Dr Nick McIvor graduated from the Otago Medical School in 1980. He received the Gordon-Taylor medal for the highest mark in the primary examination for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1983. He began his specialist training in the U.K.and was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1986.

After returning to New Zealand he completed his specialist training at Green Lane Hospital and was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1990.

Nick then worked as a consultant at Green Lane Hospital Auckland, before taking up a prestigious Head & Neck fellowship with Prof Jeremy Freeman in Toronto and further training in rhinoplasty and facial plastic surgery with the master surgeon Dr Kris Conrad.