She Reinvented Her Nursing Career - “Schedule flexibility was one of the factors that attracted me most”

Today, Dr. Ingrid Ramos is consolidating her career in aesthetic nursing, but she had to reinvent herself to get here: reinvent her area of focus, her work model and how she finds patients.

The trigger for all this change? It helps to understand a bit more of Ingrid's earlier story, as she went through a very hectic work routine that has a lot in common with the paths of many health professionals.

She lived in Praia Grande and commuted to São Paulo for work, but everything changed when she was let go from her job and had to reinvent herself professionally as well as rebuild her self-esteem.

The Trigger for Changing the Course of Her Nursing Career

Shortly after graduating, she worked in the liver transplant intensive care unit at Hospital das Clínicas, a leading hospital in Latin America. That experience was very important for her professional development.

But being let go, looking for opportunities in Praia Grande and not finding openings that paid as well was a situation that had a big impact on her self-esteem. She says she gained weight and wasn't feeling so good about herself.

In that context, she sought out aesthetic procedures to feel better, and saw this as a chance to recover both her personal self-esteem and her professional self-esteem.

“That idea of leaving the patient with high self-esteem, just like what happened to me, left me beaming”, she says.

So she looked for the postgraduate program in Aesthetic Nursing on the recommendation of a colleague who works in healthcare. She has also taken other courses dedicated to aesthetics and attends conferences whenever she can. She even met Dr. Ana Carolina Puga at Feridas 2022 (the first nursing and aesthetics conference).

       

The Challenge of Finding Patients

At the start of her aesthetic nursing career, however, it wasn't easy. She moved to Praia Grande because of her partner but didn't have many contacts there, so at first she couldn't count much on referrals, and that is where she had to reinvent herself again, in finding patients.

She says one of her initial strategies was to make flyers – with all the online promotion options available today, using flyers may seem outdated and inefficient, but the distribution was done creatively and it worked.

Dr. Ingrid explains in more detail: “I made flyers and told the woman who works with me at my house to hand them out in the buildings where she works, where she does the cleaning. I also left some where there is more foot traffic, in the commercial building where I work.”

Here is a personal marketing tip: in aesthetics, as in any field, it is important to pay attention and work out who the audience is that might be interested in the work offered, and then map out the possibilities of being seen by that profile and which form of communication may be most effective.

In Dr. Ingrid's case, she was a procedure client even before becoming a professional in the field. So identifying how to reach other people like her (not necessarily in physical appearance, but in motivations, desires and even social position and where they live) can be an intuitive way to try to reach the right people.

Dr. Ingrid didn't stick to offline methods alone; she also started exploring social media, loosening up more in digital content production. She noticed that need: since most people use social media, it is important to be present there, showing your own work and getting in touch with patients or potential patients.

Reaping the Rewards of So Much Dedication

With her own growth and reach to her patient base, she talks a bit about her current fulfillment:

“Today I work in a shared office with a colleague who is a Breastfeeding Consultant and does humanized ear piercing. Schedule flexibility was one of the factors that attracted me most. Especially because today I can plan my appointment and leisure hours, which I didn't have before, when I worked at a hospital with fixed shifts and night duty.”

For the future, she wants to expand her practice and bring in more professionals, so that as a team she can offer care better integrated with each patient's needs.

Success Stories>Aesthetic Nursing