From the President's Desk
Searching for a legal nurse consultant?
 The
attorney should look for a nurse who has at least 5 years
of clinical experience. A successful legal
nurse consultant is analytical, organized, and can communicate
well. Since nurses are often involved in patient education,
we are able to use these teaching techniques to assist legal
personnel in comprehending medical issues. The attorney
should look for a nurse with the initials of LNCC after
his or her name. Our certification
process, which meets the rigorous standards of other
professional nursing associations’ certification processes,
is geared to the nurse with expertise in this field, and
confers the initials “LNCC” for “legal nurse
consultant certified.” In order to sit for this examination,
the legal nurse consultant must have performed 2000 hours
of consulting in the previous 3 years and have 5 years or
more of clinical nursing experience.
A legal nurse consultant
is not a paralegal.
Paralegals assist attorneys with all aspects of litigation,
not necessarily confined to cases with medical issues. Legal
nurse consultants may do some of the tasks that paralegals
perform, such as organizing
medical records and doing timelines, but the medical
background of the nurse is valuable in different ways. The
legal nurse consultant will help the attorney by spotting
the information in the medical record that has direct bearing
on the lawsuit. We may be involved in any aspect of litigation
when medical issues have to be identified, such as personal
injury, medical malpractice, workers compensation, products
liability, employment law involving healthcare professionals,
or toxic tort claims. Legal nurse consultants also work
with attorneys who handle criminal or matrimonial cases-in
short, whenever there is a need to serve as a bridge between
law and medicine.
Patricia Iyer MSN RN LNCC
is a Past President of the American
Association of Legal Nurse Consultants and the chief
editor of the second edition of the Principles
and Practices of Legal Nurse Consulting. See also the
AANLC Certification Board's
position statement on certification.
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