February 2010

Here at Vickie Milazzo Institute we frequently mentor new CLNC^® graduates on creating their unique selling position (USP). Your USP communicates how your legal nurse consulting experience, nursing experience, education and leadership in nursing can specifically benefit the attorney-client with his medical-related cases. In essence, you are translating your experience into a benefit for the attorney. USP is not about you and the CLNC^® services that you provide. It is about how you translate you and your CLNC^® services into the mind of the attorney-prospect.

The important word in USP is “unique.” What can you claim that another registered nurse cannot? The most common mistake I see is including a generic quality or characteristic that any legal nurse consultant can claim such as, “I’m organized and very analytical.” Who among us would say we’re not organized and analytical? If you want to stress your analytical skills, is there a specific experience that separates you from other RNs? Here’s an example:

“Five years of experience reviewing medical records as a risk manager in a variety of specialties plus my CLNC^® Certification qualifies me to quickly and cost-effectively review cases in any medical and nursing specialty. I can save you time and money by screening cases before you pay to send them to expensive medical experts.”

A second common mistake I see is legal nurse consultants stating expertise and credentials without a benefit statement such as, “I have 10 years of experience.” The attorney might not instantly understand all the benefits these 10 years of experience offer. Here’s an example of adding a benefit statement to your experience:

“I have 10 years of emergency experience. Having worked inside emergency departments, I can share details of how emergency services are provided that you will never find in an emergency medicine textbook. This will reduce the time you’ll have to spend with expensive medical experts.”

A third mistake I see is focusing on the CLNC^® services you provide such as screening cases and analyzing causation issues. At some stage you will want to emphasize CLNC^® services you provide, but they are not a USP. CLNC^® services are common to all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants. Your USP can, however, qualify you to deliver a CLNC^® service in a very unique, more qualified or more specific way. Here’s an example:

“My five years of experience in cardiology qualifies me to identify plaintiffs who have a pre-existing risk for heart attack and stroke in the defense of your Vioxx^® cases.”

Put your USP to work for your CLNC^® business with your attorney-prospects and remember to keep it unique.

Success Is Inside!

In my 2/17 blog “Ditch Unnecessary Complexities in your CLNC^® Business,” I shared the 2010 theme we adopted here at Vickie Milazzo Institute – “Ditch Unnecessary Complexities.”

One strategy to help you with this goal is to ditch perfectionism. As nurses, perfectionism is not only rewarded, it’s expected. You make a mistake and someone can die. I’m sure those kind of mistakes don’t go over well with your boss either (not to mention the patient). But do your internal documents for your legal nurse consulting business have to be so perfect? Misguided perfectionism can keep you from stepping out and going for the big things for your CLNC^® business or it can rob you of enjoying your business and your life.

I am surrounded by perfectionists (lots of Virgos) at Vickie Milazzo Institute and I often suffer from the perfectionism obsession myself. Ten drafts of a document is not uncommon. Over the years, we’ve had to acknowledge that perfectionism is important for the big things that count (like a report for your attorney-client) but can actually detract us from the big important things when we apply it to the small insignificant tasks that we all have to do. The advent of computers has made this problem worse than ever. In the old days of typewriters, it was difficult to revise and reprint a document and people were very careful about making revisions. Today, we can move a comma or a line of type and reprint it to our heart’s content without even questioning the gain.

Growing up in New Orleans, Louis Armstrong was an icon. I often think if he had been a perfectionist, we would never have heard him sing “What a Wonderful World.” The great Satchmo came close to perfection as a trumpet player, but his voice, his unique, gravelly voice was certainly untraditional – sometimes not hitting any recognizable notes, sometimes incomprehensible, but ALL THE TIME – his own unique expression of his interpretation of the music.  And it wouldn’t BE such a wonderful world without THAT song.

If you think about it, when you’re demanding perfection on the wrong stuff as a legal nurse consultant, you too miss notes, high and low. Then, instead of moving on, you’re sidelined by rejection or imperfection. Now, instead of looking at your attorney-prospect list, you’re looking in the refrigerator. And guess what? Unless you work in the morgue, there are no attorneys in the refrigerator!

Think back to the first attorney who said no to you. Is that so important today? Can you even remember that attorney’s name?

Ditch perfectionism! Lighten up when you pick up the phone for that next attorney call or write that next report. If you don’t get that perfect case, or your perfect attorney-client doesn’t give you those perfect glowing reviews, don’t give up… That’s nothing more than a perfect experience to learn from.

Only you can properly assess where it’s okay to ditch perfectionism in your CLNC^® business, but do make it a goal. When you ditch perfectionism, you free yourself to spend time on the important and BIG things that will propel your legal nurse consulting business to the next level and keep those attorney-clients coming your way.

Success Is Inside!

I’d like to begin today’s blog by giving a birthday “Shout Out” to Vickie:

Happy Birthday Vick – with what’s in the works, I know 2010 will be your (our) best year ever! Thanx for sharing it with me (I’ve got one of your favorite bottles of wine to go with your favorite dessert tonight! Woo-hoo!).

Now that the important stuff is out of the way, let’s start techin’! Many, if not all of you, are automatically updating the Windows^® operating system using the “Automatic Updates” function (or you’ve bookmarked the Windows Update webpage) for your home and legal nurse consulting business computers. That’s great for Windows but we all have a lot of other programs on our systems – many of which need updating too.

Some of the biggest offenders are those cool programs from Adobe^® that we all love. You know which ones I mean – Flash^®, Shockwave^® and even Acrobat^® – all are security risks from time to time. How do you stay up to date on these? Well, Adobe is finally taking steps to update some of its programs automatically – read this article – but not until April 13! In the meantime, my CLNC^® amigos, you’ll need to visit Adobe’s Security Center to see the list of “buggy” programs and Adobe’s recommended steps for dealing with them. It may involve determining which version of each program you have and uninstalling it or it could be as simple as downloading the newest version. In any event, you should visit this page on a regular basis. You can also sign up for security alerts here so that Adobe can tell you when there’s a new patch, etc. available.

If, like many Certified Legal Nurse Consultants, you’re using the Firefox^® web browser as an alternative to Internet Explorer^® you’ll need to keep on top of updates too. Open up your Firefox browser, left click “Tools,” then left click “Options,” then click “Advanced” and finally click the “Updates” tab. Make sure the boxes next to “Firefox” and “Installed Add-ons” are checked and close those boxes being sure to save your changes. This way you’ll be automatically notified each time Mozilla updates Firefox or one of your add-ons is updated. You should also take a minute to visit Mozilla’s Plugin Check page to be sure all your Firefox plugins are up-to-date.

I know it’s a lot of work, but you need to keep on top of your updates. They’re not going to do it by themselves (yet).

Keep on techin’,

Tom

Nurses naturally have the strength of agility. After all, you can’t be a nurse and not be agile. When you have five people talking to you at once, and you’re handling five different emergencies at once, that takes agility. When you go from this to that, without time to think and seconds are making a difference – that’s agility. When you’re floated to a unit you know nothing about – and you don’t kill anyone – that’s agility. As nurses, we’re all over that strength, aren’t we?

But agility is more than bending over backwards to satisfy a patient or even a unit of patients. Instead of simply using your agility to cope with your nursing practice or your day-to-day life, do you use your agility to stretch and grow to new levels professionally and personally? Agility is also flexing a curiosity about what else is out there for you professionally.

Agility is also about challenging fixed viewpoints that people (like the doctors, your supervisor, your spouse) have about you and fixed viewpoints you have about yourself. When I started my legal nurse consulting business, I had to challenge the fixed viewpoint that nurses don’t go into business. I also had to challenge the fixed viewpoint that if the business idea hasn’t already been invented, there’s probably no market for it. But more importantly, I had to challenge my own fixed viewpoints.

These include the belief that nursing didn’t prepare me for owning a legal nurse consulting business and the belief that I didn’t have time to start a business as a legal nurse consultant with my full-time nursing job at the hospital.

Open your mind and energy to people who can introduce you to new ways of thinking about nursing or your CLNC^® business and the unlimited possibilities that are available when you stretch your agility. You’ll need to be willing to change directions, just like you do in your hospital job. And be ready to shake things up.

Risking even minor change strengthens your agility to go where you need to go next and prepares you for future challenges that will undoubtedly require even more change. When you stretch yourself to a new level, the next challenge isn’t nearly as scary; the ground is more familiar. Agility is your path to a deeper, richer experience in nursing and in your CLNC^® business, as well as the strength you’ll need to side-step any challenges you’ll meet along the way.

Success Is Inside!

Here at Vickie Milazzo Institute we are counting the days until the 2010 National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (NACLNC^®) Conference in Nashville! I am so excited about the hotel (Gaylord Opryland Hotel) this year. Staying at the Gaylord is like being in your own city – 40-acres of fun galore, so you will not even have to leave the hotel. But in case you do, here are 20 legendary ways to experience Nashville.

1. Take a ride down the Honky Tonk Highway if you like country music and longnecks (and if you’ve never had a longneck, you should try one). Clubs like Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge (Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson all sang here), Legends Corner and Second Fiddle still host drop-in celebrity musicians and are great places to heat up a Spring evening.
2. Have a grand time at the Grand Ole Opry. There’s more to Opryland than just Hee-Haw. For more than 80 years, live radio shows have been broadcast every Friday and Saturday night from this grand home of country music. If you’re in town early for the Conference or choose to stay afterwards, this is a must-do. By the way – this isn’t the original home of the Opry – but more on that later!
3. Visit the “Home of 1,000 Hits.” Ever heard a song by Elvis, Roy Orbison or Dolly Parton? If so, there’s a good chance it was recorded at RCA Studio B on Music Row. Take some time to make a pilgrimage to a truly historic location.
4. Pay homage to the “Man in Black.” Stop by Johnny Cash’s grave and pay tribute to one of the greatest country music personalities and singers ever. Before you go, rent the movie Walk the Line and get a feel for the life and times of the legendary “Man in Black.” When you create your own CLNC^® legacy you’ll know what detours to avoid. His grave is really in Henderson but shoot, you’re this close already so why not go by?
5. Count the Elvis statues in downtown Nashville. I’m sure I didn’t see them all.
6. Do something truly off-beat and take a “Nash-Trash Tour” lead by the famous (or infamous) “Jugg Sisters.” You’ll take a large pink bus to where some of the most famous country singers have performed (including the Nashville jail), hear celebrity gossip, fun stories and generally laugh your way through the city.
7. Realize that you do know Jack – Daniels that is. Just 20 minutes outside Nashville is the Jack Daniel’s Distillery. It’s an extremely interesting, free tour and the grounds are just beautiful. But don’t expect any free samples because for some odd reason they built the distillery in a dry town (Lynchburg).
8. Stick around after Conference for St. Patrick’s Day and celebrate the 17th with a green beer after a trip to St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in east Nashville. The church dates from the late 1800s and is one of two “second empire”-style buildings in Nashville. If you don’t like old architecture – skip the church and go straight for a Guiness^® at Findley’s Irish Pub in the Opryland Hotel or any of the Irish pubs in Nashville.
9. Speaking of church, make time to visit Ryman Auditorium, also known as “The Mother Church of Country Music.” Built in 1881, this is the original home of the Grand Old Opry (1943-1974) and is filled with more memories than your great-grandmom’s attic. Check out the bronze statue of Minnie Pearl and look for the price tag on her hat.
10. Make some new friends. Nashville residents love visitors and are some of the most welcoming people I’ve ever met. Just remember when you order ice tea that swait tea means sweet tea and I do mean sweet, honey.
11. Take a drive to visit the Belle Meade Plantation. Dating from 1853, this is a Greek revival (What is it with Nashville and Greece?) mansion that was part of a 5,400-acre thoroughbred farm. The so-called “Queen of Tennessee Plantations” is a wonderful visit and the tour includes the Dunham’s station log cabin, plantation mansion itself, slave quarters, dairy and horse stables. The outside of the house still shows evidence of bullet holes from the Civil War.
12. Go celebrity spotting at the Loveless Cafe. This is sort of a pilgrimage because there’s a fairly good chance you might even see Elvis chowing down on their world famous biscuits and southern fried chicken. Leave your cholesterol outside, this is food to die for (or from). Buy yourself one of their “Praise the Lard and pass the biscuits” T-shirts. I promise you’ll have fun – clot my heart and hope to die.
13. Take a trip back in time and I mean waaaaay back. The centerpiece of Centennial Park is a recreation of the Greek Parthenon. Originally built for the 1897 Centennial Exposition, its features direct castings from the real Parthenon. There’s no Greek food but there is a great art collection (it’s Nashville’s art museum) and a 42-ft. tall statue of Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom. If you’re traveling with a culture snob, drop them here and then go have some honky tonk fun.
14. Eat at a Waffle House. It’s a Southern thang. They serve more than waffles but that’s the sole reason to go there. Elbow your way to the counter and sit between the sheriff and the deputys (Isn’t that Boss Hogg?). Don’t worry about your cholesterol and make sure you add a big scoop of whupped butter before you cover your waffles in syrup. If you don’t come home sticky, you didn’t fully immerse yourself in the experience.
15. Send your husband off for the day to see the statue of Sgt. Alvin York outside of the Tennessee State Capitol building. The World War I hero, Congressional Medal of Honor winner and Quaker hailed from Tennessee and may be its most famous resident. He lead an attack knocking out 32 machine guns, killing 28 German soldiers and capturing 132 more. As a side note, Gary Cooper won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Alvin York. See if your hubby can spot the statue’s anomaly.
16. Scream, yell and pound on the glass at a Nashville Predators ice hockey game. If you’ve never been to see ice hockey, it’s a whole lot of fun. My favorite seats are in the first row just to the right of either goal. The pucks come at you at over 100 mph and you can even count the teeth on the center when he gets slammed up against the glass! The original Broad Street Bullies, the Philadelphia Flyers are in Nashville on Tuesday the 16th and it’s sure to be a good game.
17. Visit the Country Music Hall of Fame. Walk through the history of country music. See some of the really cool memorabilia and marvel at all the things you’re sure to have never seen before (especially Elvis’ gold Cadillac). You can even burn your own CDs from the music choices and just have a whole lotta fun.
18. Set yourself on fire and see just how hot it can get in March, with fried chicken that is. Venture down to Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack at 123 Ewing Drive and try the mild, medium, hot or extra hot versions of their fried chicken. This is not for the faint of heart but if you like it spicy, this is THE place to go.
19. Join the line-dance at the Wildhorse Saloon. If you ever watched “The Wildhorse Saloon Dance Show” on the Nashville Network here’s your chance to do the Watermelon Crawl and pretend you’re on TV. Kick up your CLNC^® boots with some good country music and free dance lessons starting at 5:00pm most nights.
20. Take a walk around the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. You could spend a full day wandering around and still not see everything. Best of all, it’s all indoors. You can even cool your feet off in one of the many waterfalls (just don’t let me see you). There’s so much to do here you’ll have to set a reminder so that you don’t miss any one of our exciting NACLNC^® sessions!

As you set the stage for your Nashville excursions, remember to come prepared to keep up with the tempo for the 2010 NACLNC^® Conference.

• Come relaxed and ready to discover new ideas. The NACLNC^® Conference is much more fun when you’re rested, and you’ll learn so much more if you leave your stress behind.

• Pack energy bars, raw nuts and other healthy snacks to maintain your energy. That Jack Daniels buzz will wear off quickly.

• Bring plenty of business cards to exchange with the many new CLNC^® friends you’ll meet.

• Go online and print the NACLNC^® Conference textbook sessions you plan on attending after you receive the link in my March 10 email.

Have a great trip and be sure to read my blog on March 11, 2010 when I share how to Master Your Strategies for the 2010 NACLNC^® Conference.

Success Is Inside!

Every year we adopt a new business theme at Vickie Milazzo Institute. Some previous examples are “Let It Go” and “Move Like a Maverick.” All year long we have a lot of fun with the theme, but more important, we use the theme to challenge how we think and how we do business. The staff especially enjoys reminding me of the theme to persuade me of their position on issues. I think “Let it Go” was my staff’s all-time favorite and quickly became the catch-phrase any time something was a little bit off or I found a mistake or error. I was definitely ready to let that theme go!

This year’s theme is “Ditch Unnecessary Complexities.” Complexity in and of itself is not negative. In fact, because what we do at the Institute is complex, copycats cannot replicate the quality of what we offer to Certified Legal Nurse Consultants and CLNC^® students.

As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant when you write a report and analysis for a medical-malpractice case, you expect your report to have a level of complexity that cannot be replicated by a nurse who has not been trained as a CLNC^® consultant.

But in both your business and mine, this is a good year to eliminate unnecessary complexities that creep into our CLNC^® businesses and are accepted without question or thought.

At a recent Vickie Milazzo Institute staff brainstorm, I asked the staff to help identify unnecessary complexities with the focus on being more efficient, cutting costs and eliminating a process or procedure that is no longer needed. Together they identified 48 of them for 2010. Of course we triaged the most important ones to tackle first, but many required very little effort.

You can do this for your CLNC^® business by raising your consciousness and asking yourself the following questions:

1. “Am I doing something that I no longer need to be doing?”
2. “Why exactly are we doing it this way? Is it simply because that’s the way we’ve always done it?”
3. “Am I doing something that gives me little or no payoff?”
4. “Can I simplify this process?”
5. “Does technology exist to automate or simplify this process?”
6. “Is there not just an easier way, but a better and faster way to accomplish this goal?”

In 2010, let’s commit to focus on the core purpose of our CLNC^® businesses – i.e. servicing our clients and producing the best quality product by freeing ourselves from unnecessary complexities. The time we save can be used to improve other processes or, just to improve our lives outside of our legal nurse consulting businesses. Once you’ve completed this process for your CLNC^® business, consider trying it in your home – just don’t let your family in on “let it go!”

Success Is Inside!

One of the most common questions I get from CLNC^® consultants is not whether you should be running antivirus software, or even which antivirus software you should be running on your legal nurse consulting business’s computer(s). It’s whether or not you should be running just one antivirus software. After all, you’re nurses and you inherently know that if the recommended dosage is X, then certainly, taking 2X or perhaps 3X will work at least 2 or 3X better, right?

NOT WITH ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE! Yes Virginia, I was shouting. But that’s only so you’ll hear me. Antivirus software is one of those software programs in which quality trumps quantity. Antivirus programs don’t play well with others so only run one at a time on your computer. They’ll often identify each other (perhaps out of professional spite) as viruses or malware. If you discontinue one program, remove it (while offline) before installing the new one.

That being said, the next question I get is, “Which antivirus software is the best?” Like computer brands, everybody has a favorite antivirus software vendor. I’m a Symantec fan. I’ve used Symantec’s Norton ever since Norton was in short pants and I’ve had good luck with it. Others are fans of Kaspersky while still more like Panda or BitDefender and there’s a few who swear by McAfee. As far as I’m concerned, as long as you’re running a top-notch antivirus program, or even better, a suite (all-in-one product) from one of the three top-notch vendors (Symantec, Kaspersky or BitDefender) you should be in good shape.

I like antivirus suites that include phish-filters, spyware identification, malware blocking, etc. In this Tech Tip, I’ve linked only to the antivirus software but you can also trust the suites from these vendors if you choose. Some suites even include firewalls (and we all know you shouldn’t depend on your Windows^® firewall alone), if you need one. Whether you’re running Windows^® or a Mac, read carefully before you buy and remember the key, my CLNC^® amigos, is to keep the program’s definitions updated, make sure you scan your computer on a regular basis (at least twice a week – schedule it to run at night so it doesn’t interfere with your productivity) and make sure your antivirus software is simple to use without giving off too many false alarms.

Good antivirus software today can protect you from a variety of online and offline ills. Be sure you practice safe surfing.

Keep on techin’!

Tom

Read Part 1.

In Part 1 we discussed 6 Best Practices for subcontracting with Certified Legal Nurse Consultants to grow your CLNC^® business. Here are 9 more Best Practices.

1. Sign a formal contract with each subcontractor, and include a fair noncompetition clause. Use the recommended CLNC^® subcontractor contract from Vickie Milazzo Institute.

2. Have each CLNC^® subcontractor fill out a W-9 form at the time they sign their contract. Don’t pay their invoice until you receive a completed form. You can download a W-9 Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification form and instructions from IRS.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf.

3. Market to your attorney-clients that you have a network of CLNC^® subcontractors in a variety of specialties to encourage them to send you more cases.

4. Communicate your expectations, deadlines and budget for the assignment clearly. Every attorney-client is different and there’s more than one right way to design the report. Clear communication helps to ensure that the CLNC^® subcontractor provides work product that meets your attorney-client’s needs.

Dale Barnes, RN, MSN, CLNC says,

“A mistake I made in the beginning was not giving the subcontractors a deadline. I found that by leaving the deadline to them, it was often last minute, and I got nervous about getting the report to the attorney in a timely manner. Now, I always give a reasonable deadline, allowing a bit more time than the CLNC^® subcontractor may need so that it can be done expediently.

I have also learned the importance of giving the subcontractor parameters and limits for hours allowed per case. It is the same as checking with an attorney before doing too much or too little. If you do not provide a budget, you could end up paying more than is necessary for details that are not needed quite yet.”

Nikki J. Chuml, RNC, FMC, PRN, CLNC says,

“I make sure my CLNC^® subcontractor knows the deadline and I have them check in along the way. I like to see the first page of their report. I just want to make sure they are on the right track. Once I approve the first page, they continue with the case.

About halfway through the case, I have them check in again to make sure it remains what I want. If all is okay, then they complete the work. If something is not meeting my expectations, I discuss it with them before they finish the entire report. I want to save them time also. I am confident that as long as we continue to communicate with each other, the report will be what I want for my attorney-client.

When the finished product is sent to me, I review it, make any necessary changes and send them the completed one so that they can see what I like and expect for the next time. I don’t believe in wasting their time or mine, so I like to be with them throughout the process.

One thing I always make sure of is that my CLNC^® subcontractors get paid on time. I like to keep them happy so they will work again.”

Don’t cut your deadlines too close. Get your work from the CLNC^® subcontractor as far in advance of the due date as possible to allow you to assess their work product.

5. Put each new subcontractor to the test. Start with small tasks and advance to more complex projects.

6. Be sure to review the work prepared for your clients by your subcontractors (especially beginners) before submitting it. Always allow time to carefully check and edit your subcontractors’ work. Share your changes so the subcontractor can learn to model your best practices.

7. Pay your CLNC^® subcontractors 50% of your billing rate. The attorney will be invoiced at your hourly rate. It is not necessary to indicate to the attorney the number of hours you worked vs. the hours your CLNC^® subcontractor worked. Pay within 30 days of invoice date to encourage loyalty and enthusiasm for future projects.

8. Treat each CLNC^® subcontractor as an individual. Focus on and use their strengths to supplement your own strengths. One CLNC^® consultant may write great personal injury chronologies, but is not as strong at analyzing medical malpractice cases. Likewise, the CLNC^® subcontractor who is masterful at analyzing malpractice cases may be easily bored by writing personal injury summaries.

9. Acknowledge and thank your CLNC^® subcontractors. Don’t take your CLNC^® subcontractors for granted.
   
   As Larry Frace, RN, CLNC says,

“Keep in constant touch with all of your CLNC^® subcontractors by teleconferencing, emailing and at the next NACLNC^® Conference.”

Follow these Best Practices and you will master the art of sensational subcontracting to achieve sensational results for your CLNC^® business.

Success Is Inside!

Read Part 2.

The quickest way to grow your legal nurse consulting business is to expand with CLNC^® subcontractors. Check out these Best Practices and how the CLNC^® Pros are using them to expand their CLNC^® business in sensational ways.

1. Hire only Certified Legal Nurse Consultant subcontractors. This will save you time and heartache in the long run. Through the National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants, you’ll find plenty of qualified CLNC^® consultants who can help you manage your cases. Working only with other CLNC^® consultants is the key to sensational subcontracting and the strongest method for building your CLNC^® business.

Suzanne E. Arragg, RN, BSN, CDONA/LTC, CLNC says,

“I am a firm believer in using only CLNC^® subcontractors. In the beginning, I tried using non-Certified Legal Nurse Consultants because I thought, ‘Gee, she is a good nurse… she knows what she’s doing.’ But the reality was, I ended up reviewing the chart and writing the report all over again because it just wasn’t a product that met my standards or those of my attorney-client. Needless to say, this was exhausting, double the work, and just wasn’t worth my time, energy or money!”

Dale Barnes, RN, MSN, PHN, CLNC shares,

“Many years ago, as a new CLNC^® consultant, I learned my first lesson about subcontracting. I knew so many RNs and thought I could use them as subcontractors. I found a couple of really good nurses who wanted to learn from working with me. Though I showed them reports I had written and clearly explained what I needed from them for the work product, they still lacked the CLNC^® training I had received as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant from Vickie Milazzo Institute.

These RNs wrote their reports and gave them back to me. To my great disappointment, I found that I had to rewrite most of what they gave me. These were not billable hours. Due to their lack of formal training, they were not capable of producing the same level of work product. I wasted a lot of time and energy, and have only used Certified Legal Nurse Consultants since that time.”

Lawrence H. Frace, RN, CLNC recommends,

“Only use Certified Legal Nurse Consultants. I repeat… only use Certified Legal Nurse Consultants. I decided that since I was going to use subcontractors and had the agreement ready to go, why not start with nine CLNC^® subcontractors and cover the nine major areas of nursing. I chose CLNC^® consultants who had experience in long term care, emergency room, medical/surgical, neonatal, obstetrics, operation room, pediatrics, critical care, outpatient care and mental health. I had always feared that an attorney might offer me a case in which I lacked nursing experience. Now with nine hand-picked CLNC^® subcontractors in place, I feel confident that I can accept any case offered. No more fear for Larry, thanks to my CLNC^® subcontractors.

I had networked at prior NACLNC^® Conferences and from that networking, already had most of the names I needed to get started. I also accessed the listing of CLNC^® consultants from the National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants. The reason that I stress using only Certified Legal Nurse Consultants as subcontractors is because it’s smart to bring a team together who are all singing off the same page from the get go. We were all trained by the best – Vickie Milazzo Institute – why settle for anything less?”

2. Build your CLNC^® subcontractor network in advance of needing each one. This allows you to respond timely to the attorneys’ deadlines on cases outside of your specialty. The best way to find subcontractors is by networking at the National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (NACLNC^®) Annual Conference and with the NACLNC^® members on our password-protected website. The online directory is an exclusive benefit for CLNC^® consultants only.

Nikki J. Chuml, RNC, FMC, PRN, CLNC explains,

“I subcontract my cases only to other Certified Legal Nurse Consultants. I like to search from the cards that I receive at the NACLNC^® Conferences or look in the NACLNC^® Directory for someone who meets the criteria.”

3. Don’t become dependent on just one or two subcontractors. Continue to expand your CLNC^® subcontractor network. This frees you to meet tight deadlines or to let go of someone who is not the right match for you.
4. Hire CLNC^® subcontractors who live outside your geographical area. This will help to avoid any competitive attitude between you and your CLNC^® subcontractors. Avoid networking with local groups who may mean well, but are more interested in competing with you than helping you.
5. Look for a CLNC^® subcontractor who has three to five years of experience in the nursing specialty of the case and who is still connected to the healthcare system. This assures you’re subcontracting with a true expert on the issues.

Nikki J. Chuml says,

“I will contact the CLNC^® consultant and do a phone interview. Once I like how the telephone interview goes, then I will tell them a little about the case and see if their experience fits the case. After the agreement has been made, I will send the CLNC^® subcontractor an agreement to sign.”

6. Require all subcontractors to provide a resume and to produce some sample work product before you hire them. Assess the samples to be sure all work product is consistent and represents the same level of quality you provide to your attorney-clients.

Success Is Inside!

I frequently mentor Certified Legal Nurse Consultants who are challenged by the demands that go with their having created successful CLNC^® businesses with lots of cases and lots of attorney-clients.

Many CLNC^® consultants try to do everything themselves because they feel no one can provide the CLNC^® services to their attorney-clients the way they do. That’s what I thought when I first started my legal nurse consulting business and, it’s true. However, I quickly learned that if I hire the right CLNC^® subcontractor, that person might do some things better. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the many CLNC^® consultants who bring their unique expertise to my legal nurse consulting business.

From the beginning, you want to build a network of CLNC^® subcontractors who will help you offer a wider range of expertise to your attorney-clients. This is the smart way to increase your client list, your caseload and your CLNC^® business revenue.

Subcontracting ensures that as you take on more cases in different specialties, and add more attorney-clients, that you will continue to bring accurate and cost-effective opinions to the table. As you continue to promote your business more aggressively, you will still have time for yourself, which is why you got into business for yourself in the first place.

According to the LA Daily Journal, “On average, a nurse working at a hospital makes $40,000 annually, according to the American Nursing Association, while legal nurse consultants can make $200,000 a year or more if they consult full time….$400,000 a year for an established legal nurse consulting firm is not unheard of.”

There is only one way you can possibly earn $400,000 a year for your legal nurse consulting business: by leveraging time through other CLNC^® consultants.

Leveraging is the principle of using other people’s time, energy, talents, money, knowledge and effort to achieve your desired goals faster than you could on your own. Time and brain power are your two major assets. You can’t control time and can only work so many hours a day no matter how energetic you are. You have to leverage time with CLNC^® subcontractors.

Billionaire oil tycoon J. Paul Getty once said, “I would rather earn one percent of 100 people’s efforts than 100 percent of my own.” That’s leveraging in a nutshell. Subcontracting is a way of leveraging your time, knowledge and efforts.

Larry Frace, RN, CLNC shared this with me about subcontracting.

“I cannot believe that I have been a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant for nine years and it took me eight of those years before I started using Certified Legal Nurse Consultant subcontractors. I must be a slow learner because I vividly remember Vickie saying in the CLNC^® Certification Program nine long years ago, that we all should consider utilizing CLNC^® subcontractors in our business. All I can say at this point is better late than never. I wanted to take my CLNC^® business to the next level and wanted to create my dream team by using CLNC^® subcontractors. Looking back now it was really quite simple to do.

I wanted my utilization of subcontractors to be something special and different. I wanted a dream team. Enter my PEA-POD Concept – I wanted all my CLNC^® subcontractors to feel that they were a part of a team, like Peas in a Pod. The POD would be my company acting as the Point Of Distribution of cases that I would obtain from marketing to attorneys; however, now my marketing focus would be showcasing the combined experience of ten CLNC^® consultants with well over 240 years of nursing experience!

My marketing package turned into a 25-page portfolio that I now send out along with Ghirardelli chocolates, educating attorneys how they will obtain ‘Sweet Results’ if they choose to use my company’s ‘Dream Team!’ I keep in contact with my CLNC^® subcontractors by group teleconferencing once a month and emailing them weekly at first and now as needed. You guessed it…the title of my emailing is PEA-POD PONDERINGS. What makes this concept dear to me however are the PEAS and how we connect with each other.

Professional and passionate CLNC^® consultants

Encouraging each other to take,

Action steps each day to achieve,

Success with spectacular results!

Avoid your fear of subcontracting. Get rid of your own stinking thinking! As I stated above, utilizing CLNC^® subcontractors is a simple way to expand your business by taking it to the next level. Once you decide to use CLNC^® subcontractors, plant that idea firmly in your mind and take action in order to cultivate your decision to grow your own PEA POD!”

This is the smart way to expand your CLNC^® business. Start building your network of CLNC^® subcontractors today.

Success Is Inside!