nurses have really championed the way throughout aesthetics and really been at the forefront in our in our in the UK, which isn't the same in other countries.
What has been some of the things that you've seen change over the time you've been here? What's been some of the highlights for you?
Gareth Lewis: Yeah. Well, I think one of the things I've really noticed to change is that we've really pushed on getting our nurses up on that stage because, you know, we really wanna see our nurses be key opinion leaders, they're the majority of the injectors and they should be their leading the way. And I think it's taken a lot of years for them to be up, put up on there on that stage and I'm really glad that they’re there and it's something that we've really pushed for and we've invested a lot in our presentation skills for our nurses to feel that they have that space to do that we've invited them to our regional meetings to have that space, to do that in a sort of safe environment. So that's something I've really noticed is them taking that, those leadership opportunities, which is great. So yeah, that's something I've really noticed. Yeah.
Vicky Eldridge: And what about for nurses getting started in aesthetics? Obviously you're a a huge organisation now. It's really, really grown over the years and what advice would you give to someone getting started in aesthetics and also what are the benefits of joining an organisation like this?
Gareth Lewis: Well, I think I speak to a lot of nurses that are new to aesthetics, and I think one of the things they often feel is when they move away from the NHS they can often feel quite isolated. Yeah. And it's not good for nurses to work in isolation. And that's really why our organisation exists just so that they they to have that support, that they will require as they start their new journey in medical aesthetics. So that's something I would say. It's really important to have your peers there to support you.
And to be able to ask those questions that you might not necessarily be able to have answered in any other space than other than a support network with other peers. And so that's something really important and I think that's why we exist. So they just, they'd have that immediately just that sort of safety net to ensure they're doing things the right way. Our networking is really unparalleled and it is something that really draws so many of our nurses together. Yeah, it's that kind of stuff. And we have a lot of educational resources with the competency framework that they can map their skills against as an aesthetic nurse, which is really important business support, guidance revalidation help. It's just we're just that whole, like I said, safety net for nurses that are working in medical aesthetics.
And they just have so much support. So that's why I would think, I would say to them to to really join us and see what we’re all about.
Vicky Eldridge: Yeah. So very much. And I've seen that you've been a real voice for nurses as well across the, you know, when it comes to the big issues that are going on like the protection of the type of nurse that things around remote prescribing and all these things. What other they're going to be either the challenges or the things that you're excited about for the future in terms of the things you'll be driving forward as an organisation.
Gareth Lewis: Yeah, I mean we this is what we always say. We want to be the loudest voice for nurses working in medical aesthetics and we are that voice and we will continue to shout the loudest to ensure that our nurses feel represented. I think that they, as you say, a variety of things that will are on the horizon, issues around remote prescribing, something that we're very much impassioned to sort of stop in a aesthetic medicine. We also have potential licensing coming into into effect and so we need to be sure that our nurses feel like they are, they feel listened to in that sort of that whatever is happening in that licensing and we're speaking to the Department of Health. We're speaking to the NMC. We are there for nurses. So that's something I think will be an interesting shift in in 2025 and 2026 and beyond, so.
Vicky Eldridge: It's a lot going on. It’s exciting to see what’s happening.
Gareth Lewis: It never ends!
Vicky Eldridge: Gareth thank you so much always great to talk to you.
Gareth Lewis: No worries, Vicky. Nice to see you take care
I really enjoyed this conversation with Amy Bird: , Alex Mills: and Gareth Lewis: , and I think it highlights the important role nurses have to play in the development of the aesthetic sector and the advantages BAMAN can offer its members. For more advice on the world of aesthetic nursing, check out Hamilton Fraser's guide in partnership with BAMAN, which will walk you through the opportunities, challenges and essential steps to get started. You can find it on Hamilton phrases content hub https://www.hamiltonfraser.co.uk/content-hub
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