Nikole Babb
nbabb@cherryroad.com
Downtown El Dorado has been a historic place for people to shop, dine, and celebrate the holidays together with city-wide activities. The rural town holds many small businesses that are hidden gems run by locals that were raised and still live in El Dorado. As times change with inflation, population, trends and more, the business owners, old and new, still have one thing in common: they love El Dorado and its residents. This column, Explore El Dorado, will take readers into a different shop each time, giving them a look inside a space they may have never been in, allowing them to get to know the shop owners.
This seventh column features a place where beauty and precise medical care meet, Nurtured by Nurses.
Providing compassionate care through nursing has always been an important aspect of Colleen Green and Betsy Penate’s careers. The two women met while attended nursing school together 20 years ago that allowed a strong friendship to form. The two eventually created a nursing consultancy where they met their third business partner, Karen Claise.
As Green and Penate enjoyed the journey of life together, they both experienced significant weight loss that caused them to pursue treatment for their sagging skin and other beauty ailments they wanted to address. That’s when they met Dr. Joshua Zuckerman, Owner of Zuckerman Plastic Surgery in New York City.
“That really sparked our interest in the aesthetics world as nurses,” said Green. “As we spent time with them going through our own journey, we were really interested so they started training us.”
After the treatments they received from Dr. Zuckerman, the two ladies wanted to bring the high-quality beauty treatments to the Midwest.
“As we looked for comparable services in the area, I had to go all the way to Wichita,” said Green. We really wanted to bring the latest and most cutting-edge skillset and tools from New York City plastic surgeon’s office to here in rural Kansas.”
Green, originally from Wisconsin, lived in New York for some time but moved to the El Dorado area 10 years ago with her husband and children. She and Penate trained under Dr. Zuckerman and his Nurse Injector Sarah Wade over the last year. They’ve spent 120 hours on training and are certified through the American Academy of Facial Esthetics and are Registered Nurses.
Claise, who is a Nurse Practitioner, is the third Co-Founder of Nurtured by Nurses. While she lives in New Jersey with her family, she is the remote consultant on all things wellness via telehealth while visiting each location in-person monthly.
“What makes us different is what’s in our name, Nurtured by Nurses,” said Green. “We really care about that nurturing aspect. We’re old school nurses, we’ve been nurses a long time and that relationship, the safety of our clients and really looking at them holistically- it’s not just about giving them some Botox real quick and making them feel better, it’s really working with them through everything.”
While the trio doesn’t perform plastic surgery, they focus on nurturing the body aesthetic overall with services like IV Fluids, skin tone/texture treatments, injectable treatments, dermal fillers, chronic pain relief, weight loss management, teeth whitening, and sexual health. The team is also working on training for hormone replacement therapy.
“We’re just really excited to be bringing a high level of expertise to rural areas,” said Green. “We treat a lot of men too. We’ve really focused and enhanced our skills and expertise in helping enhance masculine features.”
Green manages the El Dorado location, 120 N Main St. Suite 5, which celebrated its open house on January 15. Penate manages the Dodge City location, which operates remotely at the time with in-home appointments only until office space is renovated.
Nurtured by Nurses is available by appointment in-office at home by visiting their location in El Dorado at 120 N Main St., Suite 5, or by calling them at 316-205-0075. The same number can be used to scheduled appointments for the Dodge City location.
