Unless you’re an OB nurse, you probably don’t have many cord management skills. If you’re like me, the backside of your desk is a mess – of cables that is. One thing’s for sure, no matter who you are, the more gadgets you have, the more cables you have.

On the desk at my home office, I have a flat-bed photo scanner, a UPS/Surge Protector, the dock for my laptop, the 60” HD flat screen monitor (just kidding), the ScanSnap document scanner (indispensible) with all of their associated power charger and connector cables plus all the various cables for my computer, mouse, keyboard, Ethernet and my devices – the iPhone^® cable, the female-USB extension cable for my thumb-drives, charger for my Bluetooth headset and the little plug for my various digital cameras. It kind of looks like Medusa’s hair back there (and is just as scary).

On my desk at Vickie Milazzo Institute, it’s even worse because there are attached printers and power cables for my USB hubs on top of all the other cables I’ve listed above plus the dual monitors with their cables and my USB Plasma Ball (I’m not allowed to have a Tesla Coil due to some obscure safety regulation).

In January, Vickie got a new computer after her old one quit. Her desk is a paradigm of cable management neatness, despite the Dragon Naturally Speaking headset, speakers and iPhone and headset cables. All her cables are nicely managed because I did a fresh installation. That’s what happens when you start over. (Note to self: build new garage!)

So, how does a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant regain control of her office from the plethora of cables, connectors and other cords that accumulate in the open space behind her desk?  Even more important, why would she want to?

Well my CLNC^® amigos, the answer is simple. Eventually you’ll need to replace a device, power supply or whatever. After spending half the day unplugging and replugging different cables, you’ll get to the one you want. (Want to know why the one you want is always the last cable you unplug? It’s because you stop once you’ve found the cable you’re looking for.)

Instead of blindly unplugging and replugging, I recommend that once a year you power down your entire desk and then take a few moments to untangle the mess by completely unplugging all the cables (one at a time) and coiling them on top of, or next to, the device to which they belong. Then pull out your trusty label-maker, and label each cord with the name of its device (ScanSnap power cable, USB roller-mouse, etc.).

Once they’re all labeled, you can plug them back in, one at a time. After you’ve plugged in a cable, find someplace to hide it where you can’t easily see it and coil the cable around your fist. Next, grab some Velcro^® cable ties in various colors and tie it up to keep it neat. I like to match colors by device, which makes it easier than looking for the label. If you don’t want to spring for Velcro ties just get some plastic zip ties from your local hardware store and fix them in place. However, I don’t like zip-tying cables together with other cables because as soon as you do, one will fail. Instead, I recommend you buy a flexible cable cover to hide the obvious cable runs. I even have some flat ones that run along the wall and hide my Ethernet and power cables.

By taking a few minutes, you can turn that messy desk into a work of art. When you’re done organizing the cables on your desk, feel free to stop by and do mine!

Keep on techin’,

Tom

Video conference facilities have long been used to allow witnesses to offer testimony in different types of court cases; however, use of this technology can be costly. We’re now seeing the first instances of witnesses testifying in court via Skype^®. In a Georgia criminal case, a defense witness was allowed to testify via Skype over objections from the prosecution, and in a Pennsylvania child custody case, the deported parents of two small children were allowed to testify from Mexico via Skype.

I’m sure we’ll continue to see more courtroom use of low-cost technologies such as Skype in the future. But courtrooms aside, are you using Skype in your Certified Legal Nurse Consulting business? We use Skype here at Vickie Milazzo Institute to connect with subcontractors and CLNC^® Mentors, hold meetings and cut down on long distance conference call costs.

It’s time you added Skype to your legal nurse consulting business. It’s simple to use. Once you download the Skype program, install your webcam/microphone, establish a broadband Internet connection and you’re ready to go. You can conference with attorneys on a case, discuss a case with your CLNC^® subcontractors and stay in touch with the Certified Legal Nurse Consultants in your alliance just to name a few.

Smart Certified Legal Nurse Consultants know to incorporate new technology into their legal nurse consulting businesses. It’s time to count yourself in!

Success Is Inside!

The longer Certified Legal Nurse Consultants work in a Windows^® world, the more problems they’ll run into. One of my least favorite Windows-related problems is trying to delete a file, only to have Windows tell you that it won’t because it’s in use by another program. Let’s say you finish a report for your legal nurse consulting business and decide to do a Save As and file it under a different name. Then you go back to delete the original draft report. You know you’ve closed that particular Word document and you’re darn sure ready to delete it. You select the file, hit the delete button or right-click on the file name and select delete from the pop-up menu. Windows thinks for a minute and suddenly this box appears.

Now what? For no reason whatsoever, Windows has a deathgrip on your file and won’t let go of it. You have three choices. You can forget about deleting it and just leave it forever. You can close Word (or whatever program you were using to access that document or file), get a mug of healthy green tea, wait about 10 minutes for the program to completely shut down and let go of that document, and then try and delete it again (this may or may not work). Or, the best but most cumbersome solution, reboot your system and then go back, locate and delete the document. Rebooting will usually force Windows to let go of any files because the program that thought it was accessing the file is forced to let go by the reboot.

Now my CLNC^® amigos you have a solution for deleting the undeletable.

Keep on techin’ (safely),

Tom

I just mentored a very successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Her issue: she loves being a CLNC^® consultant and the freedom that comes with it, but the operational part of her business sometimes takes the wind right out of her sails. The parts she enjoys include the marketing, working with her attorney-clients and locating experts, but the processes necessary to keep her CLNC^® subcontractors and employees on track can suck her spirit dry.

Every business is made up of thousands of details and if I or my staff try to manage those details without processes and systems, the wind goes right out of our sails. I want as many things to be automatic as possible. I don’t want to be thinking about something small when I can be thinking about something big. I don’t want to be searching for a lost file because someone misfiled it – I want to focus on important projects.

In the early years of my legal nurse consulting business I woke up one morning and had a reality check: my lack of systems and processes were kicking my ass. My office looked like a shipwreck with the debris and detritus strewn about everywhere by the tide of day-to-day business. I was so busy working cases I had completely ignored my business and the systems necessary to manage it properly. I could no longer afford to take 10 minutes to locate this file, that file or the standards I’d carefully researched and just as carefully misplaced.

I needed to act fast to avoid drifting out to sea and I tackled the problem with a vengeance and determination equal to that of Captain Ahab’s in his pursuit of the great white whale. My goal: to be as fast and sleek as a sailboat. Today if you walked into my office you would think I have no work to do, but that is just an illusion, one that has accelerated not only my productivity but my team’s as well.

Your CLNC^® business should run like a state-of-the-art sailboat. Sleek and built to run with the wind. Look at the way a sailboat is constructed. Each part is there for a reason and each part is necessary. Not only does each part (the mast, boom, boom vang, fairlead, hiking straps, thwart, main sheet and even the centerboard) need to be in working order, all the parts need to work together. The failure of one part of the boat, for example a mainstay tearing loose, could lead to the failure or even sink the entire boat.

The same is true for your legal nurse consulting business. Just like the success of the sailboat depends on thousands of details, so too does the success of your CLNC^® business. This includes all the details that some people might find tedious (filing or organizing medical records), not just the details that we enjoy (high-fiving your favorite attorney-client after a favorable settlement or depositing retainer checks).

Like a sailboat, if you neglect one part of your CLNC^® business you run the risk that the part might fail. Your enterprise might not sink right away and might float along with the wind or current for some time. It may not even be obvious that your ship is sinking until you wake up one day with water lapping at your ankles. If something major happens, say you lose a big client, that could be the equivalent of a main sail tearing loose. But something less obvious, like failing to retie the connection with prior clients while you’re busy marketing to new attorney-prospects, might be like not doing the regular maintenance of cleaning and oiling the pulleys or cranks you need to raise your sails. While your main sail is up you’re able to make headway, but if you need to hoist the jibs later or fly your spinnaker you may not be able to and may end up floundering in the wind.

Successful people create systems to make taking care of those details as simple and easy as possible. Successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultants know that creating checklists, policies, intake forms and shared calendars for staff and subcontractors goes a long way toward easing their workload. The more systems you have in place the less time you spend reinventing the wheel or recreating each detail when a new case comes along, you get a new attorney-client or hire a new CLNC^® subcontractor.

My advice to the Certified Legal Nurse Consultant was to hire a “first mate” to engage in those pesky details for her. To paraphrase Yoda, “Details, engage them you must.”

Business isn’t always smooth sailing, but with the right systems for taking care of the details in place, your journey will be more like crossing the “Drake Lake” than rough, category 7 sea swells of the Drake Passage that Tom and I experienced on the way home from Antarctica.

Success Is Inside (and in the details)!

You read the first 11 strategies yesterday; here’s 15 more to keep your CLNC^® business busier than ever.

Eliminate Distractions and Focus on Your Priorities

12. Develop a routine just as you would in nursing. Triage cases and keep a priority list. Focus on important deadlines.
13. Focus on the task at hand. Screen your calls during business hours. Be available for your attorney-clients, but use caller ID to prevent marketers, family and friends from taking up your valuable time. Turn off the TV. Keep the office door shut.
14. Save personal matters for lunch time, after work or the weekend. Let friends and relatives know that just because you work from home does not mean you are available to play or chat during business hours. You have to set boundaries just as you would if you worked in someone else’s office, so you want to treat your home office with the same respect.
15. Call a family meeting. Communicate positively to your significant other and children the importance of your CLNC^® business and how their support during your work hours is essential to having more family time together. Working at home is a privilege that you and your family will want to continue.
16. Enforce rules about interruptions. This can be tough, but generally everyone respects the rules. When the office door is shut, that means work is in progress.
17. To maintain focus during intense case work, play soft classical music or sounds of nature.

“I set ‘working hours’ for myself each day and during that time do not allow myself to be distracted. The television is off, the landline phone ringer is off and I do not check personal email, social media or surf the web. No catching up with my girlfriends or mom on the telephone and absolutely no household chores! These ‘working hours’ may vary from day to day, but they are hours devoted specifically to my CLNC^® business and my attorney-clients.”

Julie Somen-Becker, RN, BSN, CLNC

Manage Your Work Space and Your Paperwork for Maximum Productivity

18. Create an organized, functional work space dedicated to your CLNC^® business and use it only for business. This makes it easier to walk away from your business at the end of the day. Also keep the office your office and not part of a shared family meeting spot if at all possible. This practice allows for fewer distractions, less background noise and promotes information security.
19. Make sure the layout of your office supports your productivity. For example, are the phone and office supplies within easy reach? Do you have enough room to work? Can you find things easily? Because you’ll spend a great deal of time in your office, make sure you enjoy the environment. Invest in file cabinets to avoid things stacking up on your desk.
20. Before you end your day, organize your priorities and work space for the next day. This ensures your important case will be front and center for your review when you return to work.
21. Take advantage of the latest home-office technology products to maximize your efficiency, decrease stress and save time. Purchase the best computer and word processing software that fit your business needs and budget.

Know When to Quit and Take Care of You

22. If you’re going to work at home, you need strong boundaries between home and office. Make sure your office is just for work. When you leave work, it should be like leaving an outside office and going home. If you choose to work late hours or on weekends, that’s fine. But when you walk out of that office, close the door and GO HOME! Sometimes you have to turn your back on the cases piling up. This makes your work day more productive and your home life more pleasant.
23. Be realistic. Don’t plan eight billable hours per day and get discouraged because you only worked six. When scheduling your work, include fun, family and quiet personal time. Allow for taking the kids to school, helping with homework, preparing meals, taking breaks and unscheduled interruptions. Use your time wisely. Always maintain good communication with your attorney-clients to avoid rush jobs.

“Your biggest challenge will be to not work 16 hours a day. Achieving balance when the work is in front of you 24/7 takes effort and commitment. Set a time each day to turn the computer off and get away from the office. Stay connected to your family and friends. No matter how long you work from home, this will always be a challenge. Even after seven years of being home based, my husband will come into my office space in the middle of the afternoon, and I’m still in my PJs, haven’t had breakfast or even washed my face. But I’ve gotten a lot of work done!”

Anne Koepsell, RN BSN, MHA, CLNC

24. Make a commitment to own the business and not allow it to own you. Don’t allow work to flow over into family time. Walking away from a project can be difficult, but keeping on schedule allows you the freedom to do this. Develop a business plan and follow it, stay organized and allow yourself plenty of time to play.
25. Have an office door you can close at the end of the business day. The ceremonial opening and closing of the door is important. Otherwise you’ll become addicted to the space and find some reason to be in there at all hours, including the weekend.

“I installed a glass door in my office. This enables me to treat ‘my space’ like a real office. I can close the door at night (and not feel too guilty) and open it in the morning when I want to start my work day. It also helps having glass because I can see what is going on in the rest of the house when the door is closed.”

Dorene Goldstein RNC, CLNC

26. This is your business; no one is going to set your boundaries for you. Use rituals to differentiate between work and personal time. Work out, change clothes or leave to run an errand to transition from work to play. Take days off, enjoy the weekend and take vacations. Put them in your calendar at the beginning of the year and stick with this. Schedule a family day. Above all, have fun!

“Working from home has also allowed me to take better care of myself. I start my day with a walk with my dog, then I retreat to the basement to do my workout. After my shower, I am refreshed and ready to start working. Granted this usually isn’t until about 10:00am sometimes, but that’s the fun of working at home. If I had to go to an office or the hospital, I’m not sure if I would get a workout in.”

Dorene Goldstein RNC, CLNC

Use these 26 strategies for working effectively and efficiently from home, and you might outgrow your home office like Larry Frace.

“I love my 800 sq. ft. man-cave basement office which has served me well over the past 10 years. However, it is starting to get a bit cramped in the cave these days, so now I have my eye on a 3,200 sq. ft. cave right next door (through the woods and across an open field). Working from home has been great, but most great things seem to evolve into yet greater opportunities. Being a nurse is great, but becoming a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant evolved this caveman down a path of unlimited opportunities!”

Lawrence H. Frace, RN, CLNC

What a fun problem to have. Congratulations, Larry! Here’s wishing all CLNC^® consultants a successful home office and a problem like Larry’s.

Special thanks to the CLNC^® Pros Suzanne Arragg, RN, BSN, CDONA/LTC, CLNC; Dale Barnes, RN, MSN, PhN, CLNC; Joanne Fox Boschi,RN, MSN, CPNP, CLNC; Nikki J. Chuml, RNC, CCE, FMC, CLNC; Larry Frace, RN, CLNC; Margaret Gallagher, RN, BSN, MSN, CLNC; Dorene Goldstein, RNC, CLNC; Debra Good-Zeiner, RN, BSN, CLNC; Sandra Higelin, RN, MSN, CS, CWCN, CLNC; Jane Hurst, RN, CLNC; Annmarie Johnson, RN, BSN, CLNC; Camille Joyner, RN, CCM, CLNC; Anne Koepsell, RN, BSN, MHA, CLNC; Mildred Mannion, RN, BSN, CNOR, CLNC; Julie-Somen-Becker, RN, BSN, CLNC and Linda Turner, RN, MSN, NNP-BC, CLNC who have shared the strategies they use to work more effectively from home.

Success Is Inside!

Read Part 2.

As Anne Koepsell, Certified Legal Nurse Consultant says “the phrase ‘working from home’ creates images of total freedom from structure and time commitments. And that is the challenge – there is no structure, no office hours, no peers to watch what you are doing and how you spend your time. Those of us who have worked at home rarely want to trade it for a structured job or office setting. But successfully working from home requires the right attention and intention.” I asked 16 CLNC^® Pros to share their best practices for working from home, guaranteed to deliver the attention, intention and effectiveness to succeed.

Set Regular Office Hours and Stick to Your Schedule

1. Whether it’s laundry or lunch out, there is potential for distractions, so it’s in your best interest to establish regular business hours. Your schedule may vary from day to day and week to week, but have a written goal for start and end times and how many billable hours you want to achieve each week.

“I do as much as possible between 9:00am-3:00pm while my husband is at work and my children are at school. No interruptions, no questions, no needs. This is the best time for me to work. If I have to work at night, I make time for my family and for dinner. Once I’ve taken care of them I can do what I need to do in my office with a clear head.”

Nikki Chuml, RN, C, CCE, FMC, CLNC

2. Include regular lunch hours and days off in your schedule.
3. Communicate your office hours to your family. This reminds them that you are not available every second of the day.

“On a weekly basis I make certain that my household is aware of what commitments and expectations I have involving my CLNC^® business. I accomplish this with a few simple steps including a calendar posted in my home office, an Outlook^® calendar that is shared with my husband’s email accounts, and syncing my calendar on my smart phone with my husband’s phone using our MobileMe account. When my spouse is aware of my work load and commitments in advance, he can work with me to successfully keep my CLNC^® business and my family and home environment in balance! This also allows me to stay organized and use my time wisely.”

Julie Somen-Becker, RN, BSN, CLNC

“When I left the hospital and was no longer sleeping during the day, my family thought they hit the jackpot – I was home all the time (not sleeping) and I had so much free time. I needed time to adjust to this new lifestyle. There were a lot of potential distractions, especially with three kids and a husband. In the beginning, I found that creating a calendar for myself and scheduling office time worked for all of us. I posted a big calendar on the refrigerator and wrote in everyone’s appointments and schedules including my own. When I did this, they all knew that from 1:00-4:00pm on Tuesdays I was working and not available for any errands, homework or laundry. This tactic helped make me accountable and it worked.”

Dorene Goldstein RNC, CLNC

4. You might have to walk past the dirty laundry to get your office. Just imagine you are working in someone else’s office until you develop the discipline needed to ignore that laundry. Would you report to the office late to do laundry? Would you watch TV, play Farmville, shop or run errands in the middle of the day? Do whatever it takes to get into “work mode.” Close your office door, don’t answer your home phone and designate a time to handle personal tasks.

“Just as my multiple professional duties and many personal interests create an exciting and ever-changing lifestyle, they can often conflict. In a home-based office setting, home ownership and family responsibilities can infringe on your CLNC^® business unless a clear delineation is established. For me, it is imperative to do whatever it takes to simulate ‘going to work’ in a home office. On days when I work in my home office, I get dressed for ‘work,’ put a do not disturb sign on my door and answer only my office phone. I resist the urge to do household chores but allow myself the luxury of slippers. Through trial and error I have found what works for me.”

Debra Good-Zeiner, RN, BSN, CLNC

“Drawbacks to working at home include that the neighbors tend to forget you are ‘at work’ when they see your car in the driveway and bang on the door or call (because they just know you are in there)! For awhile, my brother-in-law had a habit of dialing every separate phone line we have until I finally gave in and answered one. This happened pretty much any time he had a medical question that demanded (in his opinion), an immediate answer. The fact that I was ‘at work’ didn’t seem to be as important to him as his problem. We had a neighbor on sabbatical who kept knocking on our front door to chat or borrow things during my CLNC^® business hours. We had a house guest for a few weeks. She would tap on my office door several times each day and say, ‘Sorry to bother you, but…’ Another drawback was my initial urge to work in my bathrobe or in sloppy clothes. I took more breaks when I did that and got less done.

Because of those and other experiences, I learned to do certain things differently. Whenever I was busy, I’d tape a laminated note to the door for the house guest, that said, ‘At work. Please do not disturb unless house is on fire.’ For my brother-in-law, I finally asked him to leave one message and I would call back after business hours, but not before. I put another sign on the front door that said, ‘At work. Please come back after 5:00pm.’ Our neighbor on sabbatical has our house key for emergencies (we also have theirs for the same reason). I asked him to just use his house key to borrow whatever he needed and lock up behind himself whenever he saw the sign on the door. The only people who have ever been given my office phone number are my clients, my accountant and my husband. With respect to dressing for work, I have learned to wear nice casual clothes to the office, and of course do my hair and make-up, so I am always ready to drop in on one of my clients. Of course, for our administrative law judge hearings, I step it up to the clothes suitable for a courtroom.”

Camy Joyner, RN, CCM, CLNC

Manage Your Time to Save Money and Your Sanity

5. Create a weekly schedule based on your business plan. Allow flexibility for unforeseen changes. Keep your plan visible at all times. Schedule time for working on strategic goals.
6. Power out for 50 minute increments to enhance your productivity. Evaluate your use of time often to see where you can gain efficiencies if you are not meeting your billable hours goal.
7. Reviewing medical records, researching and writing detailed reports require intense concentration. Take a 10-minute break every hour to walk away from the project and watch your productivity soar.
8. Structure your routine to take advantage of your peak performance times. You can finish big projects and those that require intense focus in half the time when you do them during your most creative and productive time.
9. Save administrative tasks such as correspondence, returning phone calls, checking email and easy projects that don’t require your full attention for your non-peak times and break periods.
10. Keep a running shopping list of office and marketing supplies so you can easily see when supplies are low. You never want to run out of paper.
11. Plan your out-of-office time. In the beginning it’s easy to take a quick trip to the post office or office supply store on a whim. As you become busier, these trips will zap your focus and take time away from productive (billable) activities. Shop online when possible and group errands and appointments for efficiency.

Success Is Inside!

Long ago I blogged about the Quick Access Toolbar available in every Microsoft^® Office^® 2007+ program. This is an invaluable tool for Certified Legal Nurse Consultants because it delivers quick access to many of the tools you need for your CLNC^® business. I’ve customized mine to include not just the usual functions of cut, paste, undo, redo and print, but I’ve also added an email button!

Anyone who has ever started an email and then had to fish around on their hard drive for a particular document to attach will love this. Once you’ve completed (and saved) a document like a legal nurse consulting report or PowerPoint presentation you can simply click the email button and it will open up a new email with that document attached to it! Now, instead of wasting your valuable Certified Legal Nurse Consultant time fishing, simply fill in the lucky recipient and the subject and it’s ready to go.

How do I add this wonderful time-saving tool to my Quick Access Toolbar? It’s easy my CLNC^® amigos. You left click on the drop down arrow to the right of the Quick Access Toolbar and select the tools you want in the order you want them to appear. That’s all there is to it. Now you can email from any Microsoft Office product without having to switch programs or go fishing for attachments.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

Vickie and I are back from the NACLNC^® Conference Cruise and, if you followed her blogs last week, you know we had a rocking time on the high seas! Our next Conference Cruise is guaranteed to be even more fun. That being said, here’s another quickie Tech Tip because I’m still trying to unpack and deal with all the detritus of CLNC^® life that builds up in your inbox while you’re out of the office on a cruise having fun with hundreds of CLNC^® consultants.

Many CLNC^® consultants use Microsoft^® Outlook^® as their legal nurse consulting business’s email client. It’s a powerful organizational tool. Here’s an Outlook tip for you. Let’s say you are in the midst of reading an email from one of your attorney-clients and you decide to you need to set a reminder, calendar appointment or new task to follow-up on the topic of the email. There’s an easier way: Simply drag and drop that email directly onto the calendar date. This will immediately create a new appointment with the information from the email in the body of the appointment and the subject of the email in the subject line of the appointment. All you need to do is set the time!

This is a wonderful way to master your inbox and I have to make a confession: I learned this trick from Vickie who is a master of the Outlook Calendar. Use this tip to master your own Certified Legal Nurse Consulting destiny, or at least your calendar.

Keep on Techin’,

Tom

Today’s blog is the equivalent of a Certified Legal Nurse Consulting quickie. In between preparing documents and PowerPoint^® slides for the NACLNC^® Conference Cruise I’m packing and trying to figure out how to stuff all my stuff into one rolling suitcase (or not). So, rather than drone on and on, here is one quick Microsoft^® Office^® tip I learned this week.

All CLNC^® consultants know that UPPER CASE TYPING IN AN EMAIL IS THE EQUIVALENT OF SHOUTING but sometimes I also have to correct it on NACLNC^® Conference PowerPoint^® slides, where apparently PEOPLE FEEL THE NEED TO SHOUT. To remedy this, I need to change that upper case text to sentence case.

I used to highlight the text with my mouse and then select the “Change Case” button on Word’s “Font” bar but that’s so old school, and there’s a faster way. I assume you know that left clicking twice on a word will select that word and left-clicking three times on a word will select a sentence (or paragraph). So rapidly select or highlight the text you need to convert and then hold down your <Shift> key and hit <F3>. The first time you do this it will change upper case into all lower case, do it again and it’ll put everything into title case (sometimes) and one more time will go back to upper case. This works in Word, PowerPoint and is especially powerful in Outlook because you can quickly change that SHOUTING email into a normal, friendly communication.

That’s it for this week my CLNC^® amigos. Next week I’m graciously donating my Tuesday Tech Tip slot to Vickie who’s going to blog live from the NACLNC^® Conference Cruise. I’ll see you on the 22nd!

Keep on techin’,

Tom

Many CLNC^® consultants have opted to buy laser printers for their home offices and legal nurse consulting businesses. I’m a big fan of laser printers – they’re usually faster than inkjet printers and are inexpensive and affordable. If you buy an all-in-one, you can combine it with a scanner and fax machine (Yes Virginia, some people still use faxes). Your attorney-clients will prefer to receive your legal nurse consulting reports on laser-printed paper because they can highlight the important deviations from the standards of care without the fear of the smear.

One of the disadvantages of laser printers that Certified Legal Nurse Consultants are sure to discover is that laser printers, or their cartridges, will eventually leak toner. One way to avoid or minimize the chance of toner spills is to use only new, brand-name cartridges rather than refilled cartridges. Spills will still happen, though. Usually the leaked toner just stays inside the printer, gathering in the low areas, and will remain there until you move or otherwise disturb that printer.

Sometimes, when changing your laser printer’s toner cartridge, you’ll spill toner either in the machine, all over yourself or worse on your carpet. It can happen if you have a bad or broken cartridge, use way too much force or simply bungle the job. (Note to self: never hold cartridge over head and shake.)

When the dreaded leak does occur, you’ll end up with toner on you, your desk, printer table and probably the floor. The natural reaction is to run and get the vacuum cleaner and try to vacuum it up – DON’T DO IT. A typical household vacuum isn’t designed to capture particles as small as toner and, although it will suck the toner in the front just like it should, there’s a really good chance it will blow it right out the vent in the back thus spreading the toner around your home and office and onto people who won’t be happy about it.

So, how do my CLNC^® amigos clean a toner spill? If it’s on a hard surface (Yee-haw, you’re home free!) like a desktop, simply sweep it into a plastic garbage bag or other receptacle using a dry cloth or piece of heavy paper. While you’re doing that, be very careful not to spill it onto your floor or carpet. Don’t use a wet cloth, it might cause smearing or dissolve the toner onto the surface you’re trying to protect.

If it’s on your carpet, first sweep up what you can using the method above (hard paper onto a dust pan) but very, very carefully. Then get on the phone to your favorite carpet cleaning company and be brutally honest. Tell them you’ve spilled laser printer toner and need them to come immediately with a toner vacuum. Don’t step in it, spread it around or sweep it with a whisk broom. Also, keep it off your fingers and clothing and finally, don’t attempt anything involving liquid. Remove small children, pets and spouses with power tools (e.g. lawn blowers or shop vacs) from the immediate area and keep them out until the professional carpet cleaner has done their job.

Toner spills will happen; they’re inevitable. Cleaning them up correctly is optional.

Keep on techin’,

Tom