Certified Legal Nurse Consultants

I asked the CLNC^® Pros to share their favorite easy-to-use exhibiting strategies for gaining new attorney-clients. Add these top 10 marketing ideas to your next exhibit with attorneys.

1. Make your legal nurse consulting exhibit eye popping, big and colorful. Not too busy, not too much information. You don’t want the attorneys to be confused or put off by having to read too much. Make sure you have enough light on the exhibit so that it can be easily seen, even from a distance. The display does not have to be huge. If done well, a simple table top display can be very effective and easier to manage.

“I have banners that hang in front of or behind my booth that include my business name, logo, phone number and website. They have grommet holes for easy attachment and they roll up easily for storage. They get the essential information out visibly, look great and aren’t expensive.

Last year I exhibited at a local event. It was small and not costly to exhibit. Although the attendee list was small, I ended up gaining two excellent attorney-clients from that event. I never sat down and made an effort to draw in every attorney that walked by my booth. One attorney told me that large exhibits did not impress him. He was much more interested in the personal touch and the conversation in which we engaged. He thought I had a lot of “guts” and that’s what drew him to me. He actually didn’t even live in my city. He lived 120 miles away and I now get every one of his cases. He is a very busy personal injury attorney, and he has referred many of his colleagues to me.”

Dale Barnes, RN, MSN, PHN, CLNC

2. Get the best location in the exhibit hall that your advertising dollars will buy. Your CLNC^® business will benefit when you are on a main aisle close to the entrance…or the food!
3. Promote your risk-free guarantee as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant on your display and when talking to attorney-prospects.
4. If you are exhibiting at a conference that has 500-1,000 attorneys attending, take someone with you so you don’t miss a single opportunity to promote your CLNC^® business.
5. Dress professionally and maintain a high level of energy. Energy is contagious. Having fun and being professional are not mutually exclusive. Stand in front of the booth, not behind the table and don’t sit down. This creates the space for the attorney-prospects to easily approach you. Even if you have to move out into the aisle approach the attorneys to invite them into your space.
6. Give attorney-prospects promotional materials or items that have your contact information and promote your legal nurse consulting business. People like to get free things to take with them (pens, Post It^® notes, audio CDs on topics such as electronic medical records, etc.). These are items that they will be using well into the future and when the day comes that they just can’t figure something out on one of their cases, they will remember you, and right at their fingertips will be your contact information. As they sit there twirling their pen, they will see that the answer to their prayers is right in their hand.

“One attorney told me that he couldn’t remember my name when he was struggling with a case, but when he took his pen out of his mouth, there I was. He always says that that was the best pen he has ever had.”

Nikki Chuml, RNC, FMC, PRN, CLNC

“Give away fortune cookies that have a catchy fortune and your contact information. The fortune can read, ‘Confucius says lawyers that understand the value of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants succeed where others fail!’”

Dorene Goldstein, RNC, CLNC


7. Include a drawing for a free case screening in exchange for the attorney-prospects’ business cards. This gives them a reason to stay connected. You can have as many winners as you have time for. Many Certified Legal Nurse Consultants use this strategy as a way to get their foot in the door. Most tell us that when they call the law firm to announce the free screening they get through to the attorney with ease. As one CLNC^® consultant says, “It works every time.” You can also have a drawing for an in-house presentation on a topic relevant to the law firm’s medical-related cases and again have as many winners as you have time for.
8. Never leave your CLNC^® booth and always exhibit to the very end. You’ll meet some of the best attorney-prospects near the end of the day. Also, stay during session time for the attorneys who skip a session to get an edge on the exhibits.
9. Attend all social functions sponsored by the association to which exhibitors are invited. Make it your goal to meet at least 5-8 attorneys at each function.
10. Stay off your cell phone and computer at all times when attorneys are in the exhibit space.

Use these top 10 exhibiting strategies from these CLNC^® Pros the next time you are in front of attorneys to guarantee you take home a new attorney-client every time.

Success Is Inside!

Exhibiting is a cost-effective way to get in front of a large number of attorneys in a very short time. I asked four Certified Legal Nurse Consultants to share the role that exhibiting plays in their marketing plans.

1. “I exhibit at the same legal conference year after year. One of my attorney-clients joins my exhibit and markets to new attorneys for me, telling them that they cannot afford not to use me! All I do is stand there, smile, collect their business cards and answer any questions they have about the CLNC^® services I offer. Having my attorney-client refer me in person really helps other attorneys see the benefit of hiring a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant.”

   Nikki Chuml, RNC, FMC, PRN, CLNC

2. “Recently a CLNC^® colleague exhibited at a legal conference and ended up with more cases than she knew what to do with, all cases coming from one attorney. Her recent email to me stated, “Be careful what you wish for; because it just may come true!” Exhibiting paid off handsomely for her.”

   Lawrence H. Frace, RN, CLNC

3. “I recommend exhibiting to promote your legal nurse consulting business whenever you can. The more often the better. Legal conferences for personal injury attorneys are my favorite. At one legal conference, I had five or six attorneys at a time at my table talking war stories. They are like nurses. When they get together, they like sharing war stories from their cases. I joined right in talking war stories of how I helped an attorney win a case and they loved it. I ended up with three attorney-clients from that one conference and we are still telling war stories today.”

   Nikki Chuml, RNC, FMC, PRN, CLNC

4. “In mapping out a new marketing plan for my CLNC^® business each year, I make sure to plan for three to four opportunities to exhibit at legal conferences or symposiums. I belong to a couple of organizations that offer exhibiting space at discounted rates for members. I’ve learned to think outside the box as to what may yield good revenue. I gained some good attorney-clients last year from exhibiting at a conference about class action suits. Many of those cases do not involve medical issues, but enough of them do. Many of the attorneys in attendance also handle medical-related cases, so those are the attorneys I focused on and it was a great opportunity to present my CLNC^® consulting services to them. Exhibiting can be a lot of fun and all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants should add it to their marketing plans.”

   Dale Barnes, RN, MSN, PHN, CLNC

Success Is Inside!

P.S.	Comment and share your successful exhibiting experiences at legal conferences.

We get a lot of email here at Vickie Milazzo Institute. I know Vickie’s blogged about the quality of the email. While most of the Institute’s email is legitimate and comes from Certified Legal Nurse Consultants seeking mentoring or from nurses seeking new careers as Certified Legal Nurse Consultants, some is from the good and most trusted friends we’ve never met asking us to help transfer a 3-million dollar inheritance out of some small African nation. We have a pretty strong spam filter but we still get a small portion of harmless “spam” promoting whatever someone thinks we need – machine tools from China, cheap pharmaceuticals or proposed business relationships. Whatever it contains, as with all email, we’ve got to slog through it, answering and deleting until the email box is empty (it never is).

One of the more dangerous bits of email we get comes from Internet fiends who, in an act of shameless self-promotion, will create an alarming email (sometimes about themselves) and link it to a “poisoned” website. Well-intentioned people with an unhealthy interest in gossip will actually fall for the trick, visit the site to read about the fiend, infect their computer JUST BY VIEWING THE PAGE and become a part of the fiend’s “zombie army.” If and when you get one of these emails, delete it immediately.

Even worse though than email from fiends in my opinion my CLNC^® amigos, is the occasional email we get from legal nurse consultants indicating that the sender’s computer has either become a “zombie” or has been infected with a self-replicating virus causing it to send out copies of itself to hopefully infect others. Sometimes the email simply indicates that a friend’s Gmail or Hot Mail account has been compromised and a spammer is happily spamming away with their account.

In past Tech Tips, I’ve blogged about dangers of “bots” and “botnets” and given legal nurse consultants (as well as civilians) tips on how to avoid becoming part of a botnet or catching a virus outside the hospital. But, until today, I’ve never tipped on proper etiquette for letting your friends know they’ve been infected.

Take a moment and think about it. Let’s say your computer has become a zombie and part of a botnet or your Gmail password has been hacked. While you work on making phone calls for your legal nurse consulting business, your computer is sitting there sending out email after email asking your friends, family or a generated email list “Is this really you in this hot video?” or simply sending an email with nothing but a web link in the body (hopefully pushing people to a poisoned website that when viewed will add the clickee to the botnet). People are getting your botnet email and deleting it because they know better than to click on the link or try to view the video (I’ve seen it – it’s not that hot and it’s not me). But, do they tell you? Probably not because they just deleted your spammy, botty email!

How do I know that’s what they’ve done? It’s because that’s what I do – or did. Yesterday, just after I finished going through the Institute’s email boxes and triaging messages, I told Vickie I’d deleted a huge string of messages (I sort by subject for massive deletes and was inordinately proud of myself) from people who’ve been infected.” Vick asked me whether or not I’d emailed them to let them know and I said, “No. I just delete them.” In response she asked, “Wouldn’t you want to know if you’d been infected with a virus or lost your mailbox?” and I told her… well, I didn’t say anything because she was right. I would want to know and I’d want someone to tell me.

That’s the point and purpose of this blog. If you get one of these emails from a friend, family member or Certified Legal Nurse Consultant colleague, let them know! Simply hit reply, cut the text out of the email (so they don’t click on the link) and tell them that you received this from them and you think that either their email account has been compromised or that their computer is infected. It’s just common courtesy. Now, they may get lots of these notices but think about it, as a nurse – wouldn’t you rather get the diagnosis of an infection as soon as possible so that you can take corrective measures and save the patient’s life (or legal nurse consulting business’s data)? I would and I hope you would too. With your timely warning, your CLNC^® colleague can take proper actions like changing their email account’s password or updating their antivirus software or anti-spyware software and cleaning their machine. One day, they may return the favor (but I’m hoping that they’ll never have to).

Keep on techin’ and practicing safe surfing!

Tom

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.

I talk to thousands of RNs every year who are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the healthcare system. Many of these conversations remind me of a dinner I had with my father at an Italian restaurant. After an animated discussion with the waiter, my dad ordered a pasta dish that wasn’t on the menu, telling the waiter exactly what he wanted in it.

When the food came, it was presented beautifully and prepared exactly as he had requested. Bits of scallion, garlic and peppered chicken glistened over a serving of fettuccine, all mixed with basil and olive oil, topped with chunks of ripe, red tomato lightly dusted with Parmesan cheese. The dish looked so good, I wanted it instead of my own.

I expected my father to be delighted with his meal. Instead, he started comparing it to a completely different pasta dish from a different Italian restaurant. Rather than enjoying his dinner, he found fault with the waiter, the restaurant and the chef for not serving this other recipe. According to dad, the dish was prepared wrong and even had the wrong ingredients! He specifically complained that there shouldn’t have been any tomatoes and there wasn’t enough garlic.

I sat there both stunned and amused. Even though my dad’s pasta was prepared exactly as he had requested, it wasn’t what he really wanted because it wasn’t the dish he was used to ordering at the other restaurant. Finally, I gently interrupted his litany of complaints, reminding him that he had received exactly what he ordered. In fact, after tasting it, I liked it even better than the dish he was comparing it to.

Dad replied, “I may have gotten what I ordered, but it isn’t what I want.” My father had expected the waiter to read his mind and bring him something other than what he ordered. Eventually, my dad’s hunger got the best of him and he enjoyed his meal to the last bite. After all, when you’re hungry, even the wrong dish fills your stomach.

What Career Menu Are You Ordering From?

As an RN, are you hungry for job satisfaction but ordering the wrong dish off the wrong menu?

• Do you feel exhausted by your working conditions and environment?
• Do you dislike the hours, the weekends, the administration, the HMOs?
• Are you cranky about too many patients and not enough time to provide the quality of care you know you’re capable of?

If your nursing career isn’t where you want it to be, are you confusing your expectations and desires with what a traditional nursing job menu offers? Are you trying to order a dish that isn’t on the menu?

Like my dad, you may have expectations about what you are being served. You may have tried your best to order exactly what you wanted. Yet what’s on your plate has turned out very differently from what you were expecting.

If you stay at your same RN job and order off the same old RN job menu, don’t be surprised when you get what you’ve always gotten even though it’s not what you want. Much like the Salisbury steak in a hospital cafeteria, what healthcare facilities serve up for your nursing career has been on the menu for years. Sometimes the description changes, sometimes the preparation changes, but it’s still the same old Salisbury steak, and it is still not very satisfying for many RNs I’ve come to know.

Feast at a Brand New Restaurant

If you’re salivating for a nursing dish with different ingredients, if you want more autonomy, freedom, control or money, it’s time to feast at a new restaurant with a new and modern menu.

Certified Legal Nurse Consultants don’t order off the traditional menu offered by healthcare facilities. They’ve found a new menu that features more of what they want for themselves and they’re willing to leave their hospital restaurant to enjoy that innovative menu. For these nurses, the legal nurse consulting restaurant has the right menu – dishes that satisfy their palate in every way, and choices so plentiful they don’t have to look anywhere else because any dish they can imagine is already on the CLNC^® menu.

Life is meant to be an adventurous banquet filled with tasty and satisfying dining experiences. It’s your meal – you get to choose the restaurant and write your own menu. Shouldn’t you get what you want, what you deserve, like so many other nurses who have chosen to stop ordering off the wrong menu?

Your right menu is just an action step away. Go to the right nursing restaurant today and you’ll find that one dish you’ve been craving. I invite you to join me and my CLNC^® colleagues at the legal nurse consulting banquet – the taste sensation of a lifetime. Don’t miss another minute of this exciting feast – reserve your place at the CLNC^® banquet table today.

Success Is Inside!

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.

I asked the CLNC^® Pros to share the websites they use most often for researching their medical-related cases. I invite you to bookmark your favorites.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Offers links to clinical information and current clinical research.

American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)
Offers links to journals, policies, position statements, references and resources pertaining to family practice.

American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN)
Provides clinical resources, standards, journals, education and certification information for the critical care nurse.

American College of Physicians (ACP) PIER^® (Physician Information and Education Resource)
Comprises over 490 modules focusing on clinical topics as well as an extensive drug database and helpful patient information. Free to ACP members.

American College of Radiology (ACR)
Outlines standard of care, quality and safety resources, clinical research and news and publications.

American Heart Association
Provides statements, guidelines, clinical updates, news, continuing education, publications and statistics.

American Medical Directors Association
Supplies links to AMDA’s publications and products, news releases and resource library. Specific sections address the interests of medical directors and physicians who practice in long term care.

American Nursing Association (ANA)
Contains the nursing scope of practice including administration.

American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses (ASPAN)
Contains standards, education, links and publications.

Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN)
Contains education, standards of practice and peer networking for the OR nurse.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Promotes health, prevention of disease, injury and disability and preparedness for new health threats. Also provides intra-agency support and resource-sharing for cross-cutting issues and specific health threats.

CINAHL
Provides the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL^®), the most comprehensive resource for nursing and allied health literature.

Code of Federal Regulations – Title 42 – Public Health
Presents Chapter IV – Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services.

Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General
Allows you to check on the exclusion status of a healthcare provider or facility. Contains the list of sanctions and definitions of exclusions for Medicare fraud and other sanctions.

Elder Abuse Information
Helps you recognize and fight against elder abuse. Discusses different forms of elder abuse, causes and symptoms and gives the legal rights of the elderly.

Elsevier
Contains access to a variety of science and health information, books and journals.

eMedicine
Contains peer-reviewed online medical textbooks. Physicians continually update and revise this site. The standard format for each disease or condition includes diagnosis and treatment, differential diagnoses, and a list of additional references.

Federation of State Medical Boards
Contains a databank of board actions and physician disciplinary actions. Includes links to state medical boards.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Helps you investigate concerns about products in the FDA database.

Harrison’s Online
Features the complete contents of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, 17th Edition.

Health Medicine refdesk.com
Contains an alphabetical list of health and disease-related links useful as a starting point for finding medical literature and other sites.

The Health Pages
Allows you to search for a physician by name and state or by specialty practice. This site has more current contact information than other physician directory sites, particularly telephone numbers. Links to state medical boards offering physician discipline information and reports on physicians and facilities are planned for this site.

Healthcare Financing Administration
Links to Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP and other federal search resources.

Hippocrates Magazine
Contains clinical updates in primary care and practice management with access to archives and search features.

Infusion Nurses Society (INS)
Sets the standard for infusion care.

Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
Provides access to improvement knowledge and trustworthy content focused on healthcare quality across a broad array of topics.

Institute for Safe Medicine Practices
Presents links to newsletters, educational programs, medication safety tools and resources, articles, guidelines, products lists and reports.

Johns Hopkins Division of Infectious Diseases Antibiotic Guide
Provides information about infectious diseases and antibiotics. The site requires registration (free).

The Joint Commission
Accredits and certifies more than 17,000 healthcare organizations and programs in the U.S.

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
Offers the most widely circulated, peer-reviewed, general medical journal in the world.

Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience Database (MAUDE)
Gives links to reports of product and device failure and other information.

Mayo Clinic
Provides online resources for diseases and medical conditions, drugs and supplements and tests and procedures.

MDLinx.com
Contains links to 40 medical specialty websites for the latest developments and access to top journals. Also offers an email subscription service to alert you to news in specialties you select.

MedBioWorld
Contains links to publishers of medical and nursing journals in all fields and a complete list of all available journals worldwide.

Medical Library Association (MLA)
Provides educational opportunities, supports a knowledgebase of health information research and works with a global network of partners to promote the importance of quality information for improved health to the healthcare community and the public.

Medical Matrix
Provides ranked, peer-reviewed and annotated clinical medicine online resources for a variety of journals, texts, diseases and medical conditions.

Medical News Today – Litigation/Medical Malpractice News
Includes news and articles published daily on lawsuits, legislation, compensation claims, pharmaceutical company disputes and more.

Medicare
The official U.S. government site for Medicare.

MediLexicon
Contains searches, information, news and resources for the medical, pharmaceutical and healthcare professional, including medical abbreviations, medical dictionary, medical news, ICD-9 search, drug search, medical equipment and surgical instruments and other searches.

MedlinePlus^®
Presents health information from the National Library of Medicine.

Medscape
Supplies medical news, full-text journal articles and resource centers.

MedTerms
Clarifies difficult medical language as defined by doctors in easy-to-understand explanations of over 16,000 medical terms.

Merck Manuals Online
Contains links to search the Merck Manual of Medical Information, Merck Manual of Geriatrics and Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy.

Merck Medicus
Contains information specific to your specialty, including clinical tools, specialty textbooks, journals and professional societies.

Micromedex Healthcare Series
Contains information on drugs, diseases, acute care, toxicology and alternative medicine.

Mosby’s Nursing Consult
Offers a vast array of information relevant to nurses including 38 leading nursing textbooks, 38 leading full-text nursing journals, evidence-based nursing monographs, drug information and calculators, over 370 practice guidelines, 8,000 patient handouts, 8,000 images, “Best Practice” clinical updates, dictionary, MEDLINE, Mosby’s Index and nursing and medical news.

National Association for Home Care & Hospice
Represents the interests and concerns of home care agencies, hospices and home care aide organizations.

National Cancer Institute
Contains information on cancer topics, clinical trials, cancer statistics, research and news.

National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA)
Helps national, state and local partners in the field be fully prepared to ensure that older Americans will live with dignity, integrity, independence and without abuse, neglect and exploitation.

National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCBSN)
Offers links to most U.S. nurse practice acts, regulations and state boards of nursing.

National Guideline Clearinghouse
Serves as a public resource for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines.

National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO)
Promotes access to palliative care and to maintaining quality care for persons facing the end of life and their families.

National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs)
Delivers outlines and chapters for all applicable programs published by the Joint Commission.

National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP)
Contains online resources for pressure ulcer staging and links to public policy, education and research of pressure ulcers.

The New England Journal of Medicine
Contains a variety of clinically relevant medical information, including clinical and research articles, analysis and opinion articles and materials for both learning and teaching.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
Presents comprehensive information about OSHA regulations, services, safety programs and employee training manuals with news and an online library.

Oncologic Nurses Society (ONS)
Represents over 37,000 registered nurses and other healthcare providers dedicated to excellence in patient care, education, research and administration in oncology nursing.

Pam Pohly’s Net Guide – Medical Academies & Healthcare Professional Associations
Contains links to hundreds of healthcare societies, academies, professional organizations and associations.

PubMed
Comprises more than 19 million citations for biomedical articles from MEDLINE and life science journals. Citations may include links to full-text articles from PubMed Central or publisher web sites.

Spine Universe
Contains detailed information involving conditions, treatments and wellness surrounding the spine. Additional resources include links to clinical trials, glossary of terms, recommended textbooks about spinal anatomy, videos and animations.

STAT!Ref
Offers access to cross-searchable, full-text medical, nursing and pharmacology electronic textbooks from a wide variety of reputable authors, publishers and societies.

Surgical-Medical-New Terms Glossary
Offers the most complete list of medical products, devices and pharmaceuticals, with links to manufacturers’ websites and Food and Drug Administration information on each product.

UpToDate
Provides evidence-based, peer-reviewed-information resource for clinical knowledge and improved patient care. Available by subscription.

Wound Care Strategies
Contains products, education and news related to wound care.

Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society
Represents an international society of nurses who are experts in the care of patients with wound, ostomy or continence problems.

Wrong Diagnosis
Contains links to symptoms, diseases, diagnosis, videos, tools, misdiagnosis, doctors, hospitals, drugs and articles.

Thank you to Suzanne Arragg, RN, BSN, CDONA/LTC, CLNC; Laura M. Averette, RN, MSN, CPHRM, CLNC; Dale Barnes, RN, MSN, PhN, CLNC; Nikki J. Chuml, RNC, CCE, FMC, CLNC; Larry Frace, RN, CLNC; Margaret Gallagher, RN, BSN, MSN, CLNC; Dorene Goldstein, RNC, CLNC; Sandra Higelin, RN, MSN, CS, CWCN, CLNC; Jane Hurst, RN, CLNC; Camille Joyner, RN, CCM, CLNC and Mildred Mannion, RN, BSN, CNOR, CLNC for sharing the websites they use most to research their legal nurse consulting medical-related cases.

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Our CLNC^® Pros deliver their top techniques to boost the efficiency and thoroughness of your medical research.

1. Use only authoritative websites for medical research. Accessing research studies may require a fee which is billable to the attorney.
2. As a member of the NACLNC^® Association, Certified Legal Nurse Consultants have free access to the Internet’s preeminent legal nurse consulting resources including CLNC^® resource links, a peer-reviewed collection of hundreds of the best Internet links on medical, nursing and scientific research.
3. Simplify your medical research with the National Library of Medicine. From this site you can enter MedlinePlus^®, a comprehensive database of article summaries from international medical literature and also search biomedical journal literature from MEDLINE/PubMed.
4. Subscribe to MD Consult and conduct a minimal search for general and specific information. The site contains many authoritative and up-to-date text and journal references. As you review individual journal publications, you can search for more articles on specific topics, instead of starting a new search. This time-saver allows you to cross-reference pertinent literature and identify key search words during your original search. You can even identify literature that is critical of the researchers or their methods, sometimes with notes citing conflicting results from other studies.
5. Screen the case to analyze and prepare a brief overview of the essence of the case. This helps you focus on the relevant injuries, treatment protocols and causation issues when researching.
6. Always review the standards of any pertinent professional organization. You can identify the relevant associations through the Healthcare Standards Directory (HCS) Online. This ensures that you include these standards in your research so you don’t miss professional standards that aren’t found in your online search. For example, for an emergency room case, contact the American Board of Emergency Medicine. For an obstetrical case, contact the National Association of Neonatal Nurses and The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. These sites offer a wealth of information. Request the information these associations publish for consumers as well. The references cited in the bibliography of any standards are also useful.
7. Decide whether you want to conduct broadly defined research or narrowly defined research. This will shape the words that you use for your research. For example “GI bleed” is more broad than “stress-related mucosal bleeding manual ventilation.”
8. Keep your beginning search simple, then do a more complex search. Sometimes the simple things are the most pertinent to the case. Don’t make it harder than it has to be. Ask yourself what you really need to find, verify or compare. Recognize when enough is enough. Gain a sense of when you’ve got enough material and move on to applying the research to the case.
9. When searching for a primary subject, such as diabetes, remember to search at the same time for related issues relevant to the case, such as decubitus. This helps you avoid duplicating your efforts later.
10. Always check the bibliography of any journal article for additional research sources. While searching for general information in texts and Internet sources, make a list of the authors who are most widely published or referenced. This list could provide additional literature sources or potential testifying experts.
11. Make note of the medications and medical products used. Then search for any drug interactions or medical device incidents that could have contributed to the case in any way. Systematically reviewing this information keeps you from overlooking any potential product liability issues resulting from defective products. If you need to research a particular drug, or medical device, don’t overlook company sponsored websites.
12. Provide copies of the research articles to the attorney and highlight relevant information in the article to emphasize what is significant and to expedite the attorney’s review.

Thanks to Suzanne Arragg, RN, BSN, CDONA/LTC, CLNC; Laura M. Averette, RN, MSN, CPHRM, CLNC; Dale Barnes, RN, MSN, PhN, CLNC; Nikki J. Chuml, RNC, CCE, FMC, CLNC; Larry Frace, RN, CLNC; Margaret Gallagher, RN, BSN, MSN, CLNC; Dorene Goldstein, RNC, CLNC; Sandra Higelin, RN, MSN, CS, CWCN, CLNC; Jane Hurst, RN, CLNC; Camille Joyner, RN, CCM, CLNC and Mildred Mannion, RN, BSN, CNOR, CLNC for sharing their strategies for researching medical-related cases.

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Recently a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant contacted the Institute and told us about a subcontractor she’d hired. After completing the project, the subcontractor proceeded to list herself on several different social media sites as being associated with the contracting CLNC^® consultant. The subcontractor then used the contracting CLNC^® consultant’s “LinkedIn” profile and network to contact other parties announcing her association with the contracting CLNC^® consultant and marketing her availability to subcontract.

Looking at this through the subcontracting retro spectroscope, I believe that every CLNC^® consultant who is using subcontractors should include a “social media nondisclosure clause” in their subcontracting agreements. I don’t recommend hiding the existence of subcontractors from your attorney-clients and that’s not what this is about.
 
Simply speaking, your subcontractors should not use your social media and your connections for their own benefit, at least not without your expressed permission. I asked Tom to draft some language that you can add to your CLNC^® subcontractor agreements (with your contract attorney’s approval) and here’s the result:

SOCIAL MEDIA NONDISCLOSURE: Subcontractor agrees that throughout the term of this Agreement, and for a period of two (2) years after the termination or expiration of this Agreement, Subcontractor shall not, without the prior written consent of Company, in any way or in any form disclose, publicize, market or advertise to any contact of Company or any other person, party or company via any form of social media including, but not limited to, FaceBook, Twitter and/or LinkedIn, the fact that this Agreement exists, that you are working or have worked as a subcontractor with Company or any other facts regarding this Agreement and our relationship.

This may seem strict, but you don’t want your subcontractors marketing to, or associating with, your social media contacts. If they’re already a friend on FaceBook, you don’t want them discussing business on your Wall. As the legal nurse consulting world adapts to social media, so must our contracts.

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