Helpful Tips on Becoming a Legal Nurse Consultant

Helpful Tips on Becoming a Legal Nurse Consultant

Out of the approximately 1,162,124 lawyers in practice today, 25 percent of them deal with medical malpractice and similar personal injury lawsuits. For these, lawyers need the assistance of a legal nurse consultant. A legal nurse consultant is a registered or licensed nurse who uses his or her skills and knowledge as a healthcare provider for consultation purposes on medically relevant legal cases. LNCs assist lawyers in examining medical records and understanding medical terminologies, jargons and medical procedures to determine the best step for the legal case. The lawyer and the legal nurse consultant will work hand in hand for the betterment of the case.

Legal nurse consultants can practice their profession throughout in both rural and urban areas. Cases which LNCs deal with involve simple leg fracture caused by a car accident to high profile medical cases like medical malpractice and more.

The consultants have the choice of working independently from their homes for attorneys, either on a part-time or full time basis. Others render their service to give consultations to government agencies, insurance companies, and private corporations.

So what does a nurse need to possess or to know in order to become a legal nurse consultant?
A consultant must possess qualities such as dedication to their work as well as persistence. One should be capable of accurately interpreting the medical situations and be able to read the medical record properly.

To make things clear, listed here are some of the functions performed by the legal nurse consultant:

• They review the case for its merit
• Help the attorney-client by interpreting medical jargons and records while explaining the technical nursing terminologies, plans as well as treatment for diagnosed diseases.

• LNCs perform research on related literatures which are applicable the specific situations and present it as a simplified paper
• Legal nurse consultants are responsible for reviewing, analysis and summarization of depositions
• They prepare for the deposition and preparation for the trial
• LNCs also attend case trials as well as hearings in court
• They assist witnesses for the case

For those professionals who practice as legal nurse consultant only, there are no specified specialty areas and the cases which they will handle involve all field of medicine. They will accept and review all types of cases and if one feels not confident enough to handle a case, sub-contracting can be an option and not to refuse a case because of little or no clinical experience in the area in question.

There are trainings involved in becoming a legal nurse consultant and these areas are focused on nursing standards, clinical nursing and medicine which link medical law but the “Law” is not the domain of the legal nurse consultant and so, understanding only the essentials is necessary.
Here is a brief list of clients that benefit from the services of Legal Nurse Consultants:

• Attorneys
• Insurance companies for adjudicating claims
• The Healthcare facilities
• Government agencies and private corporations (consulted in risk identification and management, forming strategies for the development of corporate quality assurance, valuation and the minimizing of a company’s loss exposure)

The conclusion is, any registered nurse who would like to become a legal nurse consultant should train on how to become one and should persevere because this profession is not that easy. It takes a lot of hard work to become successful in this field and so with other endeavors.

Pointers for Success in Nursing School

Pointers for Success in Nursing School

Have you already received your letter of acceptance from the nursing school you have applied? If so, congratulations! Now you are about to go on board a noble path where you will learn and experience things which will positively change your life. As the cliché goes, nursing is one of the noblest professions. Here is a career that will change your way of thinking not only as a student but as a human as well. In treading the paths to becoming a future nurse, what does it take someone to succeed?

One of the most important things is to always be positive. It takes a mature and courageous person to be aware of his personal disadvantages and uncertainty yet pushing ahead anyway. You have to have confidence in yourself. If you feel that you are not capable enough to handle the pressure and problems of nursing school, take a breather and tell yourself “I can do this!” try to do things one at a time. Try to find ways to make your studying easier for you. View your problems as challenges that need to be solved.

Another important thing in order to succeed in nursing school is to keep updated in everything and never get behind. Keep up with your class by reading your lectures, assignments, projects and lectures. You can also plan ahead of time and strategize effective study habits. Never procrastinate, as this can only result in last-minute cramming and erroneous results. In everything that you do, make sure that is not just satisfactory, but an excellent work. Remember that credits are given to those who deserve them. Always aim for the top. As you probably know, an hour of lecture generally takes two to three hours of concentrated studying. Never compromise your studying and comprehending a topic for other less important things. Remember that your aim is to be the best and succeed.

Last but not the least, you need to fully understand your lessons. You need full comprehension on the topics that you have discussed. It is understandable that some topics are really hard to understand. Never get discouraged when this happens. All you need is a little time and motivation… seek out help from your instructors until you fully understand the full content. If it helps, you can use strategies like jotting down important notes or statements which are hard to understand. You can employ the help of your professors as well as your classmates to get different perspectives in understanding the lesson.

Thorough comprehension of the content is needed for you to do well in examinations. You must have known by now that pure memorization is not that effective especially in the NCLELX-type of examinations. This sometimes takes nursing students by surprise, which leads to academic casualties. Nursing exams mostly test the nurses’ critical thinking and resourcefulness as well as the proper application of knowledge of the nursing fundamentals. Remember to analyze first before answering.

A fine NCLEX-style review textbook is recommended. It may be a little costly, but in the long run, you will realize that it is worth it. You can check out the current edition of Saunders Comprehensive NCLEX Review – the one with the questions broken down into subject matter. You can easily review the book because the topics are organized into different categories such as psychiatric alterations and fluids and electrolytes. Understand the reason behind the answers and sharpen your test-taking skills.

Certified Nurse Educator (CNE) Recertification

Certified Nurse Educator (CNE) Re-certification

Being a CNE or a certified nurse educator means that you can coach and train student nurses into becoming skilled, highly qualified and full pledged nurses. In order for you to do this, you need to have a certification. Certification as we all know is a proof of accreditation of expertise. Among academic nurse educators, it shows that nurse educators are highly qualified to train future nurses to give quality health care to the community as a whole. By having being credited as a Certified Nurse Educator (CNE) not only do you become a role model and leader but also as an exemplary mentor as well.

If you were already accredited as a Certified Nurse Educator by the National League of Nurses (NLN), then you should keep in mind that the accreditation expires and must be renewed after 5 years. In order for you to reapply for the certification, you may select one of two choices below:

The first option requires you to have participated in professional enhancement programs. For one to be recertified, he or she must meet all the entitlement requirements for renewal of the CNE certification.

You must present a professional self assessment and documented proof of your participation in continuous quality enhancement programs and activities which are significant to the academic nurse educator function.

The second option for recertification is to be able to comply with all the eligibility prerequisites for CNE certification renewal. A CNE examination must also be successfully completed before your CNE certification expires. You need to pass the exam in order to be recertified.

Do keep in mind that during the 5 year life span of your certification, you must participate and attend in at least 50 continuous quality enhancement programs and activities. Remember that the activities should be well documented for proof. The first option is a rather tedious and complicated method since you are required to collect certificates and wait for further verification of the documents. The second option seems a bit easier, since all you have to do is retake and pass the Certified Nurse Educators examination.

If you plan to choose the first option then please remember that proper activities include attending and participating in nursing educator enhancement seminars and conferences, using innovative and new techniques in teaching – learning strategies in the classroom and clinical settings, facilitating an online educational chat session conferences with students, doing research on new strategies of education, presenting articles for publication, formulating an effective evaluation tool, coaching new faculty members and the likes.

Remember that the goal of the Academic Nurse Educator Certification Program is to recognize the excellence of the academic nurse educator in advanced specialty. You are distinguished from others as an educator of advanced roles and practice within the scope of the nursing profession, strengthen and uplift the nursing standards, reinforce the utilization of core competencies of nurse educators practice, contribute to other nurses’ professional growth and development and a lot more. If you are interested in renewing your certification as a competent nurse educator, then it is advised that you waste no time.

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