Kylan Knoll, RN, PLNC, tells us her story about why she got her certification as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC). Kylan explains she met some attorneys and the field of legal nurse consulting was something she was interested in. It bridges the gap between the medical arena into the legal arena. Being a PLNC gave Kylan to ability to explain in layperson’s terms what was going with the patient (and get paid for it!).
I overcame my fears
Initially, I was scared to take a certification course. I helped a friend do a medical record review and we needed a way to make sense of everything and the legal jargon. I researched legal nurse consultant certification courses and I came across the JurexNurse.com video of Elizabeth explaining the course. I took the PLNC course. I’m so glad I did!
The PLNC Certification course was well organized
All the information was in the course. You really evolve into practicing as a legal nurse consultant. The course is structured and organized and teaches how to get the message across in a concise way to attorneys. We, as clinicians, like to put every little detail down. I learned in the course how to pack details into an overall highlighted way. The attorneys want to know are the merits of the case. Are they easily recognizable and do we have the supporting documentation? I learned this in the PLNC Certification course.
Practicing as a PLNC
I finished the course with confidence and tools. It was amazing! I took advantage of the JurexNurse.com marketing materials and that gave me a really big boost. I was able to take this to the next level. And, I am taken seriously because I had the certification and some knowledge of the legal process that I could incorporate into my interpretations.
P.S. You don’t have to know attorneys to be a successful PLNC. That’s what the Jurex Expert Directory is for. Comment below.
You’ve just been given 194 pages of medical records to review as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC). What do you do first? Just follow these six EASY steps and you’ll have them knocked out in no time. Don’t worry. Follow this path each and every time whether you’re working on a medical malpractice case, personal injury matter, or social security disability claim.
Six Easy Steps to Help You Dissect the Medical Records
Read the email instructions. Be sure to re-read the email so you don’t miss a deadline.
Write down the sections by name and include page numbers. You can expect there’ll be Nurses Notes, Medication Administration Record, and the like. Separate by section and include exact page numbers.
Read the pages. This time for content. Content is king.
Notate missing documents. Invariably, there are missing documents you’d expect to be included in the medical records.
Take notes. You’re going to be compiling your legal nurse consultant report, so jot down important facts.
Write up your report. The legal nurse consultant merit review is not necessarily lengthy, it’s the content that matters.
You’ve been reading electronic health records in your every day nursing practice. Apply that nursing knowledge here.
P.S. Have you ever read a medical record and realized a document was missing? Comment below.
As a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC) you’re a KEY part of the legal team! Your role is in LITIGATION SUPPORT, which is an essential part of the case. No matter what side of the case you’re on, your PLNC services are needed!
It’s good to know expert witnesses are required in medical malpractice lawsuits. This means there’ll always be a need for your PLNC services.
Your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant Services up close You can provide lots of services for attorneys. Below are the top ten services you’ll get to use as a PLNC:
Assist with communication. You’re on board to simplify and explain the nursing and medical care to the legal team.
Educate. The individuals who need to be educated are the attorney, judge, jury, and members of the legal team. In PLNC practice this could mean tutoring the attorney about the case.
Research. It’s so much easier than in the past. No need to go to the library when you can do an internet search. Don’t forget to ask to review the policy and procedure manuals.
Review, Analyze, and Summarize. Read the medical records, analyze what’s relevant, and then summarize them. It’s that simple.
Assess Damages. Look for the cause of the damages. Remember there could be other contributing factors.
Liaison with Other Experts. Who better than you to locate other experts? You’re the liaison among all the expert witnesses.
Interview Witnesses. Sometimes you’ll need to interview witnesses and then explain what you’ve gleaned to your attorney.
Draft Documents. “Draft” is just a glorified word for “writing” or “compiling” documents. You can use forms.
Assist with Case Strategies. One of your skills is the ability to come up with questions that need to be answered. Plus, you can incorporate new, or spot missing, information.
Provide Support. From preparing witnesses to assisting with trial prep, your PLNC will be put to good use.
There you have it. The top ten PLNC services you can provide, and get paid for, to attorneys.
P.S. Be sure you get our FREE Guide to hike your income as a PLNC!
WATCH the video so you can be successful as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC). Let’s quickly cover the 5 tips you need to be a successful PLNC. In the video, you’ll get takeaways you can use today. It’s well worth your time!
Five Tips To Be A Successful Professional Legal Nurse Consultant
Take initiative. Constanty evaluate yourself and your performance. This is the best way to achieve career success. Pitch new solutions. Be willing to take on more projects. (You get paid by the hour, so why not?).
Use your nursing experience to generate income as a Registered Nurse. It’s quality not quantity. Years of experience don’t matter as much as the types of clinical experience you’ve had.
Continuing nursing education and development. The pursuit of nursing knowledge is what matters. If you don’t know something, look it up.
Communicate your skills as a legal nurse consultant (+Bonus Tip). You’ll be interacting with the entire legal team: attorneys, clients of attorneys, paralegals, legal assistants, and othersl
Give attention to detail. The big picture is important, but don’t forget to focus on the details. Sometimes a chronology is useful when there’re a lot of facts.
Ask yourself “Would I hire me?” if I were this attorney.
You’re the “expert” and as a PLNC you’re valued for your expertise.
P.S. Want to expand your income, get our FREE Guide here.
First and foremost remember this nurses: Patients who like you tend not to sue you. This means to be nice to the patients, even if you don’t like them. While this is some of simplest pieces of information, it is also one of the most important. It is, after all, up to the patient to decide whether or not to sue you.
Commit yourself to showing kindness and patience to every person you treat. Approach each patient with the same smile and good attitude, regardless of your mood or stress level. You may be thinking that this is a given and that being “nice” is simply part of being a good and caring nurse.
Consider those patients you encounter who are not very nice to you, who are uncooperative or ungrateful. Even with these patients, strive to be good-natured. It is, of course, most challenging to be nice to the patients who you dislike.
As a nurse and Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC), you’ve devoted yourself to the welfare of those committed to your care. But not only should you be giving excellent, quality health care, you should consider giving it with a smile if for no other reason than to avoid getting sued.
“The patient decides whether or not to file a lawsuit.”
This is so important for the simple reason that the patient decides whether or not to file a lawsuit. Let’s say an error was made, it’s the patient who determines if a lawsuit will result and, if so, who will be blamed. Believe it or not, if you were friendly and kindhearted, the patient will be less likely to place blame on you if an error occurs. Likewise, they will be less likely to be looking for areas of misconduct or inaccuracy if they personally liked you. We generally don’t sue people we like. It’s just human nature.
The same applies to your patients’ families. Despite disagreements, bad attitudes or just general meanness, you must apply your patience and compassion to them as well. If the patient is deceased or incapacitated, the patient’s family will be the deciders of beginning any litigation. They may also be influential in encouraging the patient to file suit especially if they are present during their care and/or treatment.
Remember, you as the nurse and PLNC, are encountering a patient and their family at a particularly difficult time. Illness and medical treatment are often met with fear, anxiety and tense emotions. Be understanding of these extenuating circumstances and how it might justify impolite or hostile behavior. Meeting such behavior with equal anger and contempt is not only unproductive, but it could also lead to you being unnecessarily sued.
P.S. Reduce your liability and get our FREE Guide 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.
