Sara Hollinshead recognizes opportunity when it knocks. The Calgary nurse had just moved north when she saw an untapped demand for medical aesthetics in Yellowknife. Then she contacted THMA.
Sara moved with her fiancée to NWT in 2019, leaving behind a high-intensity ICU job at Foothills Hospital in Calgary.
In Yellowknife, she settled nicely into a primary healthcare role. Then she saw a way to take her nursing career in a new direction.
The opportunity lay in a local clinic medical aesthetics clinic, staffed by a physician and two nurses who lived in Fort McMurray, Alta., and travelled back and forth to Yellowknife once a month to do injections.
Recognizing that demand for treatments was greater than the supply, Sara put a plan into action. She consulted a colleague at a skincare clinic in Calgary and received rave reviews about THMA Consulting training in medical aesthetics.
Thank you for that recommendation, Twyla, and we are so grateful that Sara followed up and registered for Virtual Training in our Foundation Courses in February of this year.
“The online training was awesome,” said Sara, who is the first NWT nurse to take our training. “I didn’t realize how much knowledge was required in aesthetics. But the environment was conducive to learning, very challenging and very informative.”
Read: Virtual Training Today for Medical Aesthetics Leaders Tomorrow
Sara completed her Foundation Courses on March 27 with expert clinical trainer Erin Talbot in person at Perfexion Skin Care in Calgary.
“Sara did amazing,” said Erin. “I am proud of her, and know she has a great future as a medical aesthetics practitioner.”
“Right now, I am confident in my own abilities and feel very prepared to start practice.”
Sara admits she was “a little nervous” about whether she was ready to do the Hands-on Training component. But she said the knowledge she absorbed in virtual training made her realize that, yes, she was ready!
“Erin is a really cool person, super educated and an excellent trainer. She encouraged me to challenge myself, to get right in there to do the injections. There’s no better way to boost your own confidence!”
Read: Reshaped Hands-on Training Complements Virtual Learning Components
A big part of the nursing profession – no matter where you work or what you do – centres on patient care. We make people feel better.
For Sara, that inherent compassion and her love of the procedural side of skincare have her excited about starting work with the clinic in Yellowknife in a few weeks.
Like all of us in medical aesthetics, Sara knows the learning never ends. As a THMA member, she sits in on the virtual Professional Development Presentations every Wednesday. She will return to Calgary this summer to job-shadow with Erin and pick up more tips.
Down the road she wants to add Therapeutic Botox for migraines and hyperhidrosis to her medical aesthetics repertoire.
She came from the land of the northern lights to pursue her dream. And having answered when opportunity knocked, Sara is ready to be a shining star in medical aesthetics in Northwest Territories.
We wish her well!