Become a Legal Nurse Consultant
The Intrigue of Judicial Nursing
Featured Articles
Choosing the Right Nursing Career Path
The distinction between LPN, RN and BSN not only affects a nurse's area of practice, but also their income and professional advancement opportunities. Learn about the difference between these degree types.
The Nursing Shortage
Nurses needed. Read about some of the contributing factors impacting the nursing shortage.
Registered Nurse Opportunities
An increasing number of Americans will be needing medical care. Learn how to turn the nursing shortage crisis into a fast-track nursing career.
How to Get Nursing Scholarships and Grants
As nursing school tuition has increased, a rising number of nursing scholarships and grants have become available for qualifying candidates. Learn how to uncover these funding sources.
The Truth About Men in Nursing
Today is a great time to become a male nurse, with the increased demand for nurses in a profitable and professionally rewarding career. Learn more about male nursing.
By Jennifer Wegerer
Legal nurse consultants play a powerful role in the litigation process by bridging the gap between medicine and the judicial system.
Legal nurse consultants are licensed registered nurses with more specialized training. They use their clinical experience and specialized health care education to interpret, research and analyze medically-related issues relevant to a legal case or claim. Based on their investigations, they provide an informed opinion on the delivery of health care and its results.
With an established code of ethics and conduct, legal nurse consultants practice their critical trade in law firms, government offices, insurance companies, hospital risk management departments and HMOs, as well as in consulting firms and independent practices. In each environment, these experts fulfill a number of roles and carry out an extensive list of responsibilities. Take a look at some of these roles and responsibilities to get an overview of the legal nurse consulting profession:
Reviewing Medical Records
Searching for the medical and nursing issues relevant to a case, legal nurse consultants review medical records to help determine whether professional negligence occurred, to summarize injuries and treatment and to identify any missing or tampered records. Medical records also offer a legal nurse consultant insight into the standard of health care provided to a client.
Educating Colleagues
In the process of deciphering a case, legal nurse consultants educate attorneys regarding medical facts, timelines, treatments, nursing terminology and other relevant health care information. Furthermore, their legal nurse consultant degree and experience gives them the background to serve as liaisons between the attorneys, physicians and clients involved in a particular case or claim.
Investigating Cases
Investigation plays a major role in the world of legal nurse consulting. As case investigators, legal nurse consultants may provide professional services such as these:
- Research compensation and disability claims to determine whether such claims have merit
- Examine cases involving fraud and abuse of government funded agencies, including Medicare and Medicaid
- Conduct inquiries into potential misconduct on the part of a health care practitioner or facility
Preparing for Trials
For cases that go to trial, legal nurse consultants may prepare medical fact reports and summaries, chronologies of medical events, graphic exhibits and other evidence. They may also draft questions for attorneys to use during medical depositions, interview parties involved in a case and prepare witnesses for testifying at trial.
Testifying as an Expert Witness
Attorneys may call legal nurse consulting experts as witnesses at trial to provide facts, data and opinions based on case evidence. Along with offering testimony, a legal nurse consultant's job may involve locating and retaining expert witnesses who can offer specialized insight and knowledge relevant to the circumstances of a case.
Additional Legal Nurse Consultant Information
Legal Nurse Consultant Requirements
The base requirement for being a legal nurse consultant is that you have extensive experience in the practice of nursing. On top of that, it helps to have some type of relevant experience in the legal system. A graduate degree and certification in the nurse legal consultant clinical specialty both help establish credibility.
Legal Nurse Consultant Job Outlook
With 25 percent of attorneys in practice dealing with medically-related cases, the market for professionals with a legal nurse consultant degree holds strong. The breadth and intrigue that surrounds the field promises a stimulating career—not to mention the rewards that come with making an impact on the standards of practice applied in both the health care and justice systems.
Related Nursing Opportunities
Related legal opportunities for nurses include the role of Nurse Risk Manager, and Nurse Attorney.
Sources:
American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants, 2007
Lora Lee Grutkowski, Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, 2001-2007
Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc, 1999-2007
Return to the Nursing School Education Resource Center