Hello, I am looking for someone to write an article on A Review of the Key Issues Involved in Prescribing within Aesthetic Medicine. It needs to be at least 1500 words. Aesthetic medicine using Botulinum Toxin-A has turned out to be a more affordable alternative that got individuals wishing to enhance their appearance without the cost implications and other issues of risks and downtime that are associated with surgical procedures towards the same objective. The main target areas that Botulin Toxin-A is employed for in aesthetic medicine are the medial eyebrows, crows feet, forehead, platysmal neckband, and the jowl (Mendez-Eastman, 2003).

At present, the aesthetic medicine industry is “unregulated”. The Healthcare Commission and the Independent Healthcare Advisory Service have been asked by the government to try and oversee and regulate the industry. Botulinum Toxin-A, or Botox/Vistabel/Dysport (Btx), is a prescription-only medication. It has many medical licenses as well as a cosmetic license (BNF, 2009). Its cosmetic license is for the treatment of the glabella (frown) lines, although it is also used to treat other areas “of” license. The fact that Btx needs to be prescribed means that the practitioner should be a doctor, dentist, or nurse independent prescriber (MHRA, 2008). The primary function of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is to ‘protect the public by setting standards and giving advice to nurses’ (NMC, 2007). Its guidelines for Btx administration are a grey area at best if one is not a nurse independent prescriber (NIP). Borland (2007) suggests that there are hundreds of nurses breaching safety guidelines on carrying out high-risk Btx injections. She also quotes the NMC guidelines stating that each patient should have been fully assessed by their medical history. Goodchild (2008) also highlighted that patients must be checked by a doctor prior to Btx treatment.

Nurses who inject Btx have to have professional indemnity insurance cover by law (NMC, 2007. RCN, 2008). Anyone who is practicing without it in aesthetics is doing so illegally.