by Elizabeth Rudolph | Jun 25, 2014 | Legal Nurse Consulting
There is a lot to remember when you are testifying as nurse expert witness. Not only do you need to focus on the facts, your opinions and the basis for those opinions but you want to keep your composure. Follow these tips to make your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant testimony smooth and straight-forward, whether you are at a deposition, trial or arbitration hearing.
1. Know why you are testifying. Are you working for the plaintiff or the defense? Next, do you know the allegations in the complaint and the defenses in the answer? Are you centered on the most serious problems but haven’t lost sight of the more minor ones? Be sure you address these head on.
2. Answer only the question asked. Testifying as a PLNC is not the time to volunteer information. Listen to the question and provide your answer. Give your explanation, where you deem it appropriate. If you opt to give a non-responsive answer, be prepared for the possible consequences. That being said, there may be times when you provide answers, while not precisely on point, that do not meet with opposition or objection.
3. Objections indicate problems with the question. Be on guard for objections to questions posed to you as the nurse expert witness. Listen to them. Objections can guide your answers as you testify as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant at depositions, trial or arbitration hearings.
The three tips for Professional Legal Nurse Consultants can guide your testifying experience. How you handle deposition questions, trial interrogations and arbitration questioning might dictate your overall experience and practice.
by Elizabeth Rudolph | Jun 19, 2014 | Inspiration, Legal Nurse Consulting
Success is the constant, but what are the variables? You want to get the constants under control in your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC) business so you can deal with the variables. Life will throw you some curve balls but you, as a PLNC, need to be ready to handle them. Here’s how to really be successful in your legal nurse practice:
1. Plan your work. There is no better way to effectuate a change than to have a plan in place. The most successful Professional Legal Nurse Consultants work off of a plan. Tip: Create your “To Do” list the evening before. No sense wasting valuable time as you start your day.
2. Prioritize. You want to accomplish items on your “To Do” list AND you want to be successful. Time management is your friend. Focus on managing it. Tip: Rank your list with the most pressing items at the top. Those are the items you need to focus your attention on first.
3. When you are fresh, focus on your top priority items. Whether you are a morning, afternoon or night person will not matter. What does matter is that you focus on your top priority items when you are at your best. Tip: Set a timer for one hour and complete as many of your top priority items first.
Now, go and start your list. You are a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant and you will succeed.
by Elizabeth Rudolph | May 20, 2014 | Legal Nurse Consulting
KISS. That’s “Keep it simple, Sweetheart”. If you keep your life simplified, you’re more likely to get items accomplished. Don’t make it hard on yourself. Don’t fight gravity.
One of the tried and true methods for organization is the “To Do List”. Whether you opt for handwritten, typed or on your phone, tablet, laptop or desktop, you should think about how much a “To Do List” can help you. It forces you to organize your information.
First, get the items down that you need to actually do. Then, prioritize them. Some are recurring, others are daily, still others are weekly or even monthly or yearly. Are you keeping it simple, sweetheart?
Do this now:
1. Mind dump all things you need to do.
2. Start with your daily list and prioritize the items: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.
3. Put the items into Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Yearly categories.
4. Any item that’s recurring, put an “R” in front of it.
There you have it. Wasn’t that simple, Sweetheart?
by Elizabeth Rudolph | Apr 3, 2014 | Legal Nurse Consulting
As a nurse, you learned terms and words in nursing school. At first, there seemed to be so many and you wondered if you would ever master them. Then, you learned about medications. But, you did it. Well, you can learn pertinent legal terms to incorporate into your practice. Let’s just go through a few:
1. Negligence: Simply put, it means doing something you should not have done or not doing something you should have done. It is the sin of omission or the sin of commission. It is the number one issue #nurses face in practice.
2. Medical Malpractice: This refers to negligence committed by a professional. Nurses are professionals, so if a nurse commits negligence, it is considered “nursing malpractice”.
3. Torts: This centers around civil wrongs. If one commits a tort, then the injured party suffers damages.
You just learned three new legal phrases that you can immediately incorporate into your practice. Learn more important phrases here. And remember, you mastered terminology in nursing school, so you know you can continue to do it.
by Elizabeth Rudolph | Mar 26, 2014 | Legal Nurse Consulting
Let’s say you are going to review a nursing home medical record in your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC) practice, so you are wondering what issues you might face. While each case is unique and has it’s own issues, you will likely come across these three negligence issues at some point. Whether you are reviewing the chart for the plaintiff or defendant, be sure you address each one separately.
1. Pressure ulcers: Commonly called bedsores, decubitus or decubitus ulcers. The immobility of this population, unfortunately, is one of many causes for the formation of pressure ulcers. In your PLNC clinical review, you will need to address this issue. When did the pressure ulcer start? What is the stage or is it unstageable? What, exactly, is the treatment protocol and what does the documentation show? Are there photographs? Was the resident identified as being at high risk for pressure ulcer development? Was the physician/nurse practitioner on notice?
2. Falls: Residents are usually thoroughly assessed at admission. Was the treatment plan updated to reflect any falls? What interventions were put into place? Is the family “on-board” with the treatment plan?
3. Malnutrition: Perhaps it might be under nutrition or dehydration. Does the medical record have updated dietitian assessments and interventions? Is the resident on a special diet? Is there documentation of the percentage, or amount, of consumption?
Thoroughly review the medical records. Then, think about these three potential injuries and be sure you address them in your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant report.
by Elizabeth Rudolph | Feb 27, 2014 | Legal Nurse Consulting
What do exercise and being a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant have in common? Lots. Both require patients (no pun intended), rather patience, both are rewarding and both produce results. Let us analogize a bit more.
Whether you exercise every day, every week or one a year, you must have patience with yourself. Some days you can zip through a thirty minute circuit training session and other times, when you are looking through a medical record, it takes patience to figure out what was going on. Either way, you need to be kind to yourself and realize you can do it. You have the training, both as a nurse and PLNC. Simply apply your knowledge to the immediate situation.
Life has a way of rewarding you for a job well done. Maybe you lost a pound, or two, with your new exercise regimen. Maybe you found that “needle in a haystack” in a medical chart. Life’s rewards come in all different sizes.
You will find, if you expend more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. Similarly, if you review more medical records, you will become more proficient and could see more medical-legal cases coming your way.
Next time you go to the gym, think patience, rewards and results. And, the next medical record you review in your Professional Legal Nurse Consulting practice, think patients, reward and results. Sound similar? They are.
