Becoming a legal nurse consultant is a career enrichment step taken by many nurses across the country in an attempt to diversify their range of experience and expand their available income and job satisfaction opportunities.
Legal Nurse Consultant Basics:
A legal nurse consultant is essentially a source of reference for attorneys, insurance agents, and other professionals working on cases with claims related to medical issues. They use their nursing expertise to act as a consultant for other professionals who might not necessarily be capable of decoding and understanding complicated medical language on their own. With the help of a legal nursing consultant, these professionals are able to use facts from medical documents and insurance claims documents to make a decision regarding coverage or to plead a case on the behalf of a client.
Becoming a Legal Nurse Consultant:
Legal nurse consultants nearly always have several years of experience as an RN prior to becoming a consultant. Certification as an RN is often required by employers, and, although a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in nursing is not a prerequisite, it could potentially increase the legal nurse consultant’s rate of pay. Many attorneys and other employers seek legal nurse consultants who have obtained official certification in legal nurse consulting, and this certification can be earned through various methods, including online classes and in-person certification programs offered at some hospitals and community centers. For more information on becoming officially certified, visit the website of the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants.
Day to Day Life for Legal Nurse Consultants:
Although they are sometimes employed by government agencies, insurance companies, and private corporations, most of America’s legal nurse consultants are self employed in some fashion, either part time or full time. Most of their work comes from attorneys (both defense and plaintiff) who need to make use of a legal nurse consultant’s medical expertise in order to close gaps in their own knowledge. Where attorneys are experts in the legal field, legal nurse consultants act as experts in the medical field. They need not necessarily understand every intricate aspect of the legal system; rather, they are there only to provide assistance with medical documents and healthcare related issues.
Most of the cases with which a legal nurse consultant assists involve medical malpractice suits, insurance claims, and other legal issues with medical components at their core. While most legal nurse consultants operate behind the scenes as reference sources, they are also sometimes called to testify at the stand as expert witnesses. In addition, typical duties of a legal nurse consultant could include reviewing medical records, preparing reports on illnesses and injuries, assessing standards of care, and conducting research for demonstrating evidence.
Although the pay varies significantly depending on the individual legal nurse consultant’s level of experience, geographic location, and certification level, most experts estimate that legal nurse consultants earn anywhere from $80 to $150 an hour for their services, keeping in mind that most of them work only part time while also maintaining their full time position as an RN.
A position as a legal nurse consultant provides an RN with an additional source of income, as well as a more diversified career. Some legal nurse consultants choose to use their legal experience as a means to transition from a career in medicine to a career in law, others later leave their RN positions to work full time as a consultant, and still others enjoy the opportunity to work simultaneously as an RN and as an expert consultant. All options have been shown to provide legal nurse consultants with an enriching and satisfying career path.
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