May 2010

Hi Vickie, I just had to tell you the great news. I just finished my taxes and I am happy, no make that thrilled, no make that “over the moon with joy” to tell you that I earned more than $100,000.00. I went ahead and incorporated and named my CLNC^® business when the work started coming in faster than I could keep up. I just keep working hard trying to keep up with all of the work and make sure that I still put out top-quality work product. I was so happy when one of my attorney-clients forwarded my information to another law firm. I did a case for them and they were so happy with the “excellent CLNC^® work product” that I provided that they immediately forwarded another case to me.

I have been keeping so busy and I absolutely love being able to work for myself. I still have the law firm that I first started working for, and I had originally worked for the pharmaceutical attorneys, but from there I have also gotten cases from the medical-malpractice attorneys, nursing home negligence and more. I am keeping so busy that I am going to have to start hiring CLNC^® subcontractors. Luckily I met this incredible nurse and I convinced her to go through your CLNC^® Certification Program, which she just recently completed. Now that she is a CLNC^® consultant, I am ready to ask her to subcontract with me on my huge case load.

I now have cases going to trial. I am working with three attorney-clients that are in the first round of trials and two attorney-clients in the second group of trials. These cases all need detailed chronological summaries – something that I have been providing to these law firms for deposition preps.

Anyway, I just thought I would let you know how happy I am that I became a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. I love the way that I can combine my love and knowledge of nursing with my love of law. Thank you, Vickie, a hundred times over for helping me become a successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. You rock!

I hope my positive experiences will help other Certified Legal Nurse Consultants go for that BIG success. I feel honored to share my CLNC^® successes.

Most Certified Legal Nurse Consultants consult with attorneys behind the scenes and never testify on a single case. Despite the fact that you can build a very successful CLNC^® business without serving as an expert witness, I always encourage CLNC^® students to be open to this amazing and challenging experience.

I wanted to share how three Certified Legal Nurse Consultants regard testifying. These three experiences literally took their breath away.

I remember how scared I was to take on being a testifying expert when I became a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. I knew that I could support my opinion, but was I ready? Having been an obstetrical nurse for over 15 years, I was sure that I was an expert. I just had to do it. I met with my attorney-client the day before I was to testify and we went over what to expect. This was my first deposition and he knew it. I asked him questions until I felt like I was ready.

The next day I arrived ready, but nervous, for my deposition. The deposition was over three hours long. I felt very confident and kept saying in my head, ‘I know so much more than the attorney does about fetal monitoring strips.’ When the deposition ended my attorney-client looked at me and said, “Wow! That was great. I don’t know how you prepared for this but you did a great job!” It was at that moment that I knew my training from Vickie and her Institute had really paid off. I truly believed I could do anything. I had given my first deposition and now I had the fever! Bring on the next one!

– Dorene Goldstein, RNC, CLNC

I was defending a nursing home as an expert witness. The plaintiff attorney had been a nurse. The expert witness for her case was also a nurse with impressive credentials. What she lacked that I possessed, however, was real, on-the-job experience working as a nurse in nursing homes. I was able to demonstrate actual knowledge of nursing responsibilities, documentation and experience with the nursing home medical record. I was able to prove to the plaintiff attorney that the allegations were not substantiated by the medical record. She was clearly frustrated and embarrassed during the deposition. The case settled.

I cannot express in words how exhilarating it is when you experience these breathless moments. They make me realize what a great profession legal nursing consulting is. As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant I have chosen to make a difference in this world.

– Sandra Higelin, RN, MSN, CS, CWCN, CLNC

For three Administrative Law Judge Medicare hearings, the testifying physician was called away unexpectedly. The attorney elected to go ahead with the hearings without the testifying physician, provided that the Administrative Law Judge in question was willing to allow it, which, under the circumstances, he did. The RN testifying expert was unable to attend and the substitute nurse froze. So, I stepped up and agreed to be sworn in to testify. It was a matter of putting surgical procedures and the ramifications for the particular patient into layman’s terms for the judge to understand. Since this is done telephonically, there were no visual aids. My testimony helped us win all three cases!

– Camy Joyner, RN, CCM, CLNC

I’m excited to have Dorene, Sandra and Camy share their expert testifying experiences with nurses everywhere. It is clear they love what they do as Certified Legal Nurse Consultants. “We Are Nurses and We Can Do
Anything!^®”

Success Is Inside!

Holy sockpuppets, it turns out you can! I know that more than a few Certified Legal Nurse Consultants have thrown themselves on Amazon.com’s Kindle^® bandwagon. Others are waiting to see what other ereaders come on the market (like Apple’s iPad^®). Amazon has struck first by making Kindle-reading apps for certain BlackBerry^®s, the iPhone^®, iPad^®, any Windows^®-based PC and even Macs^®!

You can read “kindlized” books like Vickie’s Inside Every Woman: Using the 10 Strengths You Didn’t Know You Had to Get the Career and Life You Want Now and shop for other Wall Street Journal bestsellers directly from your laptop, desktop or phone. You don’t even need a Kindle to do it. If you do own a Kindle, you can use it to access your books, newspaper and blog subscriptions (like Vickie’s Legal Nurse Consulting Blog). Amazon even created software that will sync between your Kindle and other device to keep your “last page read” and annotations up to date.

So, Amazon made the first move out the box and it looks like it’s a good one to keep their market in the face of strong competition.

Keep on Techin’,

Tom