Skip to main content

Guest Post: The Pros and Cons of Legal Nurse Consulting

The Pros and Cons of Legal Nurse Consulting

I’ve spent years pursuing different avenues in the health care industry. I spent my high school years studying to become a CAN, I was at one point a EMT, and I eventually turned to alternative practices like massage therapy, herbs and general fitness and nutrition. Not long ago, though, I heard a term that was relatively new to me – legal nurse consulting.
My aunt told me about her pursuit of a legal nurse consulting certification. Her goal was to pass the certification exam and open her own business, partnering with lawyers around the country to help them understand medical charts and the medical profession as a whole.

Sounds great, right?
I’m wondering if it really is.

I urge anyone who is considering legal nurse consulting to consider the pros and cons. While it is certainly an admiral and profitable career path, it may limit your future choices.

First of all, legal nurse consulting is not a get-rich-quick solution to your problems. If you feel overworked and underpaid, odds are you may feel the same way while working with lawyers – especially when it comes time to chase down your payments.
Another thing to consider is the fact that you are basically turning your back on the industry you work in. Nurses and doctors do make mistakes, but if you label yourself as someone willing to point out those mistakes (in practice or in paperwork), employers may be hesitant to hire you as a nurse in the future.

Legal nurse consulting isn’t an easy job. It’s for organized, professional individuals who have time and who are dedicated to helping those who have been injured by the medical profession find vindication. The job can be cold and lonely and – honestly – simply isn’t for everyone.

Take some time to think about your chosen career path and don’t jump to legal nurse consulting simply because of the claims that you will make $150 per hour for your work. The reality is that you’re going to work incredibly hard for your money – just as hard or harder as you would work on the hospital floor. Make sure you’re making the right choice for you.

Deborah Dera is a full-time writer specializing in personal finance, credit repair, online degrees, health, fitness, and nutrition. She is the founder of Write on the Edge and offers unique content solutions to business owners who want to strengthen their online brands.
Labels:

Comments

NPO said…
You see the ads in nursing magazines and online for these legal nurse programs. I had a friend who spent a week in a seminar to become certified, six month later not one job.
Like a lot of programs they make it sound really good and then you learn afterwards you will never earn what they are trying to sell you. Like those real estate seminars.
November 12, 2010 at 12:38 PM
KimberFNP said…
Nice post and I also have a friend who did the same, not sure she ever worked any doing that. I think it could work in a larger city if one were to put some money into advertising and marketing.
November 14, 2010 at 9:50 PM
KimberFNP said…
Nice post. I also had a friend who did the same thing, but no work here for her. A larger city might work, if one were to put some money and time into advertising and marketing.
November 14, 2010 at 9:52 PM
emily wilkinsin said…
It's a good position adds a different dimension to the healthcare experience
September 29, 2011 at 6:31 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Private Practice

There is an interesting trend that I'm observing and don't necessarily see how this is going to turn out. I'm seeing more and more nurse practitioner's opening their own autonomous practices. Many of these offices set out to offer care that is personalized, covered under insurance, and of course high-quality. I'm also seeing more NP specialty/sub-specialty practices such as house calls, incontinence, and women's health. This is in a time when more physician practices are joining together in these conglomerations that aren't necessarily tied to hospitals. You'd be hard pressed to find a solo primary care physician these days yet nurse practitioner solo practices are popping up. The talk about the formation of accountable care organizations can be attributed to health care reform and the spurring of large multi-physician practices. What to make of this? I honestly don't know. Many people and patients have said to me "you should start your own prac...
21 comments
Read more

NP Residency

The healthcare system of today is so complex yet so dysfunctional that I believe the time has come to educate and train the NP providers of tomorrow in a way that is reflective of that complexity. We have done a good job up to this point but need to bring that to the next level. Residency. I'm not necessarily referring to the typical residency training of physicians which takes place in hospitals but a residency-type of program in an out-patient setting (ironic that we use the term residency). We realize that healthcare is not exclusively delivered in hospitals. It takes place in independent providers offices, in community health centers, in mobile health vans, and in retail settings. It takes place in people's homes and places of employment. It takes place in many of the health decisions that we make on a daily basis. I found this NP residency program in Connecticut that claims to be the first NP residency in the US. The programs admits 4 NPs each year and trains them to ha...
20 comments
Read more

Precepting Students

I've precepted many NP students during the years and usually had pretty rewarding experiences. (There was that one student that just didn't get it...I guess I can save that one and how I handled it for another post!) I like to think of precepting as a two-way street: my student is getting the hands on experience of patient care with guidance while I can further hone my precepting skills. Precepting a student is not simply telling them how to treat a condition or how to prescribe a medication. It is helping that student critically think to formulate differential diagnoses and treatment plans. Precepting can often be overlooked as part of the education and training of health professionals yet it is a critical part of acquiring the necessary skill set of patient care. I think back to my experiences as a student and have found supportive clinicians that helped to shape me into the clinician I am today (I was precepted by a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, an OB/GYN, a family nur...
11 comments
Read more