Today in our Professional Profiles Section we have Maite Melgar, Ane Urtzelai and Olaia Echeverria, theatre nurses and specialists in micropigmentation. Tomorrow they will also participate in the workshops of the 3rd Conference on Oncology Aesthetics.
How long have you been working at Onkologikoa?
Ane has been here longest, she’s been working at Onkologikoa for 11 years. Then comes Maite, who started when the new centre opened, in July 2009, and the last to join us was Olaia, in April of last year.
What does your everyday work involve?
We are theatre nurses. Our routine involves four basic roles: anaesthetic, circulating, scrub and post-anaesthetic recovery nursing. Our duties include preparing the operating theatre, checking the anaesthetic apparatus, preparing the material, the medication…
What do you like most about your work?
Working as a team, which is very important in our surgical area. The nursing techniques we apply, always keeping the patient’s welfare in mind.
Tell us how the idea came about to start working on micropigmentation.
Maite: I found myself out of a job 6 years ago and thought it could be a good idea to tattoo the areola on patients whose surgery has left them without a nipple-areola. I started looking into tattoo centres and was told that there were people who are exclusively dedicated to paramedical micropigmentation. I consulted José Manuel Santos, who said it was a good idea and that I should take a course on it. I went to Sabadell and took the course and bought the machine.
Ane: Two years ago, while talking to Maite, she asked me if I’d like to start working with her on micropigmentation. I’ve always liked drawing and thought it was a good idea. I took the plunge and the two of us took a course here in San Sebastián.
That’s how the two of us started, until last year, when Olaia, who was out of a job, told us she’d seen a course in Barcelona on micropigmentation. We told her that we were already working in the field, about our experience, and how we weren’t very happy with the results.
Finally, the three of us went to Barcelona to take the course Olaia had seen, which was given by a nurse who had been doing the job for 30 years. We came back very pleased with the course.
Are you happy with the results you’re obtaining? How do your patients respond to them?
It’s still too early to say 100% that we’re happy with the results since we only started using this new technique a short time ago. But we like what we’ve seen until now and the patients too generally say that they’re pleased. That’s why we’re working happily and are hugely excited to continue.
