Who I am
My name is Sandy Green. I am the Nurse Consultant and Founder of The National Medical Weight Loss Programme. This is a company that trains registered Health Care Professionals to set up their own weight regimen services to help people living with overweight and obesity. My background is that I’ve been working full-time in aesthetics since 2003. I started out as a Midwife and then went into management in sexual health. I was the lead nurse there.
With regards to training in aesthetics when I was first starting out I just chugged along- learning one way and then thinking ‘OK, what can I learn next?’ Doing those courses methodically that I needed to actually to… and I would prioritise those courses that would give a good return on investment before then doing something else.I left my full time NHS role in ’93. I still carried on doing one session a week until I retired last year.
The reason I have developed a business around obesity is really quite simply to do with my own battle with the demons that I had around obesity. I have always been very, very slim. I was always the size I am now ever since being at school. I was married to athletics as a child. I never had to worry about my weight. I am 55 now but when I was 46 I hit the menopause and everything just went to pieces. The whole world changed. During the menopause, you don’t just gain weight but you change how your body redistributes the fat cells in the body. You become a very, very different shape when you hit the menopause. That just completely floored me.Then I actually found Saxenda and since Saxenda I’ve got onto Ozempic so I’ve got back to a very happy body size and body shape and that’s why I got into obesity.Looking at statistics on obesity, as we stand now, two thirds of the adult population in England are living with overweight and obesity.That is phenomenal burden on the NHS. Now we know that obesity is not actually a disease but it’s associated with causing and leading on to compound issues with disease and disorders and we know it’s linked to causing. Obesity is responsible for 13 different types of cancer. So it’s a huge problem that we need to help to address.
Training
I have training qualifications from my NHS career. I then looked around for obesity training and found it with a Professor in Manchester. I trained with him but I also found Matt who is now the co-author and co-course-deliver for the training that we offer on the program.
The training that we offer is actually accredited by the Royal College of Nursing and a company called Scope. Last year it took us nearly a year to get that accreditation and it has not been easy because the RCN a huge organisation and has not approved any aesthetic treatments or aesthetic courses. So when you get the accreditation and the backing of the RCN saying your course is top notch then you know you’re getting a quality course.
Our training includes lots of things. Your clinic is advertised to the national website. There’s a location finder for potential patients. You are automatically generated your own private electronic consultation form that you get to your patients. You might post that through a link on your website or in your bio on your social media. Once the patient completes the form, it is sent back to you encrypted. You then open with your password and take it from there.
You get all the paperwork. You get all the protocols. You get all the social media done for you as well as being part of the community.
The training cost is £1850 but we actually offer the option for delegates to actually pay for that over a period of six months.
In terms of the consumables that you need to set up, it is literally a height measurement, weighing scales which also measure bioimpedance. You can set up your clinic for less than £200.
Time Management
Time wise, I am single but I do have two amazing children and two wonderful grandchildren so I do get some time with those. I do feel like I’m always at work but at the same time, and I know this is really cheesy but it never really feels like work because I enjoy it so much. When I get to the point where it’s a bit of a burden, that’s the time really when I’ll start to think I’m doing too much. I need time off. But it really feels like I’m working. I know that sounds crazy.
It is a bit of a cliché my only regret I had was not knowing about Saxenda for my own personal journey sooner and therefore not being able to lead into what’s now become the National Medical Weight Loss Programme.
Transition
I feel that my NHS career helped my confidence because in the NHS when you move into management, there is quite a lot of in-house training to support you as the manager and support for change management and leadership skills. I actually felt like it was a nice, natural transition from being a manager there to first of all being my own boss and then actually starting to employ people. It was a great stepping stone. One of the key skills I think I am really good at is delegation and that’s something that I learned in the NHS. When you are delegating, you have to know that you have got the right people to delegate to, so that with confidence you know that they will do it to the same level that you would have done yourself.I think one of the other key things as a nurse though and this is a skill most of us have is the empathy. That you can put yourself in that patient’s shoes and I actually think you can know exactly when they’re lower than low and they’re on their knees. I’ve been there and I’ve had those feelings. I’ve had those thoughts. So yes, I know where they’re coming from.
I would love obesity treatments to be the next Botox treatment. I would love every medical-lead aesthetic clinic or aesthetic registered health care professional to get onto our course. I would love to see everyone with a registration who has an interest in helping people who are living with overweight and obesity, I would love for them to set up their own services and clinics. Start helping the UK tackle this phenomenon that is obesity. It’s only getting bigger.
Obesity impacts so many different people in so many different ways of their life. The disease progression from obesity is just phenomenal and we have to do something about it.
In terms of the value impact that having my own business has had on my life- I really love being my own boss. I really like that. I’m not very good at taking orders particularly if I disagree with those orders. Having a business gives you a degree of flexibility. Maybe not right at the beginning because that flexibility comes with success or more flexibility comes with more success. I like the flexibility. It’s also certainly given my family financial security.
It’s something that all of you Nurses can do. They are skills that you all possess anyway. We just help you to master those skills so that you can actually treat those people. And those people really need our help. You change their lives in terms how of they can interact with their family, the sort of things they can do, and you’re extending their life expectancy to. Please get out there and come and join the team. Become a certified partner to help those and tackle obesity.