Nine Skills You’ll Gain with your PLNC Certification 1. Income-Generating Medical Record Review Skills: One of the most essential tools in your toolkit is your ability to effectively review medical records and give your opinion. You’re a nurse. You know the nursing standard of care. Apply it to the facts in the medical record.
2. Resume Building Skills: Your nursing experience should be prominently displayed on your resume. Attorneys review your resume to decide whether or not to employ your PLNC services. Your resume is ever evolving, so add or subtract items over time to put your best foot forward.
3. Critical Analytical Skills: When you’re reading a medical record, ask yourself: Did this happen the way it’s recorded in the medical record? Should the outcome have been different? Did the nurse comply with the standard of care? What would I have done in the same situation?
4. Effective Marketing Skills: You’ll want to be on social media. No matter what social platforms you use, be consistent. You want to be front and center in the minds of attorney-clients.
5. Usable Testifying Skills (if you decide you want to testify): It’s always good to learn testifying skills, whether or not you ever use them. Testifying skills can help you better review medical records because then you’ll know how facts are presented at a deposition, trial, or mediation.
6. Efficient Time Management Skills: Some medical records are reviewable in a short amount of time, some longer. Mastery of time management skills is useful in all aspects of your life. The more you review medical records, the faster you become.
7. Practical Chronology Creation Skills: Medical records with lots of facts are best digested by creating a timeline, known as a chronology. From there, you’ll create a report of your findings.
8. Powerful Money Management Skills: As you earn more and more money as a PLNC, you’ll put that money to work for you. Whether you deposit it into a bank account, money market fund, or other investment opportunities, you’ll develop and hone your money earning and money savings skills. This skill you’ll have for a lifetime!
9. Desirable People Skills: As a PLNC, communicating with others is critical. The people skills you’ll refine include your ability to listen, communicate, problem-solve, and relate to others. Even your sense of humor will improve!
Isn’t this enough to convince you of your self-worth as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant? You have what it takes, now do it.
P.S. Which of these nine skills is most important to you? Comment below.
You should have an invoice template for your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant business. Most businesses have an invoice that contains the essential information. Here’s what you need for your PLNC business. That way, you don’t have to recreate an invoice format for every case you work on. You’ll just add the relevant information to your existing invoice template.
Your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant Invoice Template Centered at the top of the page: Your name, company name (if you have one), address, email, and phone. You should consider adding a logo that easily identifies your invoice from all the others the attorney receives.
Name of the attorney, address, and email: This information should be flush left. If you’re sending your invoice by email it should say: “Via email”. Next, is the attorney’s name and designation. Here, for example, you can either say: “Elizabeth Rudolph, Esq.” or “Ms. Elizabeth Rudolph”, but do not use both “Esq.” and “Ms.”. Insert the full name of the law firm, city, state, and zip code.
Date of the invoice: Believe it or not, the date is important because you may be sending more than one invoice and you’ll need to know what you put on each invoice so you don’t double bill.
An indented section that starts with “Re:”: so you can insert the case name and case number. Attorneys generally have lots of cases, so be sure you clearly identify the case you’re working on. Use their case name and case number!
Three columns: Left column entitled “Date”. Middle column entitled “Description”, and right column entitled “Hours”. Underline each item: Date, Description, and Time. Then, you’ll be ready to insert the corresponding information.
Total number of hours: Attorneys want to know how long you worked on their assignments. Plus, it could be that a third party, like an insurance company, is going to ultimately pay your bill. Regardless, they want to know what they’re getting for their money.
Total amount due: This is critical. Make it easy for the attorney, and their bookkeeper, to know the amount of bill. Don’t expect them to sum up the amounts of each line item. Do it for them.
At the time you were hired to perform the PLNC service, you would have already agreed upon an hourly rate. You might have even agreed upon a maximum number of hours to perform the services, which is less likely. At a minimum though, be sure your invoice has these essential items.
I’ve been asked about including a sentence about “due date” or when you expect payment. There are differing thoughts on this. You could include something to the effect that payment is due in thirty days. The alternative is to leave this sentence off and just resend the invoice if you have been paid within thirty days. Most attorneys are timely in their payments, but there may be a occasional one who, for whatever reason, does not pay within thirty days of receipt of your invoice.
Be super careful about providing your social security number or tax identification number, if you are a company. Regardless, for privacy reasons, most invoices do not contain this identifying information.
Once you create your invoice template, you’ll find there’s really no need to update it. If it works, don’t fix it. But, remember to send out your invoices timely because you want to get paid quickly.
P.S. Do you have a logo for your PLNC invoices? Let’s see it in the comments section.
Following best practices will help you in your legal nurse consulting practice avoid the fallout from being hacked. You, or someone you know, has likely had their personal identity information stolen. It’s a bad feeling. Knowing how to reduce your exposure is key to prevention. And, it’s something every Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC) needs to incorporate into their everyday practice.
Password Protection Is Key 1. Don’t create passwords from your social media accounts. Information that can be easily accessed on your Facebook, X, Instagram, or other social accounts are prime fodder for fraudsters. For example, don’t use your child’s name, your state, or your favorite sports’ team in your password.
Use a lengthy password. Many website logins require 12 characters in length. Let this be the norm for your passwords.
Select characters from multiple categories. For example, use at least three in these four categories: Uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
Don’t reuse passwords. If you’ve used a password on a specific account in the past, just create a new one when necessary.
Never use your first, middle, or last name as your password. It’s way too easy for a scammer to guess.
As a PLNC, you’re viewing confidential patient information. Trust your instincts and be sure you comply with accepted password security protocols.
Cybersecurity threats are, unfortunately, a real and common occurrence. Be prepared by utilizing your best password protection plan. You want to stay up-to-date on how you can protect sensitive patient information, and it starts with strong password protection.
P.S. Do you use unique passwords for different systems?
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?
What should you say in your deposition as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant? What should you not say? These are questions you’ll probably ponder as you prepare for your expert witness deposition in a case. Below are some helpful tips that should set your mind at ease for your sworn testimony.
Five Deposition Tips for the PLNC 1. Be prepared. You cannot “wing” a deposition, even though maybe you could a test in nursing school. So, anticipate questions regarding every singlefact surrounding the medical records you reviewed.
2. You will be asked about your education. Expect to provide an overview of your education which you could do using your resume or curriculum vitae. More importantly, you will likely be asked about whether you obtained education regarding the specific facts in the case you reviewed.
3. Your nursing experience is critical. You will most definitely be asked about your nursing experience. Specifically, you should be prepared to answer questions about your experience with the facts at issue. If your experience is limited, you should consider filling it in with research you have done regarding the facts.
4. Plan to discuss how many cases you have testified in and the types of cases. If this is your first time testifying, you’ll have less baggage. If you have testified in the past as a legal nurse consultant, be sure you know the specifics of those cases.
5. Anticipate the questions in advance so you can set your mind somewhat ease. Nothing worse than “dreaming up” an answer when multiple people are awaiting your answer and you feel anxious. You most likely will be testifying about your opinion regarding all healthcare providers, not just the nurse in question.
Think About These Tips
Now that you’ve read these five tips, go back over them because you will see these come up in almost every expert witness deposition. Become more at ease and you wll be a better expert witness!
P.S. If you’ve been deposed before, how many times for the plaintiff and how many for the defendant? (Try to aim for an equal number).
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.
