After working in a large clinic for 22 years, I retired. I was 48, my life was changing, my workplace was changing and I qualified for early retirement, so I took it. My family was growing up, and I began to wonder, “What am I going to do now?” Then I found Vickie Milazzo Institute’s LegalNurse.com website and became intrigued. I knew I had the experience as a nurse to become a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant – I decided to take the CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Seminar. Vickie’s CLNC^® Certification Program is the key to my CLNC^® success.

Becoming a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant has such a positive impact on my life. It spells freedom – more financial freedom, being able to work from home doing what I love to do any time I want, but also being able to walk away from it at 3:30 in the afternoon. I’m free to walk downstairs to find my husband in his office – he also works from home. (Separate offices work best for us during the day because of business phone calls and other distractions.) We are then free to choose what we want to do with the rest of our day.

When asked by other nurses if a career in legal nurse consulting can be successful, I repeat what Vickie told me, “Absolutely, if you’re passionate about it.”

Market, market, market, even when you’re busy. Anywhere I market my CLNC^® practice, I show up with independence and confidence, just like Vickie taught me. I walk in the door and say, “Here I am. I can help you.”

My CLNC^® business really took off when I located a group of attorneys and camped out on their door step. Today those attorneys are some of my best clients. One of the attorneys recently told me, “The reason I hired you is because I was tired of stepping over you when I came through the door in the morning.” We laugh about it now, but my persistence paid off.

In Vickie’s CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Program, she encourages her students to send out a newsletter to attorney-prospects and clients. My newsletter helps me connect with attorneys and I can count on receiving numerous phone calls each time I send one.

My CLNC^® consulting work is always interesting. Many RNs think legal nurse consultants consult only on medical malpractice or personal injury cases. Some of my favorite cases are the ones that I wouldn’t think I’d be involved in, like a murder trial or a legal malpractice case involving a will.

The case outcomes can also be very exciting. My first big attorney-client asked me to review a medical malpractice case for merit. I found a gross deviation in the standards of care and located an expert for the attorney. That case went to mediation and settled for a larger amount than anyone expected.

While that litigation was in progress, my attorney-client asked me to begin work on another case. A doctor had previously reviewed the case’s medical records, but when the attorney asked for my help, I discovered numerous things the doctor had overlooked. Then, right before the case went to trial, the attorney asked me to accompany him to court. When the defense expert denied the validity of a particular radiology report, I whispered to my attorney-client, “Trust me on this – show him this report.” The second report invalidated the medical expert for the defense and upended their case. My nursing experience and Vickie’s CLNC^® Certification Program were the biggest factors in winning the case.

A large part of my CLNC^® consulting success is due to Vickie’s enthusiasm and her encouraging words, such as “We Are Nurses and We Can Do Anything!^®”

Vickie’s CLNC^® Mentoring Program is another part of my CLNC^® consulting success. I enjoy working through the problems I encounter with the CLNC^® Mentors and contact them any time I’m stymied. It’s reassuring to brainstorm with these CLNC^® Pros.

What makes my CLNC^® business successful? By thinking outside the box, using my nursing skills and remembering Vickie’s CLNC^® training, I successfully evaluate cases and help my attorney-clients gain the best outcomes. I’m so excited about my CLNC^® career. I’m living my dream of being a successful CLNC^® consultant, having a great time and being rewarded financially for the work I do!

Bobbi Black, RN, CLNC is an independent CLNC^® consultant in Iowa with 30 years’ clinical nursing experience. She is owner and principal of A Legal Resource Service since 2001 and offers consulting services to both plaintiff and defense law firms.

P.S. Read more CLNC^® Success Stories and send your CLNC^® Success Story to feedback@LegalNurse.com.

P.P.S. Comment if you would like to congratulate Bobbi on her CLNC^® success.

I could tell my story a million times because it’s so exciting to have finally achieved all of my professional goals.

I’m 47 now, and I’ve felt like I shortchanged myself my entire life and hadn’t reached my full potential. I wanted to achieve a certain status and financial level, and I never got that from nursing. I graduated summa cum laude with two degrees and it was always frustrating to have so much education, so little respect and such minimal compensation. I was sick of it.

For years I’d seen Vickie’s smiling picture in the ads for her CLNC^® Certification Program. I saw her program as the perfect combination of my two interests; law and medicine. When I realized how comprehensive her training was, I ordered everything she offered. It was my belief that if one nurse could do this, I could! And if I was going to invest in myself, I was going all the way. I was setting myself up for success. I ordered the VIP CLNC^® Business System.

As a side benefit I even lost 25 pounds when I started my CLNC^® business. It was effortless and I think it was because I’m so happy. Every day is spent doing exactly what I want to be doing. I finally feel like I’m getting the professional respect I’ve sought my entire life. I’m not only being treated like an equal, I’m being treated as a tremendous asset. The attorneys need me and they respect my intelligence. They pump me up constantly. Gone are the days of the “toxic” hospital environment.

Between the attorneys and Vickie Milazzo Institute, I am ecstatic! Vickie gives you all the tools you need, and the Institute holds your hand every step of the way. When something great happens, they’re there to cheer you on, as if they are family. That’s unheard of, especially in nursing. As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, I finally feel like I’ve arrived.

I Billed $16,000 in My Fourth Month

The day I came back from the CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Seminar, I went half time at the hospital. I was determined to invest time in my CLNC^® business. I couldn’t work full time and start my business or someone would be shortchanged, and it wasn’t going to be my child.

Soon I was billing so many hours as a CLNC^® consultant – $16,000 in my fourth month alone! – that I could no longer work at the hospital.

I recently returned from a legal conference in Nevada. It was my sixth conference this year. I came home with seven new attorney-clients and 11 cases. In addition, I currently have several cases in progress and work with attorneys in 19 states. I’m scheduled for three more conferences in the next few months and have been asked to present at a legal seminar. I’m on track to achieve six figures!

With each new case, I learn more about managing a successful CLNC^® practice. In one early case, I was talking to the attorney and he mentioned that he already had his team in place and didn’t need anyone else. Nevertheless, the attorney went on to describe a case over the phone. I gave him some questions to ask his expert and the defendant. When I followed up to see how it went he said he had forgotten to ask some of the questions. He responded with, “Why don’t I send you some of the records to see what you think. Just put me on the clock.” What he sent was 18 pages. For a couple of weeks, I couldn’t think of a single thing I hadn’t already told him. But he’d said to put him on the clock, and I was determined to find something! Finally, I decided to put what I had already told him in chronology format to see if anything else popped out at me. Sure enough, I discovered a tampering issue. The attorney was so busy, he didn’t comment – but more than a month later he called and said, “That tampering issue you found blew this case wide open. All of a sudden we have additional discovery. Thank you so much!”

The VIP CLNC^® Business System Is the Nordstrom of Legal Nurse Consulting

If you have a choice of going to the best four-year college to prepare for your career, would you take a correspondence course instead? No, you’d choose the best, and that’s what Vickie provides. I absolutely recommend the VIP CLNC^® Business System. The added cost of the VIP CLNC^® Business System, when you divide it out over five years, comes down to pennies basically, but you’re investing in yourself by getting it all. As a VIP you also feel more successful while you’re in the program.

The unlimited mentoring with the CLNC^® Mentors is phenomenal. I tend to hold onto a problem too long – I want to solve it myself and then I panic because I need the answer right this second. The CLNC^® Mentors get right back to me. They support me all the way. They “have my back.” They want me to succeed.

Vickie gives you all the tools. She’s dotted every “i” and crossed every “t.” She could not do it better than she has. She’s right up there with Nordstrom. I went to college with one of the Nordstroms, and that’s who Vickie is. Someone could take what she has done with this business and use it as a business model at Harvard. Nothing is missing. She has everything down, from branding your business to supporting you while you learn and not dropping the ball afterwards. I’ve reached my professional goal as a CLNC^® consultant.

I hold phone consults on the white sand beaches of Pensacola while watching my son surf. Two days ago, I noticed the bay water in my “backyard” to be perfect glass. I took a break from my cases and went knee boarding with my 11-year-old and his friends. Twelve dolphins joined us and it was one of the best days ever.

Becoming a CLNC^® consultant has offered me the flexibility to catch the joys of life. Not only am I finally making the money I deserve; I have the freedom I have always dreamed of. The amazing thing is…it hasn’t even been a year since I took the Certified Legal Nurse Consultant course! I love my life!

Winner of the 2009 CLNC^® Success Story Contest Becky Mungai, RN, BA, CLNC, is a full-time Certified Legal Nurse Consultant and owner of Mungai & Associates. She has 23 years of nursing experience and specializes in consulting on birth injury and pediatric emergency/trauma cases for attorneys nationwide.

P.S. Read more CLNC^® Success Stories and send your CLNC^® Success Story to feedback@LegalNurse.com.

P.P.S. Click here to read Becky’s complete CLNC^® Success Story.

Tom’s favorite search tool is Yahoo. Our director of education likes Google. My favorite search tool is Tom! Every day we field questions from CLNC^® consultants and even attorneys that are easily found through a quick Internet search. Tom has become a master at searching out the most arcane facts from the furthest reaches of the Internet. He uses a variety of search engines, constantly juggles and refines search terms, and even uses whole sentence searches. If you want to know what species of monkey is endemic to Canada, he’s the one to ask.

If I need a restaurant in Oslo or Poughkeepsie, he’ll not only find me a local review and suggestions on which species of sea urchin tastes best in October, but ferret out the name of the fisherman who sold it to the restaurant. Al Gore may have invented the Internet, but Tom is the one who has harnessed its power for the good of Vickie-kind. I may be exaggerating a little here, okay I’m exaggerating a lot. But with a little bit of mental sweat you can search as well as Tom.

There’s a wealth of medical, nursing, state and federal resources out there. You can learn about who can report Medicare and Medicaid fraud, what’s new in healthcare regulations and find answers to all sorts of questions simply by putting Google to work for you. Before you take the time to fill out that mentoring request to learn the definition of a legal term in your home state of Idaho just do a quick online search. We constantly answer mentoring questions that could have been answered with a simple trip to Google. Get the most out of your CLNC^® Mentoring by doing your search before you request mentoring. What’s good about this is that you will expand your knowledge and at the same time learn you can answer many of your own questions.

I always tell new CLNC^® consultants that, “we won’t do your work for you” and we won’t. We’re here to be your coach and to guide you on how to do the work, handle your CLNC^® business and to answer your questions (things you can’t necessarily find online). Don’t use the mentoring process to replace the thinking process or the nursing process. You’ve been trained to think critically as a nurse, you do it on the job and you do it naturally. Apply the nursing process to the legal nurse consulting process and you’ll come out a winner.

There’s a world of knowledge out there. Use it and use it wisely. Educate yourself and your attorney-clients. But, like Tom says, “Search smarter, not harder and don’t depend on Wikipedia unless you want to be road kill on the information superhighway.” Twitter you later!

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment on one interesting search you’ve done recently keeping in mind this blog is rated G.

I just hung up from mentoring a new Certified Legal Nurse Consultant regarding a med-surg case. After listening to her ramble aimlessly about the case for three minutes, I politely stopped her and said, “I would really like to help you solve your issue, but would you please describe the issue?” After a few more attempts at rambling and a lot more nudging by me to keep her focused, she finally got to the heart of the matter, and we dealt with it easily and swiftly.

As we were about to wrap up, she confessed that she still found it uncomfortable and often unsuccessful to talk to attorneys about her legal nurse consulting role. I immediately realized the source of her problem. I had just lived it! It was her rambling method of communication.

Those of you who know me, know that I tell it like it is. I firmly but nicely shared that I had a direct insight into her communication challenge just from our brief conversation. Attorneys are crazy busy. They’re working for a living. They’re not like patients who lay around in bed with lots of time to spare waiting for the next visit from their favorite nurse, happy for any company other than a bad reality show.

When you are talking to an attorney, you have to focus, focus and focus some more. You cannot go into an interview or meeting with an attorney being unprepared or misdirected. Once you lose the attorney, you lose the opportunity. There’s no place like an attorney’s office to prove the truth of the old saying, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

The fastest way to lose the attorney is to appear unprepared. Practice your presentation before you give it. Try it on a spouse – if you can keep their attention, you’ll probably be able to keep an attorney’s.

Preparation and focus are the keys to successfully communicating and to feeling comfortable about any communication you are about to engage in.

And remember, if you can say it in five words/minutes, try doing it in three words/minutes instead.

Success Is Inside!