What Nurses Need to Know About Elective Medicine and Wellness

by Amanda Guarniere, MSN, APRN, NP-C, VP of Enterprise Partnerships at GuardianMD

Elective medicine has surged in the past decade. A recent report from the Global Wellness Institute shows that the wellness market has grown to the size of $6.8 trillion, taking in roughly the same amount of money as pharmaceuticals and sports…combined.

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Americans are not just juicing, cold plunging, or buying another supplement stack. Many are moving into more medically complex wellness trends like compounded GLP-1s, injectable peptides, hormone optimization, aesthetics, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and psychedelic-adjacent experimentation.

Some of this care happens through legitimate and responsible clinical channels, and it helps a lot of people.

But too much of it does not.

For nurses, that creates two urgent responsibilities. First, nurses are often the clinicians that patients trust enough to tell about their elective procedures. Second, nurses themselves are increasingly being recruited into, or building, wellness businesses.

Both roles require better questions, clearer guardrails, and a commitment to safety over hype.

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Treatments like GLP-1s, peptides, IV infusions and psychedelics are everywhere, from Tik-Tok to billboards to episodes of The Kardashians. Elective medicine has entered the mainstream in a way that makes people feel like it is as routine as buying shampoo. But these products impact the body in serious ways, and can affect things like blood sugar, digestion, hydration, mood, cognition, and blood pressure. When consumers access them through online forums, med spas, influencers, or wellness brands without proper screening, oversight, and follow-up, the use of these products can create serious medical problems.

A product labeled natural can still interact with a prescription medication. A trending injectable can still cause side effects. A treatment “everyone is doing” can still be unsafe.

Sometimes the effects are horribly dangerous. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, for example, can have legitimate clinical uses when it is provided for appropriate conditions in properly equipped and accredited facilities. But last year, a 5-year-old boy tragically died at an irresponsible facility offering the service as an off-label ADHD treatment, something with very limited evidence behind it. Treatments marketed as medical are not always delivered with medical-grade safeguards.

Before starting any treatment, patients should review their health history with a licensed professional. They should understand the dose, route, frequency, risks, side effects, and symptoms that mean they should stop or seek care. They should know where the product came from, whether the claims are evidence-based, what follow-up is planned, and who to call if something goes wrong.

If those answers are unclear, it may be unsafe to proceed.

Nurses can help by asking the right questions, but the tone matters. Patients are more likely to disclose risky behavior when they receive curiosity instead of judgment. The goal is not to shame patients for being interested in wellness. It is good that people want to work towards a more healthy lifestyle. The goal is to help them understand when marketing language is masking something that should be treated like medicine.

There is another side of this conversation. Nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants are increasingly drawn to wellness, aesthetics, longevity, hormone health, weight management, and other cash-pay models. These options can offer a kind of flexibility, autonomy, and monetization that traditional nursing doesn’t.

Expanding options are great, but nurses aren’t usually trained in business or law, and they don’t always have the knowledge they need to protect their license in these new environments.

Every state has different laws for non-physician providers, particularly in areas like med spas and aesthetics. A nurse may be allowed to provide one wellness service but not another, or may need different supervision, protocols, or prescribing authority depending on what the service involves. Nurses, NPs, and PAs cannot assume that what is legal or insurable in one state, or what a colleague is doing successfully elsewhere, applies to them.

And then there’s insurance. Check and double-check malpractice insurance outside of traditional settings. Confirm that the establishment has insurance and that the policy actually covers the specific services provided in that state.

Before joining or launching a wellness brand, nurses should ask:

• What does my state nurse practice act allow me to do?
• Does this service fall within my scope of practice?
• Do I need a collaborating or supervising physician?
• What about malpractice coverage?
• Who is responsible for protocols, standing orders, prescriptions, informed consent, documentation, follow-up, and adverse events?
• Am I being asked to do something that makes me uncomfortable?

It’s only a good opportunity if it is safe, ethical, and the nurse is financially and legally protected.

The right wellness business is ethical, compliant, and clinically defensible

Nurses can build profitable wellness brands, but the safest question is not just, “What can I sell?” but, “What can I safely and legally provide with the right oversight?”

Ethical monetization starts with clinical integrity. A nurse-led wellness brand should be built around appropriate services, qualified clinicians, compliant protocols, clear documentation, legitimate sourcing, transparent pricing, patient education, and a plan for complications.

The same standard applies to vendors and partners. A good pharmacy, supplier, medical director, consultant, or business partner should be licensed, transparent, evidence-informed, and willing to explain how they support compliance and patient safety. They should make a clinician feel more protected, not more exposed.

Wellness trends will keep changing. This summer it may be GLP-1s, peptides, and psychedelics. Next year, it may be something else. But nurses will remain central to the conversation as trusted providers, and increasingly, as the professionals building the responsible wellness businesses people are looking for.

🤔 Nurses, comment below!