nurse

You know that thing you have always wanted to do? I confess I am often perplexed by a person who can never for the life of them achieve a goal they’ve set for themselves. They set the goal, they want the benefits of achieving that goal and then that’s the end of it.

For example, a nurse wants to start a legal nurse consulting business to earn more money and have more free time for family. Great goal, but then the reality check: reaching that goal is going to require work, like working before it’s time to report to that full-time job at the hospital, plus working again after getting home from that hospital job and, oh yeah, working on that coveted weekend off. And did I mention work?

I spend a lot of time with nurses all over the U.S. Some of them have a difficult time relating to my success until I remind them I started out just like they are going to have to – with a full-time job at the hospital. Plus, I had to work overtime just to pay my mortgage. To launch my legal nurse consulting business, I was going to have to work. That was okay. After all, nurses aren’t afraid to work. When this mouthy, opinionated, Italian girl faced the choice of working really hard for the rest of my life at a dead-end job, or to get to work on me, you know what I chose.

If you want to succeed as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, today I only have three words of advice: Get to work!!!

Success Is Inside!

We all know the person whose life would be totally different and of course much better if only “Y” had happened instead of “X.” The mantra never changes. “If Y had happened, then I could have done X” or “If only W had done Z, then my life would be different” or “If Q was different, I’d be different” and, my personal favorite, “If only Y had happened, I’d be happy or successful or married,” or whatever.

What successful people, especially successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultants, do is live in the world of “what next”, not in the world of “what if”. If an attorney-prospect says “I’m interested, let’s stay in touch”, the CLNC^® consultant knows what’s next and does just that. The CLNC^® consultant doesn’t go into the space of “If the attorney had just given me the case today, I’d be on my way to quitting my job at the hospital.”

The first attorney-prospect I connected with asked me to call him two weeks later because he was preparing for trial. I waited two weeks and called, but he never returned my call. I called again; he still didn’t return my call. I called a fourth time and on that day he took the call. The rest is my legal nurse consulting history. It wasn’t easy during those waiting periods, but I stayed out of the “what if” space and just continued to move in the “what’s next” space. I didn’t allow “If he didn’t have that trial then…” or “If he’d just returned my phone call then…”; if I had, I predict I never would have made the fourth call and I wouldn’t be where I am today.

The only “what ifs” in your life and your legal nurse consulting business should be the “what if” questions you ask yourself about what you should be doing at this very moment.

• What if I make five sales calls right now?
• What if I practice my interview questions before I meet with that attorney-prospect?
• What if I call that attorney-client back right now?
• What if I turn off that TV and turn on my commitment to taking action on my legal nurse consulting business?

Now it’s my turn to ask you a “what if” question. What if you did all these things you know you’re supposed to do? Answer: Hmmm.

Success Is Inside!

An email titled Send This to Everyone in New York Who Handles Nursing Malpractice Cases was forwarded to me by one of my attorney-clients. The author was the managing partner of New York City’s largest medical malpractice firm. For the last six years, I had been trying to think of a creative way to get referrals from this firm. Vickie’s blog on intuitive vision was still fresh in my mind. I knew immediately that I had to stop reviewing a complex medical record, put the day’s usual business on hold and focus on this potential opportunity.

This partner described a complex home health care case that had been won by the defense and just reversed by the appellate court. Essentially the court opined that the RN who administered an IV steroid as ordered by the physician was negligent for failing to ensure that epinephrine, which was not ordered by the physician, was available in case the patient experienced anaphylactic shock. I decided to get a little playful and titled my email My Two Cents. I started my opinion in a succinct, professional manner.

To my surprise, the response came in the form of an immediate phone call from the partner himself. My CLNC^® education from Vickie Milazzo Institute prepared me to deliver my two-minute unique selling position (USP). I was thrilled to be invited to discuss my experience with nursing chain-of-command issues at the law firm.

The attorney scheduled a full hour with me prior to the presentation, and after 15 minutes, he called the RN in charge of coordinating nurse expert reviews. He said, “Put Margaret at the top of the list for expert reviews.”

The presentation was attended by 74 attorneys who work solely with medical malpractice cases. Within a week of that presentation, I started to receive referrals and cases.

Acting on my intuition that day not only opened the door to an ongoing opportunity, but also helped me to grow my CLNC^® business even more.

Guest Blogger Profile

Margaret M. Gallagher, RN, BSN, MSN, CLNC has been a staff nurse, RN educator and senior nursing and hospital administrator for over 30 years. She founded Patient Care Executive Consulting in 2004 and became a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant in 2005. She is an assistant professor at Wagner College in Staten Island and has reviewed over 800 medical malpractice cases.

Remember when you were in grammar school and had to write reports? Remember how the students with the best handwriting always got better grades? When I clicked to that fact I concentrated on making my handwriting as neat as possible, hoping to score a bonus point or two. And except for my grades in conduct, I did a great job of accomplishing that goal.

First impressions are indeed lasting in all aspects of life and that fact is especially true for Certified Legal Nurse Consultants and their attorney-clients. My first subcontractors were my typist’s children. She had eight kids and I used seven of them in my business through the years. They became excellent assistants, pulling the results of my research from the shelves of the medical library. I personally taught each and every one of them the art of making flawless, straight copies of those research studies. Their work contributed to the first impressions I was making with my attorney-clients.

My typist and I were both equally attentive to the appearance of the reports. By the time the attorney sat down to absorb them he was ready. Nothing (no typos, bad formatting or messiness) was getting in the way of his receiving, accepting and trusting my opinion. Our attention to impression also contributed to those attorneys becoming long-lasting clients.

Today I critique a lot of work product from legal nurse consultants and sometimes my best advice is “Go back and create a new first impression, because if you don’t, you won’t get a second chance with that attorney.” Your legal nurse consulting business, like life, isn’t a video game. You won’t get a mulligan, do-over or a reset button on an attorney-client.

You rarely get a second chance, so make your first impression count for real the first time.

Success Is Inside!

My favorite vacations include hiking. The more remote the trail, the more I enjoy the experience. While I don’t mind seeing people, I much prefer to share the trail with wildlife than “wild life.” Being in the woods recalibrates all of my senses and rebalances me.

I’m not the fastest hiker and I’m probably not the slowest either. But a common question I get when I share a hiking experience is “How many miles did you hike each day?” as though my answer could give them any insight into the experience. Like most sports, the time or distance alone tells an incomplete story. The experience is also about the intensity which is influenced by high altitude, elevation gains, trail conditions and even the weather.

Walking in my home town of Houston poses little challenge and because it’s so flat I can’t even call a 6-mile walk a hike. That makes it easy to walk but presents challenges when I’m trying to train for a real hiking trip. Over the years I’ve hiked in all sorts of conditions. The coldest hike (snow-shoeing really) was in sub-zero temperatures in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park and the hottest hike was across a lava field in Hawaii’s Volcano National Park. The worst conditions I’ve encountered were in the Torres del Paine mountains of Patagonia, crossing a long section of loose scree along a precipice during a cold and driving rainstorm and the scariest were in a grizzly bear-filled section of thick forest in Alaska (I let Tom carry the food pack on that hike). I enjoyed every one of these trips – especially after I was back at the lodge with a healthy glass of red wine in my hand.

The toughest and most intense hiking I’ve done was in Nepal. There, in the beautiful Himalayan mountains, I encountered not only long distances (one day I hiked 12 hours, not counting breaks), but also large altitude changes (I live at sea level) and thousands of stone steps. I couldn’t even tell you the distance I covered – I don’t remember, only the intensity of the experience remains.

When hiking, the intensity presents itself to you if you let it. The more intense the conditions, the stronger your body becomes. Over time you’re not only able to cope with the intensity but you miss it when it’s not there for you, like I do when I’m back home in Houston.

Intensity is easy to find when we’re in the woods or mountains. But what about when you’re in your office working on your CLNC^® business?

When you’re analyzing a medical-related case you have to create the intensity and the challenge. You have to consciously go deeper and faster, challenge your own assumptions and produce a work product that is richer than the last. The next time you sit down to work on a case, don’t ask yourself how many hours you worked, ask how intensely you worked. Your output is directly influenced by the answer you’ll be able to give to that question. I’ve often wished I could bill by the intensity, not the hour. What about you?

Success Is Inside!

Vickie,

When proofing a revised draft of a contract for my CLNC^® business, do I really need to read it word for word?

Julia, RN, CLNC

Hi Julia,

That’s a great question. Of course everybody’s preference is to generate a contract that will not require revisions. This works well with legal nurse consulting subcontractors who usually sign our contract without revision requests. This allows us to quickly move on to doing business together. In 29 years, I have only had two subcontractors request minor changes to our form contract. With vendors though, negotiations are more common. Especially with large vendors, it’s not unusual to have 5-10 drafts, depending on the vendor, size and type of contract (IT services company, software, hotel, etc.).

Once the negotiations start and the versions start flying back and forth, I often joke (or not) that I’m getting drafted to death, but sometimes it’s necessary. As the number of versions increases, it can quickly get harder and harder to keep track of the changes. One way I keep track of the documents is by writing “Live” and “Past” along with the dates on the top of each hard copy version. My preference is to proof a hard copy rather than the electronic version. Most of us read and proof more accurately from paper than from a computer screen. Also, I keep all printed and electronic versions in file folders for easy reference.

With Microsoft^® Word, you can use the track changes feature which shows the additions and deletions made by the parties. The document can get pretty “busy,” so once we hit a certain level of agreement on the changes I’ll accept the changes/deletions to create a “clean” document. Then we can continue the editing process, but fresh, with fewer changes to track.

When reading a contract from one draft to another, the experienced Certified Legal Nurse Consultant will always read and compare each draft to the prior draft word for word to ensure that nothing has been deleted or added either accidentally or intentionally. Word processing errors and text drops do occur, despite the best intentions of the parties involved. The best way to do a comparison reading is to lay each contract side by side and read and compare them one paragraph at a time.

“Lazy” legal nurse consultants can also just compare the first or last word in each line of each paragraph in one contract to the other to ensure they match. This isn’t a perfect system but can be quick. Another more accurate but still “lazy” method is to hold each page from the contract against a sun-lit window and then lay the corresponding page from the other draft on top of the first page. You can then compare text and look for text drops or spacing changes. I shouldn’t even be telling you these “lazy” tricks because neither of them should be considered a replacement for a full read, especially on the final executed copies.

When you finally sign the paper copy of the contract you’ve so carefully negotiated, you want to be sure that what you get back from the other party is what you sent them. My solution is to initial and date the bottom of each page in blue ink. When the fully-executed copy is returned to you, it will be clear there have been no page “substitutions.” We also sign our contracts using blue ink. This will always help you distinguish the original from a copy. If we’re sending the final versions over for signature, I sign the contract in advance. This process helps guarantee the other party signs the copy we sent.

We often scan and email a signed copy of the contract and we accept scanned copies of executed contracts as final. What matters to the Institute is that we have a final signed contract, no matter the method by which it is sent.

Finally, make sure you file the original signed version in a secure location (hard copy and electronic) so that you’ll be able to locate it quickly. Be sure to calendar the expiration of the terms and the dates of any notices that must be filed.

Success Is Inside!

On a trip to Dallas, Tom and I decided to splurge and take a rare dive into the breakfast buffet. We had a long day ahead of us and figured we’d at least have a good meal to start us off. I’m not normally a fan of buffets, but it was included in our room package so I figured what-the-hey – I can eat as little or as much as I want.

The chef was making omelets to order and I went to town. A little garlic and herbs, some chopped bell pepper, cilantro, onions, jalapenos, mushrooms, maybe a little more garlic, and once the masterpiece was complete, I had the chef finish it off with cheddar cheese inside and sprinkled on top after it was “folded.”  I’ll let you in on my secret to perfect omelets: I have the chef sauté the ingredients for a few minutes before he folds them into the eggs – you get a much richer taste that way. I can easily pass on all the waffles and sweet stuff that people enjoy on breakfast buffets, but I do love my omelets.

That morning, Tom and I were getting ours made at the same time.  I told the chef that I wanted a smaller omelet than Tom’s. When I came back to pick it up, ours were exactly the same size! Tasty, but much more than I wanted.

As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, are you serving your attorney-clients the same size omelets? Sure the ingredients will be different from case to case, but attorneys come in all shapes and sizes. Don’t be a robo-chef. You might be mixing together different ingredients into your legal nurse consulting work product and think you’re giving each attorney-client something unique, but if you’re using that chef’s one-size-fits-all philosophy and treating all your clients as if they want the same size omelet, you are the one who is missing out.

Make sure that as a CLNC^® consultant you’re really giving each attorney-client the dish they’ve ordered, not just the one you want to prepare. That’s how you’ll keep them happy.

Success Is Inside!

Lorraine Perrit, RN, MSN, OCN, CLNC shares how she became involved as a CLNC^® consultant in class action litigation against the tobacco industry through her involvement on a case with an attorney. These tobacco cases are now taking up most of her time as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant.  Take a moment to view Lorraine’s CLNC^® Success Story and the benefits she has since enjoyed!

Congratulations Lorraine!

Success Is Inside!

Read Part 1.

“You wake up and your office is at your fingertips. You don’t have to drive anywhere. You don’t even have to get dressed if you don’t want to. You save money on utilities, office rental and other fees that come along with having an office. You can even deduct the portion of your home expenses that are used for your office (Ask your CPA for help). A home office provides you with a lot of flexibility and freedom. This freedom is one of the reasons I love being a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant.

When I first started my business full time I bought a very small two bedroom condo thinking this would be plenty of room for my home and my business. Within six months I found myself screaming out one day, ‘I need more space’ as the medical records came rolling in for new cases. I found a bigger place and my CLNC^® business has grown by leaps and bounds. Recently I moved from the desert to the beach. In my desire to save money I found a small condo to rent very close to the beach. It was bigger than my first condo but much smaller than the house I had just moved out of. I signed a lease and life was good. Within six months, history repeated itself and I found myself screaming out once more, ‘I need more space’ I was living in my office. I immediately began the search for just the right house that would serve as my home with an office instead of an office where I live.”

Sandra Higelin, RN, MSN, CS, CWCN, CLNC

“Flexibility, flexibility, flexibility. You can be at home with your children or relatives that need your help. You can be at home with your dog. You have more hours in the day because you don’t lose time commuting.

I have an assistant who helps me every day. She is a good worker and her fees are very reasonable. She doesn’t need a desk or a designated work space. She can work anywhere. I’ve even seen her use the floor. I really only have one complaint about her. She brings her babies to work – as you can imagine, that can be a problem. Sometimes she wants me to play with her babies when I’m trying to work. I can’t stay mad at her long because she really doesn’t understand my interruption policy. After all, she’s just a seven-year-old Schnauzer.

I remember one particular time when I was on the phone with an attorney-client discussing a case. Right in the middle of our conversation she decided to play with her babies (toys). One of her babies sounds just like a real cow mooing when it’s squeezed. Naturally, she had to stand in front of me squeezing it as fast as she could. I grabbed the toy and threw it out of my office door, but that made her sillier. She thought I was up for a good game of fetch. I was about to apologize to my attorney-client for the sound effects when he told me he knew I lived in a rural area, but he didn’t know my office was in a barn!”

Jane Hurst, RN, CLNC

“I love the flexibility that working from home affords me as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Nurses with children can arrange their daily schedules around their kids without that knot of anxiety they feel when they need to ask for a shift change to attend a doctor appointment or a school function. The same holds true for those caring for elderly parents. This past summer, I actually worked from the deck of my beach house overlooking the bay!”

Annmarie Johnson, RN, BSN, CLNC

“Working at home has to be the best decision I have made in recent years.  Because I have few interruptions, I am more productive than ever.  Working at home also allows me to be there for repairmen. My dog definitely likes me at home. Instead of taking a coffee break, we go for a walk, which actually clears my mind even better than coffee. I can also do my online banking, shopping and emailing, all from my workspace. And an added plus – my desk can be as messy as I need it to be.”

Camy Joyner, RN, CCM, CLNC

“The advantages of working from home are obvious and my favorite is that I put my professional standards to the test every day. I always turn out a great work product that I am proud of for my attorney-clients. Most important, I never take the opportunity to be my own boss for granted.”

Mildred Mannion, RN, BSN, CNOR, CLNC

“I arranged and decorated my home office space based on my preferences. There is no commute time involved so I get to work immediately and when it is convenient for me. I stay involved in my family’s life. It can be challenging at times, but with good planning and organization you can arrange your business hours around your family’s schedule and be successful at being a CLNC^® consultant, mommy and wife! Working from home also allows me the flexibility and comfort that are not often found in the office setting. Screening cases in comfy sweats feels great.

Recently I had a conference call scheduled with an attorney-client to discuss a case. Being a new mom to a five-month-old baby girl made organization and anticipation more crucial than ever before. I had everything set and staged for both my daughter and my CLNC^® business to allow this call to go smoothly and without a hitch. The attorney telephoned me and we were off and running. Halfway through the conversation my baby decided to exercise her new found voice and began shrieking, babbling, blowing raspberries and giggling so loud that my attorney-client naturally could hear her over me talking. We both began laughing so hard and he told me he thinks I have a future trial lawyer on my hands! The next thing I knew he went into a ten minute recap of his four children and how each one was as a baby. It was very touching and I listened attentively before gently redirecting him back to the business at hand. We were able to successfully complete our conversation with no more interruptions from the future trial lawyer who tired herself out and fell asleep in her bouncy chair!”

Julie Somen-Becker, RN, BSN, CLNC

“I always enjoyed evening shifts so I like that I am free to plan my day as I choose. I am more focused and work more efficiently in the late afternoon or early evening clinical shifts. I make my attorney appointments or phone calls during the usual daytime ‘business hours,’ take a break and then go back to work in the evening. It works for me.”

Linda Turner, RN, MSN, NNP-BC, CLNC

“When my son was about five years old, he fell and got hurt at school. When the school nurse asked him if his mommy was home so she could call me, he said, ‘Yea, my mommy is home. She doesn’t work; she just locks herself in a room all day and doesn’t talk to us until she comes out.’ The school nurse thought that was a little unusual. I am sure she was thinking about where the number to Child Protective Services was at that point. When she called to tell me not only about the fall, but also what my son had said, I explained my profession to her and that my CLNC^® business was set up as a home office. She laughed and said, ‘Boy, I wish I could work at home and have the luxury of working whenever I wanted to.’”

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

Success Is Inside!

I have been an RN for well over 35 years and became a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant last year. I now have my own very successful CLNC^® business.

I learned about legal nurse consulting by seeing Vickie Milazzo Institute ads for 15 years. During that time, I thought of becoming a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant but the timing was never right for one reason or another. Early in my career I felt I wasn’t experienced enough and midway through my career, life was happening with family and financial responsibilities. Last year, I saw the ad with Vickie’s photo once again and something just clicked inside me. Instinctively, I knew this was my next career move. Having worked in the home health care field for seven years, I loved the autonomy, the field work and the attachment to my patients and their families. However, I was getting quite tired of the constant bureaucratic demands. I was at the brink of burnout so the timing for me to pursue a career change was right. I quickly enrolled in the VIP CLNC^® Business System with financing.

I watched the DVDs for a total of 65 hours and soon scheduled my CLNC^® Certification Exam. Throughout the process of my newfound education, I was excited at the prospect of using my extensive nursing knowledge and experience, creating a business of my own, educating attorneys and others on medical issues (I love to teach) and continuing to help people.

I took the CLNC^® Certification Exam at a Prometric Testing Center, and I was so happy when the screen on the computer displayed my passing score that I cried for about 10 minutes. I was now a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. I went home, immediately put all my marketing materials together and mailed out 25 packets. Within three days, an attorney at the biggest law firm in my county called me to meet with him and his paralegal. He was very excited that I was so close. This firm does only personal injury and medical-malpractice cases. A few days later, I went to my first attorney meeting to sell my CLNC^® services. Unbeknownst to me, there were nine attorneys, three paralegals and three executive assistants waiting for me at this meeting. If this was a test for how I would do under pressure, I am proud to say I passed with flying colors.

During my interview, I focused on them and how I could help solve their problems (just like Vickie teaches). I asked several questions about what their biggest challenges were and how they were currently dealing with those challenges. I then explained how my CLNC^® services would enhance what they were already doing because I had the benefit of knowing the ins and outs of the hospital structure, workflows, hierarchy, etc. I emphasized that I have always analyzed, assessed, evaluated and made critical decisions about nursing and medical care. I addressed each of their challenges with confirmation that “this is why you need me” (sound familiar?). I emphasized the unique involvement of the paralegals and executive assistants and shared how I could help free them up to focus on their respective duties. After 45 minutes, I walked out of the office with nine cases to review. I worked on the three most urgent cases first and returned them within five days. My attorney-clients were very impressed at my timeliness, professionalism, ability to work with their staff and the quality of the reports I provided. I completed the other six reviews within seven business days and again they were very impressed. After the initial reviews, I helped prepare those nine cases for litigation and acquired new cases as well.

Incredibly in the first two cases, I discovered tampering of the medical records. The two attorneys working these cases were awed at my discovery. Both cases settled for significantly more than was previously anticipated. The ability to detect medical tampering has catapulted me to success with this law firm.

I was not at all afraid to put myself out there because I felt so confident with my clinical background, my experience and the education I received from Vickie in the CLNC^® Certification Program. Having prepared myself to market also helped me feel confident. I think preparation is key to anyone’s success. I know in my soul that I have a lot to offer any attorney who is willing to work with me, and with that mindset, I can’t fail. My standard of excellence gives me great confidence as well. You have to believe in yourself and what you are offering in order for others to believe in you too. Being focused, self-directed and clear in what you want to accomplish is absolutely crucial for success.

Transitioning from my full-time home health care job, where I was earning $120,000/yr to full-time CLNC^® consultant at $225/hr took me exactly four weeks. I consult with 12 attorneys in this firm, billing $8-10,000 a week on average. I have built a potential $500-600,000 a year business in the last six months. My goal is to create a $1 million business within the next two years.

My life has changed forever, in more ways than I can include here. These are just some of the highlights:

• I work from home: no commute, no traffic, no weather issues, no burnout!
• I built a brand-new 10,000 sq. ft. home.
• I created my own financial freedom.
• I built a successful CLNC^® business with a high profile in the legal community.
• I gained an abundance of new friends and business associates.

Of course, no success is possible without a support system. First and foremost, I thank God every day for my blessings. Many thanks to my husband and my mother for their endless support. Equal appreciation to Vickie for the amazing preparation I have been so privileged to obtain. As Vickie says: “We are nurses and we can do anything!”^®

Guest Blogger Profile

Carmen Stine, RN, BSN, CCM, CLP, CLNC has more than 35 years nursing experience in critical care, ER, Burn ICU, managed care, longterm care, home health care, hospice care, risk management, case management, and utilization management. Carmen specializes in medical-malpractice and personal injury cases. She is also a Certified Case Manager and Certified Life Planner.