nurses

One of my favorite quotes by Shinichi Suzuki states: “What we’re doing here is so important, we’d better not take it too seriously!” I think CLNC^® consultants excel at this in part because of our background in nursing. As nurses, we deal in serious subjects: death, disease and dismemberment – just to name the fun parts of the job. Then there are the short staffing and floating issues, arrogant doctors and administrators who are out of touch.

In order to handle all the stress, nurses have to develop a sense of humor which outsiders might find strange to say the least. Nurses can find the humor in just about any situation. And nurses even have a sense of humor about their own health crises. Recently I rode an ambulance with a good friend (also a nurse) who was being transported. In the E.D. she said “Vickie, please don’t tag me on Facebook in that ambulance photo.” I promise I didn’t even take a photo, but her sense of humor reassured me that she was at least stable.

When we become Certified Legal Nurse Consultants and start working with attorneys, the game changes: or does it? Suddenly instead of seeing patients who recover, we see a higher percentage of catastrophic injuries and plaintiffs seeking redress and compensation, often with no hope of recovery. It can depress us if we let it. When this game changer occurs, do you change your game or do you approach your legal nurse consulting business with the same sense of humor as you did your nursing practice? I’d recommend keeping your sense of humor.

What we do as CLNC^® consultants is serious, but if you catch yourself taking yourself too seriously step back and remember what Suzuki said; “What you’re doing is so important you’d better not take it, or yourself, too seriously!” Take some time today to have a laugh with an attorney-client. It’s good for the relationship as well as your soul.

Success Is Inside!

I love the comforts of my home and my cozy neighborhood. Being home is like experiencing a steaming cup of green tea – it just feels right. I also love traveling to new places and have hiked and biked all over the world.

And then there’s the business travel I do for nine or 10 weeks a year. The hotels I stay in don’t come close to the comforts of home nor do they rival the remote and adventurous places I’ve been. Wherever I go though, I have to deal with one of the most deteriorating, surviving industries in the U.S. – the airline industry. But this blog is not a rant about airlines. I’ve done that one already.

Today’s blog is about happiness. I’m not one to advocate “Barbie-Dolling” it (don’t you just hate that?), but one thing I’ve learned is that the happier I am, the happier I am. Happiness is not only contagious to others, it’s contagious to ourselves. My grandmother had multiple sclerosis, yet she was one of the happiest people I’ve known. She taught me that happiness is not a condition – happiness is a choice.

I don’t always wake up happy, but wherever I am, I try to focus on the part of the experience that is good. For example, I might not like the bed in my hotel room but I am passionate about teaching and mentoring nurses in person. The CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Seminars and my speaking engagements require the occasional uncomfortable bed.

Gratitude is an antidote to unhappiness. Life will always throw us curveballs, fastballs and, just when you think you know what’s coming next, the occasional change-up. Being happy to the core helps us to hit them back – no matter how fast they are or how many come our way.

Attorneys are like you and me. They enjoy being around happy people. I recently mentored a legal nurse consulting student who refused to move out of the drama of a negative experience. For two weeks she dwelled on something that was easily solved in three minutes. My advice to her was: “Move on and choose happiness. You’ll be happier and your attorney-clients will be happier.”

That is what I wish for you too – whatever challenge you face today, choose happiness first. You’ll find it’s contagious and suddenly you’ll knock that fastball out of the park!

Success Is Inside!

The government recently announced that it would fund a billion-dollar government-run drug development center to help create new drugs. The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences will be tasked with creating new drugs and, according to the Director of the NIH, “any project that reaches the point of commercial appeal would be moved out of the academic support line and into the private sector.”

I already have strong feelings about the government’s involvement in the private sector and business. I have even stronger feelings about the government spending enormous amounts of taxpayer money to get into the pharmaceutical business.

We also need to ask who will be responsible and liable for the defective or dangerous drugs that will reach the market. Who will pay for the lives damaged by the unforeseen side-effects of these government-created drugs? The federal government will certainly cloak themselves with immunity. The private sector distributors or marketers will certainly negotiate their own liability to a minimum. Does this mean that all government drugs will carry a disclaimer of liability? Has anyone asked, much less answered, these questions?

I asked my nursing and Certified Legal Nurse Consultants friends on Facebook what they thought of the announcement. Here are some of their responses:

“I work in government – it seems to me if the concern is the slow pace, putting it in the hands of bureaucrats will not help.”

“The Government has absolutely no business in the private sector. Big problem currently. I would encourage everyone to go back and read the documents of our Founding Fathers and then ask yourselves these two questions. How in the world did Americans survive and thrive for the first 150 years or so? Why are Americans becoming more unhealthy and dying at younger ages? I don’t believe the increasing health issues are related to a lack of drugs that’s for sure.”

“This stinks. How many more chemicals are we going to throw into people’s bodies? How many more heart attacks, strokes, paralysis, etc are we going to cause by using invented medicines? Maybe doing research on alternative supplements would be the better suggestion. There may be more money in prevention…wow prevention.”

“If God meant us to eat from a carton or heal ourselves from a bottle, he would have hung those items on the trees or stacked them on the forest/ocean floors for us to find!”

“My first thought is that soon we will ALL be working for the government regardless of what field we are in! From my understanding, the FDA takes a long time to approve the use of any new drugs, much longer than many other countries. I wonder if this process will speed up when the government is making the new drugs?”

“I look at it this way! Where is the government when it comes to regulating cost of insurance? Well we’ve all seen what that has cost the nursing field… more patient to nursing ratio without regards to what it cost as far as quality nursing care. I feel that it will be a great injustice to the welfare of future nurse patient care. Lord Please help us all if this comes to pass.”

“No! Government is too involved in health care as it is.”

“Government has all it can handle dealing with government. They don’t need to be involved in developing drugs, banking or any other business.”

“This can best be done in the private sector. If the government would have stayed out of healthcare to start, new drug research would continue apace. Show me anything the government has done in a cost-effective efficient manner! It doesn’t happen. And where is the constitutional authority for federal government drug development?”

“I think the government has more than enough on their plate as it is without trying to branch out into places it knows just about nothing about!”

“If the government delves into research and development, who will provide oversight?”

“Although I don’t believe that the government needs to “control” our health care, I do believe that in this day and age and in this great country everyone deserves access to quality health care! The drug and insurance companies are running-or should I say ruining our country.”

“Fiscally, there is always the catch that government is spending someone else’s money for someone else’s benefit – Never a fiscally sound arrangement!”

“We have become so dependent on pharmaceuticals in this country! We want tiny little pills to fix everything – including poor decision making! Now please excuse me while I go pour another cup of coffee and snack on some potato chips!”

“The federal government should keep their hands off of drug research. The federal government shouldn’t waste their energies but rather concentrate on economic problems pertaining to healthcare like the jobless RN professionals who settle for a meager income. Think of a decent program for the new RN grads.”

“I am an RN who has thirty years of pharmaceutical clinical research experience and this is the scariest thing that I have heard yet. People may balk about the 10 years and one billion dollars in research money that it takes to develop a drug but this is how we ensure that patients are safe and our drugs are safe. Hasn’t the government gotten in the way of enough? Who makes them experts on research? Where are the statisticians, chemists, preclinical people and clinical people to develop these compounds? Scary as all heck.”

As you can see, not a single nurse thinks this is a good decision. Here’s another interesting question: Why are nurses left out of these important decisions?

Success Is Inside!

This holiday season everyone has different wishes, hopes and expectations. Children experience Christmas so differently than we adults do. Sharing the joy of a child at Christmas is one of the most beautiful things I’ve experienced. Especially when they get the one gift they’ve always wanted their entire lives.

This year I hope you receive, if not everything you want, at least the one thing you want most!

Happy Holidays!

P.S. Comment and share the one thing you want most.

I’d like to offer special congratulations to one of my staff members, Evie Baron-Hernandez, who recently walked the stage to receive her college diploma. Many of you know Evie and she’s a model of commitment, both to Vickie Milazzo Institute for 13 years and to getting her degree.

Evie obtained her degree online while juggling a career, a beautiful 6-year-old son, her extended family and her wonderful husband. Many people’s lives and Vickie Milazzo Institute would not be the same without her. I was so pleased to be able to celebrate her success with her and her family at not just one but two fun graduation parties. Here’s a quick video of how Evie did it and what she wants you to know about launching and growing your CLNC^® business.

Unlike most legal nurse consultants, I’m on the road about 20 weeks a year and that means that I’m on a minimum of 40 flights a year – and it’s usually a lot more counting short hops, vacations, family visits and our CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Seminars across the country. Yes, I do have Gold frequent flyer status on Continental, but all that guarantees me is early boarding and sitting near the front of the plane behind the Platinum and Million-Mile members. I’m close enough to see them up in first class sipping champagne, eating lobster thermidor and generally cavorting about in a carefree manner, at least until the flight attendant pulls the velvet curtain that separates “us” from “them.” I don’t get upgraded to first class as often as I’d like to.

Lately Continental has been stingier with their upgrades and as I write this, I’m sitting in 9C. On this 757-300 (it’s scary that I can tell the aircraft type by the restroom configuration), this means an aisle seat in coach for me. Tom’s in 9A, a window seat, hunkered-down in his favorite don’t-bother-me-please position. Thanks to fewer, more crowded flights, Continental has sentenced us to 3½ hours of false imprisonment (look it up – the only exit is by parachute). Tom’s laptop barely fits on his lap so he’s claiming it’s impossible to type (I think he just wants to read my copy of Outlander). To drown him and everything else out I’ve put on my Bose headset and cranked up “Novacaine” by Green Day on my iPod (thank you Steve Jobs) and, in the words of the song, “For now I won’t feel a thing.”

Of course this will end. Soon they’ll close the cabin door and if I’m lucky, the person who ends up in the middle seat won’t hack up a lung or kidney or won’t be a professional wrestler, like on our last flight (Tom swapped him for the window seat to sit next to me but then Tom was scared to ask the guy to take his huge bald head off his shoulder when he fell asleep). For now I had to listen to the woman in the row in front of me with the cell-phone voice tell her friend about her frightening medical condition (and they worry about nurses and HIPAA) or I can rock out with my iPod and people-watch during the boarding process.

It’s sort of fascinating in the way that it’s fascinating to watch a train wreck. People getting on have all different looks. There are the business people in suits who furtively glance toward first class to see if it’s really full. They next get that look of despair (that I share) after realizing they’re really in the back and that their Double-Platinum Premium card won’t be any help at all. Then come couples of all ages, usually going on vacation. They look happy, in love and it brightens my heart to see them. Like Tom and me, they get to share the experience and tell each other “that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” I see the singles who avoid the checked-bag fee by rolling bags the size of a small car onto the aircraft, bouncing them down the aisle and then wrenching their back and shoulders trying to unsuccessfully stuff them into the already full overhead compartment.

Soon families start boarding – they often end up sitting near the back for some reason. You can hear the small children asking, “Is this our seat? Is this our seat? Is this our seat?” until they get all the way back to 96F (by the restroom). Personally, I like to see the children who, unlike the parents, are thrilled and looking forward to the experience of flying (they’ll learn). They still have joy associated with new adventures and will get to experience their parents undivided attention (at least until the in-flight movie begins).

As I watched the parade, Tom was so wrapped up in typing a fresh, new Tech Tip that no less than two surly flight attendants came by to tell him, in no uncertain terms, that he was threatening the safety of not only all the other passengers, but possibly the destiny of the free world. This was because he still had his headset, Blackberry^® and laptop on and, if he didn’t want to say hello to the business end of the air marshal’s Sig-Sauer pistol, it was time to shut things down. As luck would have it, at that exact moment, my own cell phone rang with a call from the one person I really needed to talk to so I answered it. This put me, but not Tom, on the watch list for the next three hours. As a consequence, not only did I not get my four ounces of TSA-approved fluids but I did get special “inattention.” In other words, the flight crew overtly watched me, but assiduously avoided making eye contact in case I needed something.

I can deal with that. I’m a nurse, I’m self-sufficient. I travel with teapot, table and tent. I’ve got water, snacks, my own sanitized pillow and freshly-washed blanket. (Okay, just kidding on the last two, but it’s actually not a bad idea!) But what I really want is – quiet. Once we’re in the air, I have about three hours to work on whatever I want – blogs, my NACLNC^® Conference speech (overdue) or creating a new product for Certified Legal Nurse Consultants. At least until the person in front of me reclines their seat back onto my lap forcing me to do Sudoku (Just joking, what is Sudoku anyway?) until we land in foggy San Francisco.

That’s the point behind this blog. If you have to work on a plane, be sure you have the right equipment. Bose noise-reducing headphones and fresh batteries are a must. Check. My fully-charged iPod loaded with all my favorite music, a trash book and plenty of magazines. Check. Laptop computer and spare battery. Check – sort of.

Tom the techie loves his super powerful laptop with its 17” screen (he could probably fly the plane with it). But I love my small netbook with its 10” screen. When it comes to laptops, size doesn’t matter (laptops I said). I took Tom’s advice and purchased a netbook for functionality, not form. It’s not as powerful as Tom’s, but to his chagrin, I can work on it just about everywhere and it will even fit in one of my larger purses. It’s got a built-in Verizon wireless card so I can connect to the office from anywhere. I’m sure he’s jealous (especially right now) but would never admit it to me.

In my Houston office, I’ve got a regular desktop computer but at home, my laptop fits into a docking station and sits there ready to go wherever I want to go. Tom recommends laptops for Certified Legal Nurse Consultants on the go and I agree. Just be sure that you buy one that fits what you do. If your legal nurse consulting business is fairly stationary, a cost-effective desktop might be right for you.

If you think you’ll want the convenience of working from different locations, you’ll want a laptop. Just buy one that fits your business needs and your personal needs. Buy smart and you’ll only have to buy once. Be sure to check out Tom’s technical recommendations in the NACLNC^® Community first.

When we were shopping for my laptop, Tom showed me lots of them. What seemed to separate them the most were the different screen sizes. We knew I’d plug it into a dock with external monitors at home, so screen size didn’t matter. What I really wanted was something portable that wasn’t too heavy to carry around. That’s why I ended up with a powerful netbook (Tom says that’s an oxymoron but he’s just jealous.). It’s not the fastest, envy-inspiring laptop in the world, but, while Tom’s having to hold his up to his chest like a large accordion and type sideways, I’ve got mine on the tray table and I’m working away. The keyboard fits my fingers, the battery lasts a long time, it doesn’t weigh much and I’ve loaded it with photos of my great niece Reese.

In the meantime, once I’m done with this blog, I’m going to retrieve a bottle of water and have a healthy snack out of my carry-on bag to refresh my energy level before I start the next project. I work better when I’ve refueled and it helps me cope with all the cry-babies on the flight – especially the adults with laptops that are too big. Hey, I’ve got the tools I need to be successful and hopefully now so do you.

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’ve been working with and around Certified Legal Nurse Consultants for a long time and one of the things I’ve learned is that nurses are generally germ-o-phobics. Vickie tells me nurses don’t sit on toilets – they squat. I’ve seen nurses walk out of restrooms with their hands mummy-wrapped in paper towels so that they don’t have to touch the door handle. All CLNC^® consultants know that there are a lot of scary germs out there and they do their best to avoid the obvious ones.

But, here’s something I’ll bet you didn’t know. According to a study by Dr. Charles Gerba from the University of Arizona, there are more germs on your cell phone than on a toilet seat. Healthcare workers’ cell phones carry more germs than those that belong to us mere tech-types. (We have our own issues with dirty keyboards and mice.) Now, not too many of you will walk or drive around town talking to your attorney-clients with a toilet seat pressed to your ear but you’re doing much worse when you talk to them using your cell phone. I suppose a wireless headset might keep the germs at a distance but you’re still transmitting them back and forth every time you handle your phone. The good news is that as long as you only use your own phone, whether it’s for your legal nurse consulting business or anything else, you’re probably not at too much risk (unless you’re in healthcare).

For the real germ-o-phobes, instead of wiping down your phone every time you unholster it, consider purchasing a “skin” for your phone from iSkin. They make a variety of products for iPhones^®, BlackBerries^® and more that contain Microban^® antimicrobial protection. This won’t be a fail-safe, but at least it will make your cell phone a little safer (unless you drop it into the toilet). Check them out for yourself!

Keep on techin’ (germ-free),

Tom

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.