If work and pressure are intense in the hallways of hospitals in large cities, living through all that adrenaline out at sea is even more thrilling. Simone Rodrigues works offshore and spends 14 days away from her family. The wear of routine leads the nurse to move into aesthetics and achieve a calmer, safer life.
Simone Rodrigues has a professional life full of adventure and tension. The experienced nurse, with almost 30 years of patient care, many of them in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit), now works offshore and says she can spend more than two weeks at sea.
The stress and adrenaline of being locked up on a vessel far from dry land bring traumas and psychological problems that can affect the performance and quality of life of the professionals who work there. Despite the breaks, alternating every 12 hours, Simone and her colleagues have no escape from work and suffer from the daily pressure.
To transition to another career, the nurse is now working through her postgraduate program and planning her future far from the seas and with more time for herself and her family. After 15 years in this routine of shifts at sea, Simone has found a new passion and will now sail the seas of aesthetics.
30 Years in Nursing: The Transition to Aesthetics
Simone Rodrigues’s story in health began back in the 1990s. As early as 1991 she enrolled in the nursing technician program, worked as an assistant, and spent a long time in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit), where her experience is concentrated. She spent almost two decades working in hospitals before moving into offshore work, where she remains to this day.
Her entry into nursing came with the support of her mother, who encouraged her while still young to enroll in the nursing assistant course and soon after the nursing technician course. Simone says that as she learned about what nurses do, she fell more and more in love with it. During her internships, she saw herself providing care and looking after others as a reason for living. Today it has been 15 years working offshore. The stressful, intense routine of being at sea brought new revelations to her, and researching aesthetics sparked an interest in a different kind of life in her career.
The decision to change is challenging. Seeking new opportunities after so long working in the ICU or, more recently, aboard vessels, away from home for more than two weeks, was necessary for Simone. She says that after almost 30 years of career, an important moment comes to stop and think about achieving a better quality of life.
About to complete 30 years of career in nursing, the decision to change fields and explore new horizons in beauty treatments was a choice motivated by the desire to do something positive for people. Here begins Simone’s journey in Aesthetic Nursing
Burnout from Routine Leads Nurse to Move into Aesthetics
After many years working offshore, the need for change arose. According to Simone, this type of work is tiring and leaves some marks of exhaustion over the long days with 12-hour shifts. One of the hardest phases the crew faced was COVID. Simone says she was stuck for up to 60 days, unable to disembark for the safety of the professionals. The confinement, the longing for and worry about family and friends caused emotional wounds.
Being confined requires constant adaptation and a search for distractions, even though the tension of possible emergencies is always present.
“It’s hard, you’re confined and the people who work with us are our family. You work 12 hours and have 12 hours of rest, but during that rest you’re still at the workplace. We have to try to distract ourselves, but we’re tense anyway, because at any moment something can happen “
The biggest supporter in getting Simone into the health field was her mother. Wise, her mother imagined that Simone might like the course and recommended it to her. Simone says that in everything she sets out to do, she gives herself fully and does her best. When she entered the nursing technician program, she quickly fell in love with that world.
The same happened with aesthetics. As soon as she had contact with it and started researching, she was quickly enchanted and decided to start a new journey.
“My mother pointed me to the path. When I started the hands-on classes in nursing, just like here in aesthetics, I fell even more in love with the work .”
Intense Journey, Satisfying Results
Simone says the way classes are taught at Nepuga makes her busy routine much easier. Being confined for many days, it’s natural for her to miss some of the live classes, but with the content made available in the following days, she is able to catch up and stay on top of her studies.
“When I’m offshore I can’t do either the live class or the clinical immersions, I always have to fit them into my days off. The live class, when I don’t watch it that day, the following week, when it’s already released, I can follow it and catch up on everything. I can keep up with the content all the time. The professors always share their contact info so we can ask questions. Everyone helps us a lot .“
Her plans for after the specialization are to open her own clinic in the Lakes Region. A resident of Arraial do Cabo (Rio de Janeiro), she points out that the high season promises significant demand for aesthetic treatments. During low-demand periods, she plans to use the time to improve her skills, learn new techniques, and take new courses. For Simone, although financial matters are relevant, the real reward lies in improving people’s self-esteem.
It is a journey that demands a lot from women, who need to balance multiple responsibilities both inside and outside the home, but the effort is rewarded by the desire for a better life and the chance to make a difference in people’s lives.
Rafael Alves
NEPUGA content team — Núcleo de Especializações Ana Carolina Puga.
