If you’re a NP looking for a job as an injector then I would follow all of the same advice above. Take some initiative and get some training. Not only do you want to do trainings to make sure you like this specialty but also to have something on your resume when you apply.

If you are a NP and want to open your own practice, still get the experience. The laws are vague for NPs in independent practice and you have to be able to prove you had adequate education and training in whatever specialty you are going into.

You also have to have prescriptive authority in your focus area in order to be independent. So in CO you must have 3 years of work experience as a RN or NP and then complete the 1000 (may be 750 hrs now) of supervised prescribing before you can apply for prescriptive authority. 

So for perspective I am a dual certified NP with prescriptive authority for AG-ACNP and FNP and I’m a fellow in aesthetic medicine. My fellowship was an additional 160 hours of aesthetic specific training on top of the hundreds of hours of experience and training I already had.

People often ask me if they can practice independently if they are a CRNA, acute care only NP, or other specialty. I don’t know as I am not a lawyer and I’m not on the state board of nursing. Unfortunately if you call the CO state board 1/2 will tell you you can’t practice and the other half say you can with adequate training and experience and must call yourself a “Nurse Medical Director”. Apparently the Nurse Practice Act was written to be vague in order to not limit our scope of practice but some people use it to try to limit our scope. 

But if you’re a FNP or AGNP and in any position to advocate for NP independent practice in aesthetics for your state, here are just a few arguments for it:

•  NPs are holistic practitioners and aesthetics is part of caring for a whole person and falls under the primary care focus. It’s just another system like cardiac, pulmonary, or mental health. Anti-aging medicine is hugely important for holistic care and quality of life for many patients. 
• There is no aesthetics training for Physicians in residency. So NPs sit in the same classes as Physicians to learn aesthetic injectables and laser. My fellowship was about 75% Physicians in fact. So why should they supervise us if we do the same training?
• In relation to the above, I recently reached out to a medical director agency after hearing NPs were being told in CO that they had to have a medical director. The agency told me it would be a minimum of $750/month and honestly it would be an ER physician that knew less than I did about aesthetics. How would that be beneficial or safer for clients?
• If NPs have independent practice in the state but the state does not allow independent practice only in aesthetics then there could be legal ramifications against the state. They cannot support/endorse Physician owned practices in this one specialty of medicine only (per lawyers, not my language)
• Lastly, many of us have prescribed and supervised much more dangerous drugs. For instance I worked in ICU and often prescribed opioids, sedatives, vasoactive drugs, and other dangerous meds. Botox and fillers are not even controlled substances and the prescription and administration of them fall under our prescriptive authority. If they didn’t, then pharmaceutical companies would not allow us to order them. 

Getting off my soap box… but long story short, you need to research your specific situation and scope, get lots of education and training and consider legal consults before practicing independently in aesthetics.