Nurse Practitioner Nichole Yost, if someone had told her ten years ago that she’d be in the medical field, she wouldn’t have believed them.
Nic Yost, CNP, Fnp-Bc, owner of Beautymed, focuses on providing clients with both medical and cosmetic care, from Botox treatments designed to treat migraines, neck stiffness and other painful conditions to anti-aging, skin, beauty and weight loss services.
Yost was first drawn to medicine following personal tragedy. Both her father and brother passed away from medical neglect, an experience she says taught her that more attentiveness and patient advocacy is needed in medicine today.
“It’s kind of an emotional and tragic story, but it’s the truth and what led me here,” said Yost. “My dad and my brother both died of medical neglect — they both died of septic shock. And it was not found soon enough and my dad was 29, my brother was 28 — both had very small children — and were otherwise very healthy.”
Yost was 30 when her brother died and says when it happened, she saw a side of medicine that scared her.
“I could just never be right with that in my soul and the more I thought about it … the more I needed to know what happened to him,” said Yost. “And I thought by going into medicine I would get all the answers.”
Yost says that through the process she was able to get those answers, although many of them didn’t sit well with her — and pulled her in the direction of patient advocacy.
“I learned that it’s not that rare in medicine,” said Yost. “And what happened to him happens to a lot of people, maybe not to the extent of death, but I became this huge advocate for patients. That don’t always get listened to the best. And it’s not even the fault of medical professionals. It’s the way that we’re pushed is towards more financial things. We’re fee-for-service now, we see patients in fifteen minute increments, and I just couldn’t — I just can’t be okay with some of that.”
That’s when Yost became interested in her current work of owning and operating a medical spa, which is a combination between a medical clinic and a day spa that runs under the supervision of a medical professional. Yost says the position gives her the freedom to really listen to her clients concerns and provide a more personalized approach to treating them.
“I have more say in how long I can spend with my patients and how personal I can be, and that I can deal with prevention first, and disease if it happens,” said Yost. “And I’m happy to treat disease and there is a place for pharmaceuticals and medication, but I also think that medicine doesn’t really allow enough time for prevention. And prevention can literally save you, it can save a life. And same with aesthetics, prevention can save you from surgical intervention, from a face lift, from a brow lift.”
Now that Yost is in her position she says she absolutely loves the work.
“I hate that cheesy saying ‘when you find your passion you’ll never work another day in your life,’” said Yost. “But it’s true, I’ll say it. It is true.”
She says it wasn’t easy to get to this point, and that in fact before medicine she was doing “anything and everything” in order to find work that she loved — to the extent that she lost faith that she ever would.
“I mean I just thought that’s what people felt — people hate to work, and that’s just how you feel. And you just do it and you put your head down so you can take nice vacations and have nice things,” said Yost. “I honestly have been in this for seven or eight years and every day I am still acutely aware of how excited I am to get up and go to work. And so that’s a very good thing.”
Yost says all of it has centered around her brother and father — and the wish to honor them through helping her own patients be heard.
“I could not go on living knowing that was happening, so I just needed to educate myself and this is where it took me. If you’d have said to me ten years ago I was going to be a medical practitioner, I would have laughed, totally. I did not see this coming at all, but it’s honoring my brother, and he’s just kind of guided me. And it hasn’t been easy, but it’s definitely been the path I’m supposed to be on. This is exactly where I’m supposed to be.”