A Typical Day in My Life as an Aesthetic Nurse Practitioner

Today we hear from our own Marisa Stringer, NP-C, CANS, and APRN Director here at CoreMedSource. She explains what a typical day for her is like at Pine Belt Dermatology, where she specializes in dermatology care and aesthetics, which include cosmetic injections and dermal fillers, acne, psoriasis, and screening and treating skin cancer. She explains how she and her clinic stay community-minded and what parts of her role are her favorites, and what is challenging.

A Varied Balance

My practice consists of 50% cosmetic dermatology and 50% general dermatology. On cosmetic days, I arrive at 8am and plan for a full day ending around 4:30pm. I usually take lunch for an hour and go to the gym to decompress! Some days during lunch I will have a training scheduled with one of our reps to demo new products such as injectables or cosmeceuticals.

Usually, first thing in the morning, my team will have already stocked patient rooms with gauze, syringes for toxins, lots of drawn-up saline syringes for reconstitution, and have set up the spa rooms with music and aroma diffusers. I am all about the experience! My team does a count of fillers, toxins, peel kits, and microneedling kits once a week and provides that to me so I can notify our practice manager when we are running low on products so she can reorder.

The number of patients I see in one day depends on what procedure or treatment they are scheduled for. Longer procedures such as microneedling, scalp PRP, or multiple syringes of filler can take up more time. On an average day with a blend of all patients and procedure types, I may have 20-30 patients. If we are having a promotion and have a day of only toxin injections, I may see up to 40 patients.

Contributing to the Greater Good

I play a large role in the office when it comes to planning events, specials, or discussing new services or products to bring in. Our practice prides itself in giving back to the community, so I will help coordinate events that offer discounts on injectables for donations of products or cash from patients, then pass on those donations to a community service in need. For instance, we recently held an event called Book Bags for Botox and donated school supplies and toiletries purchased from cash donations to the Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence. Each November, we run Food Drive for Filler where patients that make donations get a discount on filler, and the donations go to a local charity organization. At Christmas, we run an event we call Toys For Tox where any patient that donates toys or cash for the Salvation Army Angel Tree receives a discount on toxins. My daughter, Sophia loves this one and has been helping to buy the toys for the Angel Tree from the donations since she was a little girl.

Challenges and Rewards

Patients come in for consultations for a variety of conditions. Many want to look younger and have begun noticing lines and dark spots. Some come in for prevention of lines. We offer a variety of treatment modalities to address all issues. My patients are told upfront that my goal for them is to look like themselves, but a couple of years younger and refreshed. I like my work to keep friends and family guessing. Subtle, yet effective.

My favorite part of the day is the reveal when I give a patient the mirror to see themselves for the first time after a procedure. I love to see the look on their face and if they cry tears of joy or hug me, it makes my day.

The challenging part of this job is explaining to patients that they may not be a candidate for a particular procedure, or that they may not reach the aesthetic goal from a picture that they show me. Also, lips can be a difficult discussion, especially if they have too much filler and I recommend that they not add any. Many patients do not want to hear that and it’s important to explain why I will not inject filler for safety reasons or aesthetic reasons. Overall, it is crucial to explain likely outcomes, whether good or bad, so patients are as informed as possible.

The uniqueness of this job is that it allows the opportunity for hands-on work while also giving the ability to perform art when shaping faces with injectables.

Start Your Journey to Be an Aesthetic NP

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