NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — It’s a trend across the country, and especially here in Middle Tennessee: nurses leaving their profession for a different kind of medical field, medical spas.

There’s no shortage of places looking to hire them, as Nashville is home to an ever-growing number of these businesses.

It was once taboo to talk about getting Botox or work done, but times are different, and that’s clear with the surge in medical spas opening up across the country.

“There’s a lot of med spas around town and every day I feel like there’s a new one,” said Tonia Strine, the founder of Glow in Franklin.

In Davidson County, there are 71 medical spas registered with the state and 22 of them opened up last year. The growth is also evident in Rutherford, Sumner, and Williamson counties, where Glow opened nine years ago.

“Aesthetic business is booming,” Strine said.

While the pandemic led to hiring freezes for many companies, the only thing frozen in the med spa industry was a Botox-ed brow.

“Of course, as a small business owner I was scared,” Strine remembered. “But also, happy and honestly a little bit embarrassed to say because I know so many small businesses didn’t make it. But it was really great for my business personally.”

The transition from work to home was a part of the surge.

“They were on Zoom calls all day, that really makes you take a look at yourself on the daily and think, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m not feeling good about myself,’ or ‘I don’t like this about myself,'” Strine said.

Another big factor contributing to the success of med spas is nurses feeling the burnout and looking for something lighter. That’s a sentiment Strine’s daughter, Maggie Gibson, knows all too well.

She worked on the ICU step down floor for two years until she reached her breaking point.

“I can handle the long shifts, I can handle being exhausted,” Gibson said. “But for me really it was the mental toll. I take everything very much to heart, I guess. It was just really hard to go to work every day and see these people suffering and not being.”