As a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC), how can you help in Mediation or Arbitration? And, what do those terms actually mean? Mediation and Arbitration are considered alternative dispute resolution methods to that litigants avoid going to trial.
Let’s look at Mediation v. Arbitration Mediation: It’s a nonbinding way of resolves differences. Parties may be thinking about settling the case, but they don’t necessarily want to go to court. They can act through a neutral, the mediator, and resolve the matter. Just know that courts can impose mediation as a condition that must be fulfilled prior to an actual hearing or trial.
Arbitration: It’s like a mini-trial. There could be one to three arbitrators who hear evidence in the case and make a ruling.
As a PLNC, your opinion about the case matters. Prior, during, and even after alternative dispute resolution, you’re there to educate the attorney and the legal team. You’re tutoring the attorney and providing new directions.
Mediation can be virtual or in-person. Just know, there are numerous ways you can help with alternative dispute resolution. You’re important and your education, knowledge, and training can be extremely useful here.
P.S. Have you ever participated in either mediation or arbitration whether as a party, witness, or Professional Legal Nurse Consultant?
Ever wondered what trial attorneys spend their work time on daily? Are they really billing their clients every minute of every workday? Have you thought about how you can help an attorney and get paid for it? Regardless, whether the attorney is working for the person suing (the Plaintiff) or the person getting sued (the Defendant), attorneys work on common tasks.
Interesting, let’s discuss attorney’s tasks and how you, as the PLNC, can assist and EARN.
Five Daily Attorney Tasks and How A PLNC Can Help 1. Attorneys must COMMUNICATE with their clients. Let’s face it, attorneys get busy, just like we all do, but that’s no excuse for not communicating with their clients. This is where the Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC)comes in. You can write, or draft as it’s called in legal parlance, emails, letters, phone scripts, and certain other documents that lawyers can transmit to their clients about their cases. Think about if from the perspective of the client, wouldn’t you want to be kept up to date about what’s going on in your case? Especially if you’re a paying client?
2. Attorneys often represent their clients in Court. Behind the scenes, you can help the attorney get ready for their court appearance. Just as you did in helping the attorney communicate with their client, you can help prepare the attorney for questions the judge, or jury, might ask about the case. As a PLNC, you reviewed the medical records in the case. This puts you in the unique position of being able to “brief” the attorney about it.
3. Attorneys talk with opposing counsel. No attorney wants to be unprepared. As a the PLNC who just reviewed the medical records, you can thoroughly prepare your attorney in advance of a meeting with the other lawyer. Anticipate questions, comments, or statements that opposing counsel might present. Have your medical review handy so you can help your attorney become fully knowledgeable about their case.
4. Attorneys gather evidence. In your capacity as the PLNC having reviewed the medical records in the case, you could ask to review other items or documents you believe could be relevant. Your attorney may already have valuable videos, photographs, diaries, social media, or other tangible information that could help your assessment, which in turn helps your attorney.
5. Attorneys supervise legal assistants and others. It’s important in your job as a PLNC to work with legal assistants, paralegals, office staff, and associate attorneys. Being a “team player” goes a long way in almost any job. Perhaps you could offer to help on other tasks that might be germane to your medical record reviews.
Knowing in advance the duties, tasks, and responsibilities of attorneys can make your PLNC skills even more valuable. Of course, each attorney’s daily job requirements are different, but there are similarities among attorneys. This is where you can step up to the plate and help. And earn money for doing it.
P.S. To learn more about becoming a PLNC, schedule a FREE Consult with me here.
We all want success. We want success in our legal nurse consultant careers. It’s natural to want it, but how do you actually attain success as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC)?
Let’s look at other PLNC’s methods for success, which we’ve compiled below for you.
Success Tips For Professional Legal Nurse Consultants By Professional Legal Nurse Consultants Be accessible and available for work. Whenever an attorney, paralegal, or legal assistant contacts you, be ready to take on the assignment. No excuses. If they’re reaching out to you, it’s for a reason. They want and need you to review medical records in a case or potential case.
Oftentimes, you’re being contacted at what you perceive to be “the last minute”. Maybe they’ve had the medical records for a while, maybe they meant to send them to you earlier, or maybe they’ve tried others first. Regardless, if you want the experience, look for the good in the situation. You just might get other cases if you’re willing to review these records.
Be helpful. Nothing worse than constantly being a naysayer. There could be good reason not to recommend to the plaintiff’s attorney that they take the case. Carefully and meticulously spell it out for them. You want to be perceived as a resource. Someone they can go to for your scholarly opinion. Not someone who only finds the negative in a situation.
The most helpful PLNC will be able to look at both sides of a case: the strengths AND the weaknesses. Most medical records have good and bad aspects. You job is to discover those and let your attorney know them. No surprises later. Be helpful now.
Be confident. You’re being asked to review the medical records because you have the wherewithal to know what you’re doing. You have nursing skills and nursing experience. Parlay those skills and experience into reviewing medical records.
As a nurse, you’re used to reading others’ entries in the medical record. You know the value of careful nursing documentation. You were taught that in nursing skills and you’ve carried that talent forward in nursing practice. Draw on your confidence when you’re working for an attorney as a PLNC.
Be thorough. As it’s been said “leave no stone unturned”. This means review the medical records completely, even if the stack is taller than your head. You’re being PAID to review the medical records.
Know that there could be missing pages. Plan on this. Make a list of documents you’d expect to be in the medical records but aren’t there. This, alone, can make you invaluable to your attorney.
Be knowledgeable. Let your fingers do the researching. Could be that there’s a disease or condition you’re unfamiliar with, or never even learned about in nursing school. No problem. Look it up.
There’ll kinds of ways to do “research”. Start where you’re most familiar. Use your phone, tablet, or laptop computer. Put in keywords and start reading up. You can do it. This is how most healthcare providers “look up” aspects of health care that they’re unsure about.
Be involved. There’s no substitute for connecting with other PLNCs. Join the PLNC Facebook Community. It’s great to see what others are talking about and how they’ve solved problems and issues.
Go to conferences and events. Whether that’s in-person or virtual or a mix of these. You’ll meet others, learn something, and get some great takeaways.
Don’t forget to interact with the vendors and exhibitors. One can never have too many friends. You might even get referrals from them. Remember, we’re all just six degrees of separation.
Be thankful. You got the job to review the medical records. That’s an honor! The law firm, or company, thought enough of you to ask you to review the medical records and give your opinion.
You ought to be pleased that you’re the PLNC who gets to review the medical records! Your reward? Being selected and earning the $$$ from it.
With these tips in mind, go be successful in your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant practice.
In your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC) practice, your main concern is with the medical record. Whether you’re reviewing a paper document or electronic health record, your approach will be the same.
Let’s look at charting from the perspective of a nurse. Whether you’re reviewing the documentation on behalf of the plaintiff or defendant, think about how the nurse goes about documenting nursing care. After all, if the nurses’ notes are at the center of a potential lawsuit, you’ll need to understand and interpret what was in the nurse’s mind at the time the event occurred.
Attorneys Want Your Nursing and Professional Legal Nurse Consultant Opinion As a nurse, and a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant, the attorney is relying on your nursing opinion. What you say matters. So, let’s go into the mind of a nurse…
Here’s what a nurse should’ve been taught: One of the most vital components of good nursing care is proper documentation. This practice of thoroughly and completely recording each interaction with patients is made even more important when you consider the possibility of legal action against you, the nurse providing care.
The first thing a patient considering a lawsuit will do is request their medical records. This includes any and all charts and documents created. They will, of course, be searching for errors. These records are of great consequence in the legal process.
“The first thing a patient considering a lawsuit will do is request the medical records.”
Knowing that the patient will get the medical records should be motivation enough to make the records thorough and detailed. Remember, anything you write or record could be read in court. So when you chart in the medical record, think in the back of your mind that a judge or jury might both hear and see them.
“Anything you write could be read in court.”
2. Strive to document in the most comprehensive and detailed way possible. Time restraints are the biggest obstacle between a nurse and thorough charts. With the busy nature of the job, sometimes nurses are forced into leaving documents incomplete, or they make only vague notes.
It can take years for a lawsuit to culminate; it is unlikely that you’ll remember everything clearly if you get sued. Your charts and documents are the key to knowing what you did and why you did it, so be sure you write and record enough information to recall the specifics of the case, or at least what your usual and customary practice would have been in the situation.
3. Stay on top of your nursing charting. Sure, you may need to put off fully completing some charts on particularly busy days, but try not to wait too long. The longer you wait to fill out the necessary paper work, the more it may look you are trying to falsify the actual occurrence after the fact.
The nursing adage “if it is not documented, it is not done” should always be applied to your work. Also consider that, unless you documented an action or treatment, legally speaking it never occurred. Don’t just note what was abnormal in a case, record the commonplace, typical events in a patient’s care. It could be the normalcy of your treatment – the fact that you followed basic protocol – that helps you avoid getting sued.
4. Check all items and fill in every blank space, every question, every box on each form for which you’re responsible. Again, don’t think that you’ll be able to remember the details of the care given down the road if you don’t properly document. Even if it seems obvious or mundane, make a note of it.
If you’re unable to fully complete your orders for a patient’s care, be sure to note that. For example, if a patient is sleeping when you check in on them, don’t simply leave certain areas of their chart incomplete. Note the circumstance as to why the document isn’t fully complete (i.e. “patient is sleeping, therefore did not check temperature”) so you cannot be accused of deficient care later.
“It’s better to write too much in your charts than to write too little!
Of course not every mistake rises to the level of a lawsuit, and accurate charting is important for the proper care and treatment of patients. But, the need for understandable and comprehensive charting becomes far more important if a case goes to court.
5. A fundamental aspect for healthcare providers named as defendants in a lawsuit is the ability to recall. Sometimes this is years after caring for a patient and the details of a case even after examining your notes from the charts is hard to do accurately. The more information you include in your charts, the easier it will be for you avoid being unfairly accused.
Look For These Entries In The Medical Records You’re looking to see the four basic elements in the nurses’ documentation: Assessment, Plan, Implementation, and Evaluation. Whether you’re reading the Nurses’ Notes, Medication Administration Record (MAR), or Nursing Care Plan, watch for these basic elements. The more complete the nursing care record, the greater the chance the correct care was provided.
Whether you’re approaching it from the plaintiff or defense side of the case, these principles apply. Remember, while you’re focusing on the case from your perspective as a legal nurse consultant, you’ll need to consider the strengths and weaknesses or opposing counsel’s case. That’s what makes your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant services even more valuable. It’s your ability to spot issues and bring them to the lawyer’s attention.
You’ve been trained as a nurse and a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant.That’s quite an impressive combination! Rely on your legal nurse consultant training and your nursing education as well as your experience to explore all aspects of the patient’s medical record before you draw conclusions.
Looking at the clinical care that was provided to the patient, does it meet the nursing standard of care? Does it fall short or does it exceed it? You’re in the best position to determine this from reading the notes. The nursing entries should be contemporaneous with the event but consider that they might be anecdotal. It’s yours to decide.
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You want to review medical records for an attorney in your capacity as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC). How do you effectively prepare for the attorney interview?
Here are the best attorney interview tips to help you earn the job:
In-person or online. Knowing whether your interview will be live or virtual impacts how you prepare. Live attorney interviews affect what you wear, your physical notetaking, and your transportation. Virtual attorney interviews mean you must have a distraction-free and quiet location, have alternate connectivity plans should things go awry, and dress the part, at least from the waist up.
You act differently when you’re talking with an individual in-person. You might feel less “on” because there’s no camera. While you initially could feel stressed, often the interviewer helps alleviate this by asking you easy-to-answer questions in the beginning. Thus, you’re more relaxed as the interview progresses.
When you’re doing an online interview, you generally will be less relaxed. The technology might interfere with your ability to fully engage. Know this ahead of time and plan for it.
Regardless whether your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant interview is live or virtual, maintain your professionalism at all times. Don’t reach over and grab your coffee cup, for example. This is not a “meet and greet”. It’s a job interview and treat it as such.
Research attorney and law firm. By far the most important preparation you can do is to researchthe attorney and their law firm in advance. You want to come across as knowledgeable and reliable. Let your fingers do the Google, or other online, search in advance of the interview.
Law practice areas. There is no substitute for knowing ahead of time the type of law practice of the attorney. You’ll likely be interviewing with attorneys who do litigation. Specifically, medical malpractice litigation and personal injury matters.
Limit distractions. For example, during an online job interview, one interviewee’s cat was walking around in the background throughout the entire interview. This is not only a major distraction, it lowers the interviewee’s degree of professionalism. By the same token, the preferred mode of online interview is the use of a desktop or laptop computer. You can’t have your phone ringing or dinging in the background.
Lighting. If you’re interviewing virtually, your voice must be heard clearly and distinctly. Sounds simple, but it might not be. You’ll need the appropriate amount of light in the background without shadows. An overhead ceiling fan often creates a strobe light kind of effect that’s disconcerting, to say the least.
Background. Remember the adage, KISS. Keep is simple, sweetheart. If you’re going to be interviewing virtually, either have a nice and clean background or use a professional virtual background. You’ll likely need a green screen. By now in the Covid pandemic, you’ve probably seen the halo affect that happens when people don’t use a green screen. Don’t let that be you.
Your resume. Regardless whether you’re interviewing in-person or online, have your resume easily transmittable. For in-person attorney interviews, bring extra copies of your resume with you. For online attorney interviews, have your resume on a desktop file so you can easily screenshare. You don’t want to fumble around for one of the most important pieces of documentation.
You should’ve already emailed your resume to the attorney well in advance of your interview. Just like you wouldn’t give a gift unless it were wrapped or in a gift bag, don’t send your resume without an introductory email. You want to pave the way for your success. This can be accomplished with just a few sentences in your email. Some jobs may require a separate cover letter, but you might also need to send an email with it.
Not all job application materials are the same. Be sure you’re sending the items the interviewer is requesting. For example, a cover letter, resume, application, and references could be required. Other attorneys just want an email with your resume. Send what they want even though you have these other items.
Anticipate questions. You’re a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC). You’ve already attained your PLNC certification. Professionals anticipate questions they might be asked in an interview. For example, “tell us about yourself”. This is your time to shine. Answer the questions directly and be sure to include your nursing experience. Whether you’ve worked less than one year or thirty years, you have nursing experience. Show it off, however use some humility as well.
Questions like “tell us two of your strengths and two of your weaknesses” are common in interviews. Know in advance your strengths and weaknesses. We all have weaknesses. Not to worry. When it comes to your weaknesses, be sure they could easily be perceived as strengths. The goal is to secure the job, so you want to present yourself as not only competent but knowledgeable.
Come prepared with questions. Almost all interviewers ask interviewees if they have any questions. Come prepared with at least three to five of them. It could be that the interviewer answers a couple of your prepared questions during the interview, so then you’re down to three pre-prepared questions left. You want to be interactive and friendly.
Thank you. Saying “thank you” regardless of how the interview went is the professional thing to do. But, saying it is not enough. You MUST send a thank you note.
There are different schools of thought on whether it should be handwritten or electronic. In this day in age, an email thank you is perfectly appropriate. Regardless which way you decide to send your thank you note, it must be timely. If there were multiple interviewers, send each a separate thank you with slightly different wording. The interviewers could forward your emails to each other, so you want them to be personalized.
Look no further. There’re all kinds of potential employers of Professional Legal Nurse Consultants (PLNC). You decide which employer is best for you and your lifestyle. That’s another added benefit of being certified as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant!
TYPES OF EMPLOYERS
Work from home independently. If you are already holding down a job as a full-time nurse, and are looking for revenue to supplement your income, working independently from home is a great direction to go in because it affords you the luxury to create your own hours.An independent PLNC is an individual who has good organizational and time management skills.
Independent PLNCs usually work with attorneys and law firms. You determine your hourly billing rate. Remember, you’ll still have some nonbillable tasks such as bookkeeping and keeping your files up to date.
You might decide to work as a PLNC full-time. In that case, you’ll have other factors to consider such as purchasing health care insurance, perhaps employing others such as a virtual assistant, and increase in equipment costs.
Insurance companies. PLNCs working for insurance companies usually work for claims representatives or adjusters.They work in concert with the adjuster or claims representative. They also work with an attorney hired by the insurance company to litigate a particular case.Many insurance companies look for nurses who have been certified and/or have experience reviewing medical records.
Law Firms. A PLNC working for a law firm will work with attorneys in various types of cases related to healthcare issues such as: personal injury and medical malpractice. The PLNc can either be employed by or contract with the law firm firm. As an employee, often you’ll have benefits such as health insurance, sick days and annual days. As an independent contractor, you will provide these yourself but often there’s more flexibility in your hours.
Healthcare Systems. Many PLNCs choose to work for healthcare systems or hospitals, which is similar to working for an insurance company. You may be called upon to work directly with the company’s risk manager or compliance departments, providing similar support as you would at an insurance company. Usually, the benefits and salary would also be similar to being employed at a law firm or insurance company.
Corporate Entities. As a PLNC working for a large or medium-sized corporation, you may provide the corporation with assistance related to workers’ compensation and other legal issues.You might choose to work as an independent consultant in this setting or potentially be employed by the company.
Government. You may choose to work on the local, state, or federal level as a PLNC in government.Most of this work will involve investigations and working with governing boards of a particular agency.These agencies could include state universities, correctional facilities, clinics, commissions, boards, and governmental agencies.
There’re so many options out there for Professional Legal Nurse Consultants. You might decide to try one or try them all to decide what fits your personality and lifestyle. It’s up to you. As my grandmother, of loving memory, said “the world is your oyster!”.
