Personality Traits of a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant: What’s Yours?

Personality Traits of a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant: What’s Yours?

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.

Create a Chronology in Professional Legal Nurse Consultant Practice

Create a Chronology in Professional Legal Nurse Consultant Practice

What’s your goal? For the Plaintiff: To identify the TIMELINE of events so you know what was done and not done for the patient that caused harm. For the Defendant Nurse: Same thing. Your CHRONOLOGY is a unit of time. When the events happened and by whom.

As the Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC) assigned to reveiw the medical records, you are either asked to create a chronology or find it would be helpful to organize what went on with the patient. Either way, creating a chronology will help you understand the facts.

Here’s a summary of what how to create your chronology:

Receive the medical records: Acknowledge electronic receipt via your email to atty.

Organize the med records, if not done already, by sections.

Read the medical records critically. Looking for merits of case. 

Now, Write up a chronology (timeline) in complex cases

Point 1: Use Word Document with Four Columns

  1. Date, Description, Page Number, Comments: Arrange in order of occurrence.
  2. Multiple Providers? Do a separate Chron for each Provider
  3. KISS

Point 2: Only record relevant info

  1. Med Recs come in REVERSE chronological order. 
  2. Your Chron should be in chronological order. 

For example, pt came thru ER, then admitted to ICU, then surg, then back to ICU.

  1. Lots of info is immaterial. Cut to the chase.
  2. Question whether it’s relevant? Include it. Better to include than exclude.

Point 3: Use your Chronology to Draft your Report

  1. Keep three tabs open on your computer:
  1. Med Recs
  2. Chron
  3. Report you’re drafting
  1. No need to include everything from Chron in your report. QUESTION: Is it relevant?
  2. Primary source is med rec. Secondary source is your Chron.
  3. Work off your Chron to draft your report.

Medical malpractice cases almost always use a chronology. A timeline is extremely helpful in cases where there are a lot of events happening. This is the way to distill it down. 

To get paid for your work, you need to keep track of the time it took you to create the chronology. Often, it takes a lot of time to create a chronology, but 1) it’s essential to understanding the medical records and 2) you should be getting paid for doing it.

Creation and use of a chronology will help you in your legal nurse consultant practice so follow these points to make them easy for you to draft and use.

P.S. Do you use a four column format for your Chronology?

 

How a Legal Nurse Consultant Can Help an Attorney BEFORE a Lawsuit is Filed

How a Legal Nurse Consultant Can Help an Attorney BEFORE a Lawsuit is Filed

You are talented! Don’t forget that. You can use your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC) skills in LOTS of different ways. The most common way is to assist attorneys in what’s called the “pre-suit stage”. This is where trial lawyers have PLNCs review medical records and give their opinions.

It’s good to know that no matter where you live, your ability to review medical records and give your opinion is essential.

Whether you’re reviewing the medical records for the individual suing or the person or entity getting sued, you’ll get to use your know-how.

Pre-Suit Stage
Let’s look at the definition of “pre-suit stage”. It’s that period of time after the event occurred that gave rise to the injury but before the actual case gets filed in the courthouse.

Four Parts of Pre-Suit Stage
We’ll break down the pre-suit stage even farther, so you know exactly what’s happening at any given moment in time.

  1. Notice: In order for your attorney to file a medical malpractice lawsuit, there must be enough evidence. Even before the actual filing of the lawsuit, some states require there be notice to potential defendants known as prelitigation filings. Some states require a sworn statement of the attorney, and/or the expert witness, as to the facts and conclusions.
  2. Investigation: Regardless of the states’ requirements, as a PLNC you’ll need to read over all the medical records in the potential case. Then, you’ll give your opinion. The crux of the potential case is whether there’s enough evidence to substantiate the claims. You might be asked to complete a chronology, or timeline, to help simplify the facts. Usually, a chronology is used in more complicated cases, like obstetrics or long-term care cases. You might even help identify witnesses from the medical records.
  3. Demand: After the attorney has reviewed your PLNC report and all relevant documents and things in the potential case, the attorney will arrive at a monetary demand. The attorney will discuss this dollar figure with the client in order to get their consent. The more medical records you review, the more you’ll get comfortable analyzing the value of the case no matter what side of the case you are on.
  4. Settlement negotiations: You may, or may not, be part of settlement negotiations, but your medical record review weighs heavily in the attorney’s settlement demand. Just know that your assistance has been vital in getting the case to this point.

There are pros and cons on both sides of legal cases. Your job as the Professional Legal Nurse Consultant is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your side as well as that of the opponent’s side. The more you share your nursing and legal skills with the attorney, the more valuable you become in this pre-suit stage.

To review, the pre-suit stage consists of four aspects: notice, investigation, demand, and settlement negotiations. Your nursing knowledge, legal understanding, and professional experience are instrumental in helping clients with their cases.

P.S. Have you ever experienced participating in settlement negotiations? What was it like?

A Day in the Life of a Trial Attorney: How a PLNC Can Help

A Day in the Life of a Trial Attorney: How a PLNC Can Help

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.

How to Believe in Yourself: Becoming a PLNC is ATTAINABLE!

How to Believe in Yourself: Becoming a PLNC is ATTAINABLE!

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

  1. 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?
  2. 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!
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

How to Get Certified as a PLNC: What You Need to Know

How to Get Certified as a PLNC: What You Need to Know

WATCH the video whether you already ARE a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC) OR are considering it. For those who would rather read it than watch it, here’s the transcript:

Transcript of Video
Nurses, do you feel your career has plateaued? Or might even be stuck in a rut? What if there was a way to substantially increase your income, while using your nursing knowledge for a good cause?

That’s the path you could take as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant.

As a PLNC, you assist attorneys on a range of cases that require knowledge of nursing care. You can work in the comfort of your own home or in a law office reviewing medical records and alerting attorneys to pertinent facts.

If you’d like, you could even appear in court as an expert witness, which could pay even more.

Elizabeth Rudolph said:
Hi, I’m Elizabeth Rudolph. I’m a Registered Nurse and an attorney. I founded Jurex Nurse to deliver the highest                    level of legal nurse consultant training.

In as little as two days, you can become CERTIFIED as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant, by taking an EASY, FUN, and INFORMATIVE course from Jurex Nurse.

Sandra, RN, PLNC said:
I took the Jurex course, and my experience was great! I gained the knowledge and skills to take my nursing                           career to the next level. I’m working now with three attorneys in my town. I’m making more money than I ever                         imaged, and I’m able to spend a lot more time with my family.

Every year there are thousands of cases that require Legal Nurse Consultants. If you’d like to be one of them, Jurex Nurse can give you the training, confidence, and ongoing support to succeed. With Jurex Nurse, you get:

  • Course and Materials
  • No-Risk Guarantee
  • Mentoring and Coaching opportunities
  • Marketing Instruction
  • Directory Listing

Elizabeth Rudolph said:
If you want to explore the opportunities as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant, I’m happy to answer your                  questions in a FREE phone OR video consultation. Call or contact JurexNurse online.

P.S. Book your FREE consultation with me here.

Listen To Your Inner Voice: Education IS your KEY to Success

Listen To Your Inner Voice: Education IS your KEY to Success

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:

  1. I’m not motivated
  2. I don’t have the money
  3. 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 2: Consider your options. What’s the fastest way to use your existing nursing skills to earn more? It’s to get your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant (PLNC) Certification! Go to JurexNurse.com and consider the three PLNC Certification System options.

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.

Keep Track of Your Legal Nurse Consultant TIME Spent Reviewing Records

Keep Track of Your Legal Nurse Consultant TIME Spent Reviewing Records

Your attorney-client has provided a link to the medical records of three different providers of the patient. Your assignment: Review the medical records, provide a summary, and give your nursing opinion. You’re going to get paid handsomely for it, but how do you keep track of your time spent on the case?

Attorneys, usually defense attorneys, used to keep a notepad next to them and whenever they performed a task, they’d write it down on “time slips”. They’d include the date, time it took, and short description.

Fast forward to the digital era and attorneys keep “time” electronically. While that’s an option for legal nurse consultants, in my experience the best way to keep track of the time you spend on an assignment is by simply writing it down. Later, when it’s time to create an invoice, you can easily transcribe your time directly onto your invoice for services.

Follow these three steps to make recording your “time” easier
1. Keep a notepad next to you. On your notepad that’s kept next to you while you review a medical record, record the time you start and the time you stop, even if it’s just for a break. Then, record your restart time and stop time. Next to each start and stop time, record the task you performed.

For example, if I’m reviewing the medical bills from a healthcare provider, I would record the date and the start and stop time for those precise medical bills. My entry would say: “Review medical bills from [name of healthcare provider], 17 pages”.

2. Use the page count as a gauge. Once you review medical records and medical bills, you’ll get a feel for how long it ought to take you to review them. Of course, some documents require you to scrutinize them more in which case the page count is not necessarily reflective of how long it should take you to review them.

3. Record the amount of time per task. It’s possible that you could review the medical records and medical bills in a short amount of time, say, in one hour. Still, separate out the time you spent reviewing the medical records, summarizing the medical records, reviewing the medical bills, and summarizing the medical bills.

The reason to separate the time concisely is for your attorney-client’s benefit and, as is often the case, for the insurance company’s benefit. Recipients of your legal nurse consultant services want to know exactly how you spent your time and their money.

Keep it simple sweetheart will be your motto and you’ll find it’ll keep you in good stead.

P.S. Want more? Watch our YouTube videos @JurexNurse on our channel here.

How To Keep Track of Your Money in Your PLNC Business

How To Keep Track of Your Money in Your PLNC Business

Be prepared to handle a lot of money in your job as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant. Start off right with a good accounting system and you’ll never have to worry. You don’t want to get yourself into a bind trying to piece together how much you billed and when. Worse yet, is trying to figure out how much you actually collected.

The Tax Man Cometh so be sure you’re in a good position from the start. Or if you’ve already started, clean up your accounting from here going forward by following these three methods. 

Three methods to keep your accounting on track
1. Use a cash versus accrual accounting method.
Decide how you’re going to keep track of the money coming in.

Simple put: Cash accounting reflects transactions when the cash flows into or out of your business. Accrual accounting reflects revenue as it’s earned and expenses as you incur them REGARDLESS of when you actually obtain the money.

It’s far easier for Professional Legal Nurse Consultants to use a cash accounting method than an accrual accounting method.

For example, with cash accounting, as you receive the money, you record the date. As you purchase an item for your business, you record the date.

2. Open up a business bank account. Use the bank’s online app for mobile deposits. Get to know the branch manager, bank tellers, and bank representatives. This way, if something does go awry, you might be able to handle over the phone since they know you.

3. Keep track of all transactions daily. As a matter-of-fact, in my experience it’s best to check your bank’s app every morning so if there’s a discrepancy you’ll have time to address during banking hours.

Another of my experiences has been that “things take longer than you think”. Allow plenty of time to fix things as you might have to actually go to the bank in-person which would account for time there and bank, wait time, and time to speak with the bank’s representative.

The key to accounting success is recording everything timely. This means, when you send out an invoice, notate the date sent. When you receive the check for your invoice, notate the date received. When you buy something you need in your business, notate the date purchased.

By the end of the year, your “books” will be completely up-to-date. This will make your life indefinitely easier come tax time. You’ll be successful as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant!

P.S. Comment below with your accounting hints. Or, email them at info@jurexnurse.com and we’ll be happy to share them with your PLNC colleagues.

The 6-Minute Billable Hour: How Legal Nurse Consultants Bill Their Attorney-Clients

The 6-Minute Billable Hour: How Legal Nurse Consultants Bill Their Attorney-Clients

You want to get PAID for the medical records you review. Here’s your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant primer on correctly billing your attorney-client so you earn the maximum. No more guesswork. No estimating. Follow these steps to make it easy for you and your attorney when it comes to billing.

The big difference between billable and nonbillable work for Legal Nurse Consultants
As a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant, your work is almost exclusively “billable” work. This means you’ll earn money for the legal nurse consultant services you provide. “Nonbillable” work, on the other hand, is work performed for which you can’t bill.

Let’s look at examples of both.

Billable work examples
Reviewing medical records, reviewing medical bills, summarizing medical records, summarizing medical bills, drafting a chronology, researching medical conditions.

Nonbillable work examples
Preparing your invoice for work you performed, working on your own company’s marketing projects, trainings you attend, doing administrative work in your business, attending meetings not related to client assignments.

Six-minute billing cycle defined
Lawyers usually bill their clients in six-minute increments. Every six minutes of time equals .10 of an hour.

As a PLNC, you might set your hourly rate at $150 per hour to review medical records. If you’re earning $150 per hour and you review a medical record for 30 minutes, you’d bill your attorney for .50 which means you’d earn $75.

Interestingly, for tasks that take you less than .10, you’ll normally round it up to .10 which is 6 minutes of time. Of course, it’s your prerogative if you want to not bill at all for tasks that take such little time.

For example, let’s say you receive an email from your attorney’s paralegal on a new case with instructions, descriptions, and the link to the medical records. If it took you close to six minutes to review this, you’d bill for .10. On your invoice you’d list the date, the description of “Review email from [Name of Paralegal] regarding instructions, description of facts, and medical records link” and the amount of time which would be .10.

You’re expected to be precise in your description on your invoice. This means including details on exactly what you did for the time you’re billing.

Ask yourself if what you did was billable or nonbillable work
You’ll likely never bill for nonbillable work. Just know that the time it takes you to draft your invoice is on yourtime, not theirs. The first time you put together an invoice with your billable time on it, it could take you thirty minutes or longer. As you prepare more and more invoices it’ll take you much less time. Regardless, that’s part of doing business and you can’t bill for that.

One very important concept you should know is that you should ALWAYS be truthful in the amount of time billed. One overbill and your job with that attorney could be over. Worse yet, your reputation could be ruined. It’s never worth it to bill more than you actually worked.

The good news is that determining what’s billable and nonbillable work gets easier. As a matter-of-fact, you’ll likely master this distinction on your very first project.

P.S. Want to know how to hike your nursing income as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant? Go here.