January 2012

According to Bloomberg Business, the top selling iPad2^® app over the Christmas holidays wasn’t Angry Birds, it was an app named Quickoffice. What’s Quickoffice have to do with Certified Legal Nurse Consultants? Easy – with more and more of my CLNC^® amigos turning to the iPad as an auxiliary device, you need a way to view and edit your Microsoft^® Office documents and Quickoffice provides it.

Using Quickoffice, CLNC^® consultants and their attorney-clients can open and edit documents from Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It also has the ability to store, access and share documents in the “cloud” with a functioning tie to Dropbox^®. At $19.99 it’s not a cheap app, but then your business isn’t cheap and neither is the cost of missing a deadline because you couldn’t get back to your computer to correct a document.

When I get my iPad3^® this spring (hint, hint), Quickoffice will be one of the first apps I install and I recommend you do the same. It’s also available for phones but who really wants to edit documents on a phone? I sure don’t and I’ll bet you don’t either.

Keep on Techin’,

Tom

We are deep into the information age. In fact, there’s so much information coming at us from so many different directions that “information anxiety” should probably be a DSM-V diagnosis. Too much information (TMI) is our reality, and while there’s a distinct difference between quantity and quality, it’s easy to get sucked into the low quality noise. Do we really want to reduce our lives to the details of Ashton Kutcher’s sex life, Alec Baldwin’s musing about flight attendants or a constant stream of updates from “friends” we haven’t seen since high school?

Recently I was involved in three different mentoring situations with three legal nurse consultants. The first one forgot and missed our phone appointment. The second failed to complete the simple advance assignment I’d given her, despite the fact that she has more than enough free time on her hands – I know because I get her constant Facebook updates. The third is raising four sons, holding down a full-time nursing job and still made time to complete the assignments on schedule and attend an additional mentoring session for an upcoming interview with a potential attorney-client. Which Certified Legal Nurse Consultant do you think will be most successful?

In these busy times fraught with TMI what will you do to cut out the noise? Make a wise decision – your CLNC^® business depends on it. Now that’s a bit of information that really merits your attention.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share what you will do to cut out the noise.

I choose not to engage in stinking thinking. Thoughts like “I can’t do this…I can’t do that…I wish I could but I can’t” never enter my mind nor do I say them. Positive thoughts and spoken words attract positive happenings in my life and in my CLNC^® business, while negative thoughts and spoken words attract negative happenings in your life. I also choose not to listen to dream squashers – you know who they are – individuals who tell you that your ideas or goals are no good and that you are not going to succeed. “Dream squashers be gone” is my motto and it has served me well in my legal nurse consulting business.

I choose not to use nurses who are not CLNC^® consultants as subcontractors. A group that sings from the same page (same training) is strong and harmonious. As Certified Legal Nurse Consultants we were trained by the best (Vickie) so why look elsewhere for CLNC^® subcontractors?

I choose not to get in a rut in my CLNC^® business as I try new things along the way. Perhaps a new way of marketing my CLNC^® business is in order or overdue. Perhaps locating expert witnesses as part of my CLNC^® services to attorney-clients or revamping my newsletter makes sense at this time. Whatever it is, not becoming stagnant is important to me and my business. Other business owners might not look at things differently or take the time to step back and reflect on where they want to take their businesses, but not me. Even if you have setbacks along the way remember, Thomas Edison tried 10,000 ways to make his light bulb light before he hit the jackpot. When he was asked how it felt to fail 10,000 times, Edison replied that he did not fail 10,000 times, but rather found 10,000 ways in which his light bulb would not light. My vote is for the Edison way of looking at things. How do you go about looking at things in your life and in your CLNC^® business?

Guest Blogger Profile

Lawrence H. Frace, RN, CLNC is an independent CLNC^® consultant with more than 30 years of nursing experience. He is the founder of Spectrum Medical-Legal Consulting in central New Jersey and specializes in medical malpractice cases.
 

As Certified Legal Nurse Consultants travel the information superhighway researching cases, you’ll run across many billboards, banners and advertisements. What you don’t see are the insidious ways that your movements are tracked by various parties, honest and nefarious. Flash cookies and browser cookies are one thing, but there’s another “invisible web” made up of tracking beacons, web bugs and rogue pixels hidden in web pages by website publishers, advertising networks and behavioral data providers that track your activities. Is there anything wrong with being tracked? Not really – after all, if you’re honest you have nothing to hide – but do you really want those tracking bugs slowing down your browsing experience? Time is money to legal nurse consultants and seconds add up over a busy work-week.

A free add-on for just about every web browser called Ghostery provides you with information about who is tracking you on any website and gives you the option to block or allow that tracker.

I’ve found it handy and I use it to block trackers at almost every website I visit. A caveat, my CLNC^® amigos, is that some websites will need components of the blocked functions to display properly. Luckily Ghostery makes it easy to allow or block. It displays a simple “ghost” in the top right of your browser showing associated trackers for each webpage you visit. They’re all blocked by default, but you can click each one to learn more about them, what they do and whether to allow or keep blocking. Some you must allow to make a particular website work for you. Here’s a screen shot:

You can read more about Ghostery and the “invisible web” at the Ghostery website.

I heartily recommend it to all tech-savvy Certified Legal Nurse Consultants.

Keep on Techin’,

Tom

Ownership is a funny thing. We all like to own things: a house, a car, an iPad2^®, a legal nurse consulting business or simply a garden. Then we learn that there’s some responsibility that comes with that ownership. Stand up and look out the window. You probably don’t have to look far down your street to notice that some people are better homeowners than others.

There are some things we’ll probably never own (like that private jet I want) but one thing we all own equally is time. That’s right, we all get the same 24 hours every day and the only difference between us is how we regard our time and what we do with it. Time is one of our greatest possessions.

And just as I care about my home, I care about my time and, more importantly, care for my time. How about you? Maybe it’s time to step back and objectively observe yourself for a day or even a week. Are you a good steward of your time or do you squander it away?

For the record, I love to play as much as I love to work. I started a business to have a life, not to give up my life, and fortunately my New Orleans upbringing helps me to remember to do just that – to play on a regular basis.

Whether it’s work or play, it’s your time and what you do with it is your choice. I’m just sayin’…

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share the good and bad things you do with your time.

Vickie,

I am an independent Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, but for one attorney-client, I work in-house one day a week. I no longer want to work in-house, as I prefer to focus on the attorney-clients that hire me as an independent consulting expert. I am very successful and do not need this job but I don’t know how to tell the attorney without burning a bridge or damaging what’s been a great relationship. What should I do?

Liz, RN, CLNC

Hi Liz,

Congratulations on making a decision that will ultimately strengthen your CLNC^® business. Start by telling the attorney you are expanding your legal nurse consulting business and can no longer work in-house for him. Emphasize that you value your business relationship and will always be available to him as an independent Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Next, give examples of how well this works with your other attorney-clients. Finally, emphasize the speed of electronic communication and your availability for personal meetings. Since you are already successful as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, you have very little to lose and the attorney-client has everything to gain. Go for it!

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share your tips for saying no to attorney-clients.

A few Tuesday Tech Tips back I mentioned that I routinely disable the touch pad on my laptop. Since then Certified Legal Nurse Consultants have been clamoring to know not just why?, but also how?

Let’s start with the first question first. The why – because I don’t like touch pads. Sorry CLNC^® consultant Apple^® users, I know touch pads are useful, but on my Windows^® machine I’ll be typing away in the middle of a Tech Tip, unknowingly drop my wrist or thumbs (much to the consternation of Mrs. Giles my piano teacher, may she rest in peace) which then come into contact with the touch pad causing my cursor to jump to some other point on the page, all while I keep typing merrily away, in the wrong sentence or paragraph. Believe it or not, I find that frustrating.

To avoid the hated touch pads, I carry a laser mouse (along with my charger and other accessories) in my Codi Mobile-Max rolling computer case. But when I’m working in airplane mode (me, not the laptop) there’s no room on my tray table for a mouse so I’m reduced to using the pointing stick in the center of my keyboard (instead of the touch pad). By disabling the touch pad I eliminate the frustration of messing up my perfectly-composed pages and retyping my perfectly-written prose. I don’t disable the buttons by the touch pad so I can still use them to make left-click/right-click selections; I just disable the touch pad itself. The pointing stick also functions as a left mouse button depending upon the pressure you put on it so tread, or point, lightly.

Now that the first question is answered, let’s work on the second – the how. As with every different computer model, the actual steps may differ; so, my CLNC^® amigos, I’ll talk in generalities (this works in both Windows^® XP and 7) and hope to lead you to what you’ll need by example. I recommend you only attempt this exercise if you have a mouse plugged into your legal nurse consulting computer in case you mess things up – that way you’ll have a workable way to move your cursor when things go south.

Before plugging in your mouse and making sure it works, confirm you indeed have a pointing stick on your laptop’s keyboard. That’s the little thing that looks like a dirty pencil eraser somewhere in the middle of your keyboard – usually between the “G” and “H” keys for some reason. If you have one, make sure it works by using that pointing stick to mouse over to, and open Start (Pearl button in Win 7), Settings then Control Panel. Once you’ve got the Control Panel open, look for a selection named Mouse and double-click on that. That should open up a box labeled Mouse Properties or something similar. Inside that box look for Device or Device Select, and then Touch Pad and make sure the radio button labeled Disable Device is selected. You can also select Disable Touch Pad/Stick when USB pointing device is present (that will only disable it when a mouse is plugged into the laptop). Then click Apply or OK and before closing out the various windows try the touch pad to make sure it no longer functions. Try the pointing stick to make sure it does function and then unplug the mouse to make sure everything keeps working (pointing stick) and not working (touch pad). If everything is set the way you want it, close out those windows and you’re good to go!

Now not one Certified Legal Nurse Consultant will ever suffer from misplaced cursor while typing again!

Keep on Techin’,

Tom

It’s a new year and I am reminded of a line from Sex and the City: “You don’t want to peak in high school.” Life and career are so much more interesting and satisfying when you constantly strive for your next peak. While most of your friends, family and coworkers have moved far past high school, you probably know someone who is still living, or constantly reliving, a “glory day” of scoring a winning point in a sports event, nailing a promotion or getting the biggest law firm in the city as a client for her CLNC^® business.

I’ve hit a few personal and professional peaks of my own: appearing on National Public Radio, Fox & Friends, becoming a New York Times bestselling author and staying happily married for 21 years. But I don’t want to be buried with any of those peaks as my crowning lifetime achievement. Why? Because I don’t want to peak – ever!

Some days we peak higher than others, and that can be okay. For example, I recently hiked in the Rincon mountains outside of Tucson, Arizona. It was a beautiful fall morning and our trail steadily climbed up and down until we reached the top of one mountain where we had a wonderful picnic lunch. There were higher and lower peaks around us, but the peak where we had lunch was a sunny, warm spot with a view of the Mission San Xavier del Bac in the distance as a bonus. That peak was perfect for that day, even though I’ve hiked more challenging trails.

People who never stop peaking are happier because they have something to look forward to besides the distant memory of past peaks, or even worse, high school.

Let’s all keep peaking in 2012! Happy New Year!

Success Is Inside!

2012 is upon us, yet for many over-extended nurses it feels like just another mile marker in an endurance race going nowhere. Depressing, but true. We trudge through the week at a dreary job, drive home fretting about money and spend our evenings robot-walking through the usual haze of homework battles and half-finished chores. Passion and fulfillment? Nope, just sheer survival. And the worst part is, most nurses accept that this is just how it is.

Buck up! You can do a lot more than barely get by – and 2012 can be the year you actually start enjoying your work and life again.

I’m not talking about forgotten New Year’s resolutions. I’m talking about truly changing the way you think about things, breaking old habits and tapping into your determination. I’m talking about taking responsibility for your own happiness. I see this all the time in your tweets, posts and status updates in social media – the desire to have someone or something sweep in and change your life. Don’t you think if someone was going to sweep in and rescue you, it would already have happened?

I’ve earned the right to be a tough talker. I know many of you think it’s been easy for me, but I started a business in 1982 when registered nurses did not own businesses. It is possible to create a life that excites and energizes you. But first you have to make a conscious choice to step out of your old, unfulfilling one (which is exactly what I did when I left my dead-end hospital job in 1982 to start my legal nurse consulting business). The choice to step out of an old, unfulfilling life is a choice you must make over and over again – if you don’t, your old patterns will suck you back in.

There’s no reason why 2012 can’t be your biggest, boldest, most wickedly successful year yet. But for that to happen you have to match your big goals with some real changes. You have to take on a wickedly successful mindset that doesn’t take “no” or “I can’t” or “I’m too tired” for an answer.

2012 is your opportunity to do it right. If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to buck up and embrace the challenge.

Success Is Inside!

The Internet is an indispensable tool for Certified Legal Nurse Consultants researching their legal nurse consulting work product. Web browsers are getting better and faster than ever. No matter which browser I’m using, I like to use tabbed browsing and am always opening links in a new tab. This practice keeps me from losing my search results by following links too far forward and not being able to get back to my original search results.

One of the issues I run into (and I’m sure my CLNC^® amigos do also) is reflexively closing the browser instead of the particular tab you mean to close. Fess up, I’ve never met a nurse who hasn’t made a med error and I’ll bet I’ve never met a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant who hasn’t accidentally closed out an entire hour’s worth of research by closing the browser instead of the tab. Well curse no more my CLNC^® amigos. Here’s a way to rescue your work – if you’re willing to put up with a little inconvenience.

Firefox users have the best options, so I’ll start with you. Open Firefox, click Tools, then Options. Now click Tabs, make sure the radio button next to Warn me when closing multiple tabs is selected and then click OK to close the options. Now when you accidentally attempt to close your browser instead of the tab you’ll get the pop-up warning You are about to close X tabs. Are you sure you want to continue? You’ll also get the option to continue closing the tabs or stop and save your work. Woo-hoo!

Your second option is to do the Tools, Options thing again and this time click General. Then select the dropdown box next to When Firefox starts and select Show my windows and tabs from last time. Now when you close Firefox (accidentally or not) the next time it starts you’ll recover all the tabs and windows that you were viewing. If you select the box next to Don’t load tabs until selected, it won’t preload the tabs so your browser will open just as quickly as before and you can recover or close the tabs you don’t want. One drawback is that this option will eliminate your customized home page(s), but hey – your work’s more important right?

Chrome users don’t have the same range of options. You can simply click the little wrench in the top right hand corner of your Chrome browser, then Options, then Basics (if it’s not selected) and select the radio button next to Reopen the pages that were open last. Now, when you accidentally close your browser you simply need to reopen it to open all those tabs you had painstakingly researched and opened. The inconvenience here is that you’ll lose your customized home page and, if you constantly keep a large number of tabs open, it may slow your browser’s load time. You decide what’s more important to you.

For the last two Internet Explorer^® 8 users out there, your options are limited to simply being warned before you close multiple tabs. Click Tools, Internet Options, General, then on the Settings button in the Tabs section next to Change how webpages are displayed in tabs; make sure the radio box next to Warn me when closing multiple tabs is selected, then OK your way out. Now when you accidentally try to close out you’ll get the warning Do you want to close all tabs or the current tab? and you can choose.

Finally, Safari^® for Windows^® users also have that same option to receive a warning before closing multiple tabs. Click the gear in the top right corner of Safari. Then Click Preference and Tabs. Then select the radio button beside Confirm before closing multiple tabs or windows. Do that and you’ll get a warning telling you how many tabs you have open and the option to close Safari or not.

Now there’s no reason to accidentally close a browsing session again.

Keep on techin’,

Tom