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CLNC Consultant Caryn Jaffe Discusses Her Role in IV Therapy Legal Nurse Consultant Jobs

CLNC Consultant Caryn Jaffe Discusses Her Role in IV Therapy Legal Nurse Consultant Jobs

VICKIE: This is CLNC® Consultant Caryn Jaffe, RN, CLNC. Caryn, I know you’re a specialist in IV cases as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. What kinds of issues do you have, what kinds of cases?

CARYN: I find a lot of cases where there is an IV that has failed as well as a lot of extravasation cases where there is a vesicant involved and there’s tissue death. These situations require a lot of extra treatment, pain and suffering for the patient and sometimes even death, depending on the drug.

VICKIE:  You’ve actually had cases where somebody has died?

CARYN: Yes, I have.

VICKIE: That could be pretty severe. How do you build your case, working for either plaintiff or defense? What do you do to prove, or disprove that there’s an issue?

CARYN: I look at the records as a whole. I go through them and try to pick out any other themes that might be there that might have influenced the patient’s care, such as their treatment. I look to see what doctors are involved and figure out who else is involved in this case, who helped the patient and who definitely did not help the patient. And then I start to get into the nitty-gritty of the details. Was it the drug that caused the problem or was there some sort of issue where the patient had a bad outcome specifically because a certain medication was either given or not given?

VICKIE: Are there any other tips that you have for people working on IV therapy legal nurse consultant jobs?

CARYN: Know the IV device. A lot of times it’s not taken into consideration because people think a PICC line is a PICC line and an Arrow catheter is an Arrow catheter. But each different line from each different manufacturer has specific recommendations on how to treat that line, how to troubleshoot that line and what to do with it if something goes wrong and finally, when to pull it.

VICKIE: I think you’re also bringing up a good point. I know this is your specialty and so often, especially for IV therapy issues, we think any nurse can handle these legal nurse consultant jobs, but you’re pointing out that, depending on the situation, it might be good to call in a specialist like yourself.

CARYN: The reason I would suggest that is because we’ve been in the trenches troubleshooting these devices. If something goes wrong and we’re trying to figure out how to fix it, we first have to determine what is wrong. Is it just a positional line where you can’t get blood return because somebody doesn’t have the right head turn, or isn’t taking a deep breath in, or is it really a fractured line or non-functional line that could actually cause harm to the patient?

VICKIE: You’ve certainly given us a new line of thinking in IV cases. Thank you Caryn for those tips today.

Success Is Yours!

P.S. Comment and share your own tips for IV cases.

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*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.

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