At the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) conference in Chicago where Elizabeth Rudolph provided the presentation “Surefire Documentation Techniques: What Every School Nurse Needs To Know”, NASN included the wonderful organization Asthma and Allergy Foundation to host a special project for attendees in a reception to compile teddy bears and information about childhood asthma in backpacks. We all had fun putting together kits which contained valuable educational resources for the family, fun books and activities for the child, and essential asthma equipment for emergencies. Kits packed at this special event will be distributed to local families or could be taken with attendees to share with their communities. Learn more at aafa.org.
Do you know your personality traits? Did you know these four personality traits often define a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC)? Inquisitive, compassionate, motivated, and adaptable.
Let’s break these down and apply them to legal nurse consultant practice.
Inquisitive. If you’re curious or just want to find out the meaning of something, you have a skill to be a PLNC. Nurses who become PLNCs are often considered analytical. They want to get “to the bottom” of something. They’re willing to look something up on their mobile phones or computer. They find it interesting to know the answer to their questions.
Compassionate. In our world, it is sure nice to have understanding for others. Nurses who are compassionate and are PLNCs, are understanding, sympathetic, and may be described as “warm”. This skill goes a long way in understanding the facts contained in a medical record and realizing there are two sides of almost every story.
Motivated. The PLNC who is energized by following the patient’s story, is one who is guided by the facts wherever they may lead. Sometimes, we wish the result were different, but the medical records speak for themselves, and we must follow them to the end. As a legal nurse consultant, it’s important to channel your motivation to arrive at the reasonably prudent nurse conclusion. When you’re motivated, you seek answers. This is exactly what a successful legal nurse consultant must do.
Adaptable. Being flexible and resilient will go a long way for the PLNC who reviews medical records for attorneys. Sometimes the deadlines change, the assignment gets expanded, or additional medical records are provided. While these could all mean more billable hours and more money to you, it also means being willing to make changes. Attorneys are often busy and delegate responsibilities to their legal nurse consultants. This is an opportunity for you to shine, showing you can meet the challenge head-on.
Whether you have one, or all four of these personality traits, just know that an interesting and interested nurse is one best suited to be a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant. Is that you?
Want to know your personality trait? Take the free Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) here.
P.S. Find out more about being a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC) here.
Do you want to know how to gain self confidence so that you can use your nursing skills in legal cases and become certified as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC)?
Do you want four simple steps for believing in yourself and your abilities? Maybe you’ve thought about becoming a legal nurse consultant. Maybe you’ve heard others who have become PLNC certified, and it piqued your interest.
First thing is first. You need to believe in yourself. But how, you ask?
FOUR SIMPLE SELF-CONFIDENCE BOOSTERS
Self-confidence starts with self-trust Have some, even just a little, faith in yourself. Tell yourself that you will complete one task that you start. Then, at completion, feel how good it feels to have followed through with the commitment to yourself. If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?
Recognize it’s a mind game A lot of life is a mind game. It’s been said that playing golf is largely a mind game and the rest is skill. So, you want to get your PLNC Certification but have been putting it off? The same golf analogy applies here: SIMPLY register for the PLNC Certification course and view the first chapter. Next thing you know, you’ll have completed the course and attained your PLNC Certification!
Evaluate your task completion Let’s say you’ve completed the PLNC Certification course and are certified. Look back and evaluate how you were able to get from Point A to Point B. I’ll answer that for you: step-by-step. That’s how we all get from one thing to another. We take steps.
Realize that the KEY to success is…PREPARATION There’s no substitute for doing your homework. You may have said that to your children before. But, it’s true. Do your research in advance of undertaking your task. Research can be short or long. The length of time you prepare does not necessarily mean you’re going to have better results. Quality over quantity!
Your goal is to gain confidence, reduce your own anxiety, and allow yourself to feel the feeling of successful completion. All of these are worthy goals and, most importantly, they are all attainable.
First thing’s first, though. Close your eyes and ask yourself: “Self, what do I need to do to attain my PLNC Certification?”. Now you know the answer. Register for the PLNC Certification Course here.
P.S. For more information on attaining your PLNC Certification, go to https://JurexNurse.com.
P.P.S. To book a FREE Consultation with me, go here.
We all listen to our inner voice sometimes. It may help us or hurt us. These voices are our internal dialogue with ourselves and often is at the root of our own self-destructive behavior.
You KNOW that Education is your KEY to Success. But, how do you snuff out that inner voice that says?
Types of Inner Voice Talk
You might be using negative inner voice talk or positive inner voice talk. Here are some examples:
I’m not motivated
I don’t have the money
I’m overwhelmed with what I’ve got going on now
Let’s address this in an easy 3 step process. We’ve got to get control of this monster or it’ll destroy us. It’s NOT that we want to silence our inner voice. We want to get CONTROL of it and parlay it into something that’s productive.
Three Easy Steps to Get Control of Your Inner Voice We don’t want out thoughts running rampant largely because we would feel out of control. So how to we understand ourselves and weave in what we need for our careers? Follow these three easy steps.
Step 1: Listen to your inner voice. Probe it. Ask yourself questions, much as you would ask a friend or someone you knew a question in order to help them. You have to trust yourself and your instincts.
Step 2: Consider your options. Often, it’s that we know the problem, but not how to fix it. Or, we may know how to fix it, but we don’t want to do the work. This is where you get out pen and paper or use the “Notes” section on your phone and literally write out your options. Number them, 1, 2, 3. Just get the thoughts out. We’ll prioritize them later. Once you get the options out, it’s time to let them sink in. A good friend of mine calls this letting it ”MARINATE”. For example, she and I were purse shopping and I narrowed down my selection to 2 purses and I couldn’t decide which one to buy. Nancy said to me “let it marinate” and, sure enough the next day, I went back to the store and purchased the one I loved better. Lots of choices in life are like purse shopping, but you have to know your options first.
Step 3: Apply the “Selection” process. Let’s say, you want to earn more money. You want a side hustle but you don’t want to go back to school for another degree.
Your Inner Voice and Your Education: In Tandem
Let’s apply what we just talked about in the 3 simple steps to earning your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant certification:
Step 1: Listen to your inner voice and it’s telling you that you need, or want, more money.
Step 3: Now, register for the course and get your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant certification in less than 2 days.
Practice makes perfect. Also, be sure you’re not too hard on yourself. Take 10 seconds and listen to your inner voice. Throw in a deep breath, and you’ll feel much better equipped to handle whatever life brings to you.
P.S. Let’s hear from you. Comment below about how you deal with your inner voice.
Motivation. What do you think of when you hear this word? Energy. Drive. Success. Yes, all of these. Let’s talk about motivating yourself in your nursing career to achieve more, and therefore, to earn more money, more accolades, and more time for the things in life you want. Like having extra spending money, getting to go on that long-awaited vacation, buying that pricey pair of shoes you’ve been eyeing.
How do you get from where you are in your current nursing job to where you want to be in your career?
Breaking down the four steps of motivation success 1. Create your goals. Have you said any of these to yourself? “I became a nurse to do good. I want to earn more using my nursing skills. I want to be the best version of myself”. You can achieve meaningful goals. For example, your goal might be: I want to improve my nursing skill set so I can earn more money.
Decide on the front end what you want to achieve. This way you’ll know when you get there. Don’t let that dictate how much or how often you pursue your goals. There’s more to life than merely setting goals. (We’re going to explore that next).
2. Develop simple steps to achieve your goals. Have a Plan. Not just any old plan, but a simple, yet straight-forward plan that you’re willing to try.
This means you must prioritize what’s important and do that first. As it’s been said “Done is better than perfect”. For example, sticking with your same goal of “I want to improve my skill set so I can earn more money: Plan: I’ll search online three nursing certification programs. Since I’m interested in being a legal nurse consultant, I’ll email the contact for each one. Then, I’ll follow up if I haven’t heard back from them.
3. Manage your time. We all have 24 hours in a day. Take out 8 or so hours for sleep and we’re left with 16 hours to make a difference in our lives. Tell yourself you’re going to use those 16 hours to the best of your ability. Already working a full-time job? Then there’re less hours left in the day. Don’t waste them. Sticking with our example: Use 10 minutes here or 30 minutes there to check your emails, call the legal nurse consultant program, or if you’re already a PLNC, take 30 minutes or an hour to review those medical records for your attorney-client as a PLNC. One hour of your legal nurse consultant time equals $150.
4. Reward yourself. As you complete a step in your plan, reflect on your accomplishment (or even your failure). That’s how we learn. We ALL have to overcome setbacks in order to move forward. For example, you registered for the Professional Legal Nurse Consultant Certification program. Log into it and look around at the online program. Get a feel for it knowing you’re on your way to achieving your goal!
You want to keep your motivational drive going so tell that grey matter inside your head what you want it to do. Now, go do it!
P.S. Want more motivation from someone who’s been where you are? Book an appointment with Elizabeth Rudolph, JD, MSN, RN, PLNC here.
Nurses asked me to create a video to tell them why I created JurexNurse.com. Thank you for asking. I’m honored to it.
In 2006, I founded JurexNurse.com so that legal nurse consultant certification could be both comprehensive AND affordable. As an attorney, I have handled hundreds of legal matters where there was a need for properly trained and certified legal nurse consultants. I answered that need by creating the Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC) Certification course.
I must first back up and tell you WHY I became a Registered Nurse (RN). When I was 15 years old, my mother was in a car accident. After two months of hospitalization she passed away. It’s because of this experience that I chose the nursing profession. At Vanderbilt University, I obtained my Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and I immediately started practicing pediatric nursing. From there, I went into psychiatric-mental health nursing.
After getting my Master of Science in Nursing at Vanderbilt University, I taught pediatric nursing as well as psychiatric-mental health nursing prior to entering law school.
At Vanderbilt Law School, my goal was to combine my nursing and legal background to help nurses reduce their liability. Having accomplished that goal defending nurses in medical and nursing malpractice cases, I joined Johnnie Cochran at The Cochran Firm – Memphis (now called Morgan & Morgan) until his death.
As an attorney, I founded JurexNurse.com because I saw a huge need for nurses to be properly trained and certified as Professional Legal Nurse Consultants (PLNC). JurexNurse.com was founded on the mission (below) we still hold today.
Mission The mission of Jurex is to provide high-quality, flexible, and affordable certification training to nurses to allow them to assist attorneys in medical-legal cases. It is our goal to train each nurse to be a professional, dependable, and valuable part of the legal team. Through certification and ongoing training, we seek to keep nurses on the cutting edge of developments in the medical-legal field.
Giving back to the nursing community is IMPORTANT to me! Through volunteering during this pandemic to helping with the pro bono legal needs of individuals, this is my way of saying thank you for the opportunities that nursing and the law have provided to me.
P.S. If you’d like to become a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC), go here.
