What do Legal Nurse Consultants do?
The AALNC Code of Ethics and Conduct 1, Scope of Practice for the Legal Nurse Consultant 2, and Standards of Legal Nurse Consulting Practice and Professional Performance 3 describe the specialty of legal nurse consulting. The primary role of the legal nurse consultant is to evaluate, analyze, and render informed opinions on the delivery of health care and the resulting outcomes. The following list of activities helps to distinguish the practice of legal nurse consulting:
Facilitating communications and thus strategizing with the legal professional for successful resolutions between parties involved in healthcare-related litigation or other medical-legal or healthcare-legal matters.
Educating attorneys and/or others involved in the legal process regarding the healthcare facts and issues of a case or a claim.
Researching and integrating healthcare and nursing literature, guidelines, standards, and regulations as related to the healthcare facts and issues of a case or claim.
Reviewing, summarizing, and analyzing medical records and other pertinent healthcare and legal documents and comparing and correlating them to the allegations.
Assessing issues of damages and causation relative to liability with the legal process.
Identifying, locating, evaluating, and conferring with expert witnesses.
Interviewing witnesses and parties pertinent to the healthcare issues in collaboration with legal professionals.
Drafting legal documents in medically-related cases under the supervision of an attorney.
Developing collaborative case strategies with those practicing within the legal system.
Providing support during discovery, depositions, trial, and other legal proceedings.
Testifying at depositions, hearings, arbitrations, or trials as expert health care witnesses.
Contacting and conferring with vendors to develop demonstrative evidence or to collect costs of healthcare services, supplies, or equipment.
1American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants. (1992) Code of Ethics and Conduct of the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultant. Glenview, IL: Author.
2American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants. (1995) AALNC Scope of Practice for the Legal Nurse Consultant. Glenview, IL: Author.
3American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants. (1995) Standards of Legal Nurse Consulting Practice and Professional Performance. Glenview, IL: Author.
Legal nurse consultants offer support in medically-related litigation and other medical-legal matters in the following areas:
Because of expertise in medically related issues, a legal nurse consultant can bring the following benefits to the litigation team:
Experience. The legal nurse consultant has a background of clinical experience, which includes interpretation of medical records, documents, and medical-legal issues.
Cost-effectiveness. The legal nurse consultant utilizes nursing background and knowledge of healthcare standards to identify strengths and
weaknesses of a case.
Resourcefulness. The legal nurse consultant possesses a network of medical and professional resources and contacts.
Knowledge. The legal nurse consultant has a thorough understanding of medical issues and trends related to the total litigation process. This information is custom-designed for the attorney, the client, and the jury.
A legal nurse consultant should bring the following characteristics to a litigation team:
Experience, including solid clinical experience and a strong background in legal nurse consulting,
Education, including nursing education, and other medical-legal-related educational programs,
Professionalism, including strong oral and written communication skills, and
Involvement, including a demonstrated commitment to the field through involvement in national and local professional organizations.
From: The American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants: "Tips on Hiring a Legal Nurse Consultant" (http://www.aalnc.org/hire/tips.cfm)
Certificate vs. Certification
American Legal Nurse Consultant Certification Board
http://www.aalnc.org/lncc/about/certificate.cfm
AALNC Position Statement on Certification
http://www.aalnc.org/lncc/about/position.cfm
Frequently Asked Questions About LNCC Certification
http://www.aalnc.org/lncc/about/faq.cfm
Are there mentors available through RLNN?
Not formally. Networking through our monthly meetings is the best way to connect with experienced LNCs.
Contact us: email@RochesterLNN.com