Articles by Guest_Blogger

I was asked to be the speaker at the February meeting for the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys. I arrived early to get prepared. Several people were late due to the weather. Only 10 attorneys braved the cold, rainy, snowy night to attend.

I began my presentation with information about legal nurse consulting, the CLNC^® services I provide and my nursing expertise. After my presentation, they all took my contact information and brochure. Then, they spent a lot of time talking about their cases.

The next day I got a call from one of the attorneys who had attended. He was looking for a wound care specialist. The day after that I got a call from another attorney for a case review. The phone has not stopped ringing since that night and the referrals from these attorneys have also been great.

What I want Certified Legal Nurse Consultants to know is that no matter how small the crowd, it will pay off!

Guest Blogger Profile:

Mildred Mannion, RN, BSN, CNOR, CLNC is the owner of M3 Legal Nurse Consulting, Inc. in Massachusetts. She has 22 years of nursing experience and currently works in the operating room of a large teaching hospital.

As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, I focus on helping hospitals reduce Medicare denials and win more Medicare Part A appeals. My photo and short bio on my websites generate four to five calls from hospital attorneys each month.

Hospitals want to be paid and I’ve learned that the first level of preventing Medicare denials is the assessment of the patient and the physician’s documentation of medical necessity. It’s usually the lack of this information that triggers a Medicare denial of payment.

The first rule to get the physicians to buy into what you are trying to teach them is to feed them. So, I contact the hospital administrators in question and explain that I have a plan that will help them reduce Medicare denials and change their doctors’ bad documentation habits. If lunch is not within the facility’s budget, then I work with ancillary vendors who might want to participate and provide lunch.

I use exhibit posters and flip charts to present during lunch (provided by the hospital). I also use a dry-marker board and include actual excerpts from Medicare’s denial documents. The exhibits show what was missing and how to correct it. My program includes hand-outs with the information from the posters, dry board and flip charts.

This educational approach usually works and I receive calls from physicians with questions for some time after each event. The marketing benefit is that people from different hospitals talk to one another, which often generates calls from other facilities wanting presentations and I get more clients.

My marketing strategies include:

• Bulletin board teasers with movie ad-like messages: “For Doctors: Coming soon to your hospital…” posted a couple weeks before the presentation.
• Hand-outs placed in facility mail boxes at least two weeks ahead of time.
• Posters on stands just inside the entrance to the presentation room at least 30 minutes before start time.
• Enlargements focused only on the most important pieces of Medicare rules on the subject that affects physicians.

One of the most rewarding experiences occurred while I was auditing a telephone conference regarding Medicare appeals with corporate attorneys for two of my hospital-clients. One hospital administrator on the call wondered why two facilities seemed to be doing much better than the others in overturning denials. The attorney explained, “That’s because they have a Camy,” as though I were a product brand name.

Another time a different hospital-client armed with the education and hand-outs I provided, was able to make enough immediate and lasting changes that they, effectively, stopped their denials cold. Most hospitals make changes slowly and with a lot of kicking and screaming. This hospital’s collective, firm resolve made the changes using the education they paid me to give them – and won big!

Medicare is my specialty and marketing, as I learned from Vickie Milazzo, is what sells my CLNC^® services.

Guest Blogger Profile

Camy Joyner, RN, BSN, CCM, CLNC, CEO and co-owner of C. Joyner and Associates, LLC. Consults/manages Medicare Part A appeals for acute general rehabilitation hospitals. Consults for records review/audit for physician medical pertinence. Also consults in non-Medicare negligence cases.

While I was pursuing my nursing degree in the late 90s, I was also working on my Spanish degree. Being from North Dakota where few people speak Spanish, Hispanic friends and colleagues often ask me how in the world I learned Spanish. I tell them I just fell in love with the language when I started taking Spanish in the 7th grade. I received my Spanish degree in 1998 and have been speaking Spanish since then.

I remembered what Vickie taught me in the CLNC^® Certification Program about using my unique selling position (USP). So, I started including the phrase, “I also have a degree in Spanish” in emails to attorney-prospects and paralegals. In one email to an attorney-prospect, I briefly told her about the services I offer as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant and mentioned that I have a Spanish degree. A couple of weeks later, I received an email from a paralegal at that law firm asking if I could attend an independent medical examination (IME) for his Spanish speaking client. Two months later, I received a voicemail from another paralegal at the same law firm requesting my services at an IME for a different Hispanic client and a different attorney.

Each CLNC^® consultant brings something unique to the table. Like Vickie says, we are in the business of marketing. After attending both IMEs, I realized that I always need to market my USP of speaking Spanish. Marketing your USP will save a lot of time and energy. I kick myself now for not using my USP the first day I began marketing to attorneys.

Maybe your USP is speaking another language. Maybe it’s the fact that you have 25 years of nursing experience and you’ve worked in every area of the hospital. Maybe your nursing specialty is forensics. Whatever it is, every Certified Legal Nurse Consultant has a USP. The question is, are you marketing your USP to attorneys?

Guest Blogger Profile

Brian Brandser, RN, BSN, CCRN, CLNC assists attorneys with personal injury and medical malpractice cases. Brian also serves as clinical coordinator in a critical care unit at a Washington state hospital. Brian has a Spanish degree and lives with his wife and two boys.

After I became a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, I worked for a corporation doing internal auditing. After two years, a CLNC^® friend told me about an opportunity to have an exclusive Certified Legal Nurse Consultant contract with an attorney. At first I wasn’t sure I wanted an exclusive contract with any attorney because I did not know if he would have enough work for me. I was wrong. I ended up signing a contract with this attorney-client for $150,000 annually for 40 hours a week. This year I will make about $175,000.

Technology has been a big plus for my CLNC^® business. My husband retired and we moved to Tennessee. My attorney-client lives in California. Technology allows me to work full time at home out of an office that used to be part of our barn as I watch over llamas grazing outside. My attorney-client, who has a protected server that allows her to download documents, copies everything to a disk. One of the best things I’ve adopted from one of Tom’s Tech Tips was dual monitors. I review the files from my attorney-client on one screen while I write my report using the second screen. I also take my work on the road when I travel. My husband races cars so I can just pack up my bag with my laptop and go with him. It’s great because my legal nurse consulting business is completely portable.

The benefits of being a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant are endless. I work out every morning, have coffee with friends, then I go to work. The more I work, the more money I make. I can work 50 hours one week and take a day off the next whenever I choose. In my prior job, I only slept in my own bed about eight nights a month because I had to travel so much. Now as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, I enjoy staying at home.

When I worked at a full-time job, I could count my friends on one hand. Now, I am more involved in my community and I’m active in the charities that are important to me.

I was going to semi-retire, do a little CLNC^® work but not really do much. However, I have stayed busy and have had numerous offers for additional legal nurse consulting work. When this happens, I contact my network of CLNC^® peers. The NACLNC^® Directory has a wealth of CLNC^® consultants who I can refer business to or recommend as experts.

My advice to nurses is to stop waiting – do it now. Become a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant today. Stop procrastinating!

Guest Blogger Profile

Sheila Silvus Chesanow, RN, MS, CLNC is owner of Chesanow & Associates in Tennessee. She has been a nurse for 30+ years and has been clinically active as a nurse practitioner. Sheila’s CLNC^® practice specializes in acute care, long term care and geriatric medicine.

The term “sexual assault” refers to forced sexual intercourse. The term used in your state, region or area may be called “sexual abuse” or “rape.” It is important for each person to check the law’s legal definition in their state.

How many of these statements have you heard as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant reviewing a sexual assault case?

• There was a delay in seeking treatment and/or reporting the assault.
• They know each other and they were on a date.
• There were no injuries.
• They were calm when they arrived.

CLNC^® consultants should focus on the facts in a case, not the assumptions while at the same time being alert to how others might interpret the case.

Many times the survivor may delay seeking treatment or reporting the incident. The delay in seeking care may have been because the victim was in shock. They could have been threatened, unconscious or waiting for a friend or family member to arrive to assist them. The survivor of a sexual assault is a trauma patient; and they will have the same psychological reactions as any other trauma patient. The reactions you may see documented are that they were calm one minute, crying or angry the next and withdrawn or even confused at another time. A Certified Legal Nurse Consultant should not focus on whether or not the victim delayed seeking care or delayed reporting the assault to determine if the case has merit.

Saying the victim knew the attacker so they can’t claim assault is not necessarily a strong defense. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), 73% of sexual assaults are committed by a nonstranger and 38% by a friend or acquaintance. 93% of juvenile survivors know their attacker. Of the 93%, 34.2% are family members, 58.7% are acquaintances and only 7% are strangers.

Knowing the attacker, being on a date with them or even being married to them does not give the “okay” to be sexually assaulted. “No” means “no” when said to a spouse, dating partner, relative, friend, any kind of acquaintance or a stranger.

A physical examination, even in a child victim, may not reveal any injuries. Factors that can affect the injuries are anatomy, physiology, how much force was used, how much the victim resisted, the time lapsed between the assault and the exam and the grooming of the victims. Everyone’s anatomy is not the same and this is true of the genital area and the hymen also. If there was an injury or difference documented, it is important to know if it is an anomaly or an acute injury. Also, realize there are other types of injuries beside sexual assault that can cause an injury in the genital area or even cause a ruptured hymen. The vagina and cervix are vascular areas and heal quickly. If time has elapsed before the examination, any injury might be healing or healed. If injuries were documented, then you may be able to determine if the injury was acute by checking the records to see if the victim was examined a few days to a week later. If another examination was completed, compare the documentation of injuries. If documentation confirms that the anatomy is the same and no further sexual assault was found to have occurred, then it was probably not an acute injury.

Legal nurse consultants should also be aware that estrogen can play a role in whether there might have been injuries noted with the exam. Estrogen in females makes the cervix thicker and more redundant. Injuries might be less likely to occur during the child bearing years when there is usually more estrogen in the body. The victim’s resistance to the attack and the force and object(s) used have an effect on any injuries sustained. If the victim did not resist the attack, the examiner may not discover any injuries. The victim’s cooperation should not be confused with their willingness to have intercourse. They may have feared for their life, been too traumatized to resist, been drugged, intoxicated or the attacker could have threatened them, a loved one or even a pet.

Child victims may have been “groomed” by the predator. Grooming is the process of desensitizing the child. The predator usually has some type of relationship with the child. This relationship provides the predator with the opportunity and access to the child to engage, entrap, prepare and trick the child into accepting the sexual abuse. The grooming can start with subtle behaviors or statements and once the victim responds favorably, some form of sexual activity begins, and often progresses. When there is less resistance, there may be little to no injury sustained or noted.

Remember that a calm victim does not indicate whether assault did or did not happen. A Certified Legal Nurse Consultant needs to review and consider all information and documentation – the subjective and objective data obtained during the physical exam and the history of what occurred. Gather all records from other disciplines that might have spoken with or examined the victim after the assault. Review the records to be sure the examination was conducted thoroughly, to learn what type of practitioner performed the exam, that all evidence was collected and stored properly and that the chain of evidence was followed.

Most areas have at least one hospital and sometimes several that have a sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) or sexual assault response team (SART). A SANE is a registered nurse who has had specialized education to provide comprehensive care to sexual assault patients and demonstrates competency in conducting a forensic exam and who has the expertise to give effective courtroom testimony. SARTs are set up in a similar style with a multidisciplinary and community-based approach to caring for and assisting the victim. The teams usually consist of local law enforcement, prosecutors, judicial members, a victim advocacy group, the hospital, SANE members and any other professionals with a vested interest in assisting victims of sexual assault.

With a thorough review of all the information, a definite response to the question of whether the victim was really sexually assaulted still cannot always be given. The response that can be given is the results of the examination, the injuries sustained and any behaviors noted that were or were not consistent with the history obtained.

Guest Blogger Profile

Cheryl Garrison RN, CEN, SANE, CLNC has 18 years of emergency nursing experience and has been a SANE nurse for 8 years. She is cofounder of Class Act Consulting Services, LLC in Kansas specializing in emergency and abuse cases. Her company has assisted the local district attorney in the victims unit on various abuse cases. Her company partners with an elite group of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants who specialize in various nursing specialties including labor and delivery to hospice, home health and Medicare fraud cases.

Certified Legal Nurse Consultant David Kuntz

During my career as an ICU nurse, I was always looking for ways to better myself. I took and passed the CCRN exam, but to my dismay I received no recognition from the hospital administrators for this accomplishment. I tried management and found that I was working more hours and getting paid less than the nurses on my unit. Then something happened that changed my career. I tore a ligament in my hand while restraining a patient. I could no longer lift anything over 25 pounds. I was devastated. My ICU nursing career was over. I spent one and half years on light duty and was told that I had to find a different job or the hospital would settle with me. After months of searching, I landed a job in IT as a clinical analyst.

At home after my surgery I had time on my hands, or in my case – hand, so I started to search for different ways to use my nursing knowledge. I came across legal nurse consulting on one of my searches. I spent hours researching legal nurse consulting. The spark was lit and grew with every bad day I had.

It took me five years until I finally decided to just go for it. I enrolled in the CLNC^® Certification Program in July 2009 and immediately started the home-study course. I finished it in a week and was certified the following weekend. I then worked on the NACLNC^® Apprenticeship Program. It took me a little over a week to finish and at that point, I started getting my promotional materials, sample work products and letters refined and ready to send to attorneys.

I started sending out material toward the end of August using all of the techniques I learned from Vickie. One goal that was foremost in my mind was to have a case before I attended the CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Program in October.

I was nervous before I made my first phone call to an attorney, but I kept remembering that they are people just like everyone else and that really calmed me down. In that first call, I introduced myself and gave a brief synopsis of the material I had already sent. I asked for an appointment and the attorney said, “Sure, come in at 4:00pm.”

Now I was really nervous. I looked over the sample interview questions in the online NACLNC^® Community and realized that I knew this information. I met with the attorney and the interview went so well, he is sending me a medical-malpractice case.

Two weeks later, I called another attorney to follow-up on my promotional material. He told me he didn’t receive it, so I presented a short version of how I could assist him. He asked me to set up a meeting with his secretary. The next day I went to his office and he walked into the conference room with a case in his hands and a check for $1,500.00. Inside I was doing cartwheels yet I remained composed until I got in my car and was heading home. The following day I talked with a different attorney and he wants to use me on two cases.

From the end of August to the first week in October, I was able to obtain three attorney-clients.

My first goal was met. I followed what Vickie taught and used her techniques. If everyone follows what they learn in the CLNC^® Certification Program, they will be successful in this business. Vickie and Vickie Milazzo Institute have already done the hard work; all a student has to do is apply what they learn from the CNLC^® Certification Program.

Guest Blogger Profile

David Kuntz, RN, BSN, CLNC has 17 years of nursing experience. He is the owner of David Kuntz and Associates in western New Mexico and specializes in medical malpractice.

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.

There I was nearly nine years ago, suffering from what I now refer to as “professional bradycardia.” I signed up for Vickie Milazzo Institute’s CLNC^® Certification Seminar and had my breath taken away! That 6-day seminar in 2000 was about to change my life forever and ever. However, at the time I only knew it was The Best program I had ever attended as a nurse, bar none!

It would be one and a half years later that I would have to wait for another positive breathless moment. It came after my first attorney-client gave me my first three cases, one right after the other, and then stated to me after paying his third retainer, “Larry, I just want to let you know that that you are not charging enough for these reports.” That was the icing on the cake. It made me realize that I could do this type of work and do it well, but thinking at the same time…well duh…I was trained by The Best! Based on that attorney’s advice and knowing that I was trained by the best, I substantially increased my hourly fee, never looked back and now never blink, shudder or stutter when I quote my fee to attorneys.

I was so excited that I picked up the phone and called Vickie Milazzo Institute in Houston. I asked if I could thank Vickie in person at the next CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Seminar in Philadelphia (my CLNC^® training ground). The answer came back, “yes,” and I found myself driving to Philadelphia in September 2002. I gave my little thank-you story with a microphone in front of me and I found myself breathless again, both from the fright of public speaking and from the reaction I received from the 300 nurses in attendance. I remember pinching myself and smiling from ear to ear on my drive home that day from Philadelphia.

I once again became breathless in March 2003 as I received the National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants CLNC^® Success Story Award at the annual NACLNC^® Conference. Imagine, this old-as-dirt nurse, with average nursing skills, up on that huge stage with Vickie Milazzo in Orlando, Florida receiving such an award! It DID take my breath away and It DID FEEL GOOD!

One final breathless moment I would like to share, came very recently as I expanded my CLNC^® business to include nine subcontractors, all of whom are Certified Legal Nurse Consultants! I refer to my initiative as Peas in a Pod with the POD being my company who will act as the Point Of Distribution for casework to the Peas who are the CLNC^® subcontractors. We have bi-weekly group phone conferences and also stay connected by Pea Pod Ponderings, a weekly email sent by Larry Pea to the other Peas. All the Peas, each with their specific area of nursing expertise, makes the POD strong and unique, however what takes my breath away is the fact all the Peas are very, very special to me and as a POD, we are able to offer my attorney-clients over 225 years of nursing experience, guiding them as we journey through the medical records! Another breathtaking moment indeed will also be when the Peas collectively meet at the next NACLNC^® Conference!

Thank you Vickie for making me one SOB (Short Of Breath) Certified Legal Nurse Consultant!

Lawrence H. Frace, RN, CLNC

Vickie asked me to share a few experiences as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant that have taken my breath away. I have been fortunate to have experienced quite a few “breathless” moments in my CLNC^® business.

When I started my CLNC^® career, I worked very hard to give my attorney-clients what they needed, and more. One particular client, a big medical-malpractice attorney, wasn’t in the habit of doling out compliments. I knew that my work was up to par because he never complained about anything, however, he never came out and told me how indispensable or valuable I was to him (leftover insecurities from being a nurse).

One day I was in his office and his paralegal brought him his mail. As we were talking, he was looking through his mail. He pulled out an envelope and sliced it open with his opener. He paused for a few seconds to look over the contents and called his paralegal to come to his office. He said (and I’ll never forget it), “When we get anything from other legal nurses, ignore them, and if they call here tell them we have our own nurse consultant who we use.” Wow! That was a real moment for me. It was like getting a bolus of confidence; the maximum dosage of pride; and a booster of determination to get out there and sell myself to more attorneys.

I have been fortunate enough to have uncovered crucial information contained in medical records that have had a huge impact on more than one case. Every time I begin to review a set of medical records, I secretly hope I find something that will either be extremely helpful for the client, or have an impact on the financial outcome. Nothing endears you more to your client than handing them a box of ammunition they didn’t know they had. In plaintiff cases I have found information that clearly involves hospital employees, thus involving the “deep pockets” of the hospital facility. In defense cases, I have uncovered evidence that the plaintiffs’ injuries were pre-existing conditions, thus reducing the value of the cases. I have detected tampering of the medical records in plaintiff cases that have completely altered the value of the cases, and have added much desired juror empathy for the plaintiffs.

I experience breathless moments at the beginning of every day as a CLNC^® consultant. To wake up without having to hurry to get cleaned up and dressed for work. I don’t have to worry about driving to and from work. If I need to schedule a doctor’s appointment, I don’t have to jump through hoops to get the time off work. If I want to go shopping, I just go. I can work any time I want. I can wear anything I want when I work (well, I can right now, but since videoconferencing is in my future, I’ll have to make adjustments).

I just become breathless when I think about how I have changed my life with Vickie’s help and encouragement.

Jane Hurst, RN, CLNC

I have been a nurse almost 26 years, with 24 of those years working in critical care. For most of that time I loved what I did. However, the last six years have been fraught with increasing dissatisfaction with the nursing profession. I grew (in my old age!) intolerant of the toxic, disrespectful atmosphere of hospital nursing. I had increasingly grown tired of physicians, nursing administrators and hospital administrators minimizing my knowledge, experience and contributions. What else was there to do? This was it, right? But, Vickie’s ads for the Institute’s CLNC^® Certification Program caught my attention every month FOR YEARS. I thought, “That must be nice!”

In October 2007, I decided I had to make a move. I hated my job. However, due to circumstances resulting from my husband suffering a work accident, I was financially responsible for my family. I enrolled in Vickie Milazzo Institute’s 40-hour CLNC^® Certification Home-Study Program. My goal was to complete the program, and sit for my CLNC^® Certification Exam by December 2007. Viewing the DVDs, and following along with the textbook was like sitting in the auditorium of a live conference. While I didn’t achieve my goal of CLNC^® Certification in December, I did pass the CLNC^® Certification Exam on March 4, 2008. And two weeks later, I attended my first annual National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants Conference.

I returned home from the conference energized and motivated and ready to build my CLNC^® business. But was I really? It was so comfortable to go back to what I knew – going nowhere in hospital nursing. Sure, I developed and mailed marketing folders, but contrary to what Vickie taught, I did not follow-up. In December 2008, I finally placed a follow-up call to an attorney to whom I had sent one of my marketing folders. We met for lunch the next week, and I left with a case. The attorney was a plaintiff attorney from an aggressive, successful firm. His specialty is construction accidents and products liability. I was a wreck. What the heck did I just agree to do? That same afternoon, I emailed questions to the Institute’s CLNC^® Mentors, re-read sections of my Core Curriculum for Legal Nurse Consulting^® textbook, and referred to the many real case reports included with the VIP CLNC^® Business System.

After emailing the attorney my completed report, he responded, “This is way more than I expected. We need to talk.” Again we met for lunch. He asked if I would “take control” of working to create a visual to use in court as demonstrative evidence of the client’s damages. “Absolutely!” I responded. On my ride home, my thoughts were, “Where do I start?” Then I remembered I had a business card from a medical illustrator vendor that exhibited at the NACLNC^® Conference. With a budget of essentially nothing, and a timeframe of just two weeks, I worked with a phenomenal team in Florida to create a 2D presentation of our client’s injuries. The presentation was used during the expert testimony portion early in the trial. On the evening of the fourth day, the defense offered a settlement of $4.5 million.

For the next four months, I continued to work for this attorney. His paralegal would email me that there was a case that needed to be picked up. I would develop the case, and, with great anticipation and excitement, wait for the next email. All the while, I was spending most of my time in a hospital position which exhausted me, both physically and mentally.

Vickie’s words resonated in my head: “Go all in.” Summer was approaching, and it was as good a time as any. I emailed my attorney-client, expressing my desire to consult on more medical-legal cases. He responded by asking me to come down for a meeting as he had “an idea that will work for both of us.” I met with the attorney-client, his paralegal and his secretary. He asked me to be his medical-legal coordinator. “Did you just make up this job title?” I asked. “Yep,” he chuckled.

I maintain a consultant status, but completely manage the medical issues of all the attorney’s cases. My most common CLNC^® services include reviewing medical records and developing chronologies, researching and defining alleged injuries, researching past medical history, calculating pain medication requirements post-injury, working with medical illustrators to create demonstrative evidence, writing comprehensive reports and assisting with discovery. I present possible defenses, and suggest the best expert witnesses. I speak with my attorney-clients at least monthly to just “check-in.” My attorney-clients love this! I also attend trials and depositions.

I took a leave of absence from my job at the hospital for the summer and have not gone back! I worked from the beach all summer! My time was totally my own – I could work at the crack of dawn or after midnight. My goal, by the end of 2009, was to bill $8,000.00 for one month. For December 2009, I billed for $10,000.00! And this was just part time!

I love what I do. I feel appreciated and part of a team again. My nursing knowledge is valued. Thank you, Vickie, for giving me the tools, support and encouragement to be a successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. As Vickie says, “We are nurses, and we can do anything!^®”

Guest Blogger Profile

Annmarie Johnson, RN, ASN, CLNC owns and operates Bucks Medical-Legal Consulting. She has been a nurse for 26 years, 24 specializing in critical care. Annmarie’s CLNC^® business specializes in construction accidents and products liability.