Carolyn Bilodeau, RN, BSN, MS, CLNC, Certified Legal Nurse Consultant shares why she is passionate about legal nurse consulting and how she easily tailors her career as a CLNC consultant to meet her needs and create a meaningful life at age 76.
Discuss Travel Expenses in Advance – If you’re traveling with an attorney-client or at his request as a CLNC consultant you should always discuss your travel expenses (e.g., airfare, meals, hotel and cancellation/change fees) and consulting fees in advance. You don’t want any surprises at billing time that may undermine the trust or good-will you have built up with that attorney.
It’s rare to find a home that has less than one computer. It seems like every Certified Legal Nurse Consultant’s household has a multiplicity of devices – laptops, desktops, smartphones and tablets. All are computers and, ignoring the wireless printing needs of the smartphones and tablets, need Internet and printer access. The simplest way to achieve this is through a home wired or wireless network.
My most memorable case was the very first one. For this, I received a 4 ft. tall stack of medical records which chronicled the final year of the patient’s life. The attorney contacted me after he had already determined the issues. That was too bad because, while the plaintiff was suing an acute rehabilitation unit within the hospital for the death of her husband, some of the problems were also incurred in the general hospital. An expanded focus might have addressed those issues.
As Certified Legal Nurse Consultants we give and receive in many different ways and our rewards are boundless. We receive numerous gifts each day – a smile of appreciation from an injured plaintiff or the gift of time with your family thanks to your legal nurse consulting business. Anything that brings lightness to your heart is an invaluable and immeasurable gift.
I’m at the point where I believe every Certified Legal Nurse Consultant needs a scanner for their CLNC business. You may not scan often but you will scan. The question then becomes, what type of scanner, flatbed or ADF (automatic document feed)?
Printers are an essential piece of business hardware for any Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. In the good ole’ days, a high-quality, crisp black and white color laser print out was a requirement when submitting report copies to your attorney-clients. For those of you that send printed, paper copies I think that’s still true. There’s nothing worse for an attorney than sitting down to annotate or highlight a document and having the ink smear across the paper and even more worse, getting it onto his white French-cuffs.
Janice Lange, RN, BSN, CLNC, and Joyce Gerdes, RN, BSN, CLNC, co-owners of L.E.G.I.T. Legal Nurse Consultants share how they found the key to winning a case for an attorney-client that three other consultants missed. They also share some of their secrets for gaining attorney-clients in eleven states. SPOILER ALERT: The secrets include calling, persistence, marketing to paralegals and my personal favorite – only using CLNC consultants as subcontractors.
Yesterday, a nurse at the Houston CLNC® Certification Seminar asked me, “How does it feel to be a celebrity?” My response, “I’m a working CEO (who, for the record, gets up at 4am every morning). I don’t have time to bask in admiration. Plus, if my head ever starts to swell, my staff is quick to remind me there’s real work to do. There’s nothing like 20 employees to help me keep it real.”
Last week I talked about desktop computer specs and promised to tell the Certified Legal Nurse Consultants the true Hollywood story of my new laptop purchase. As you can guess, I was picturing a sleek ultrabook. Something 1/8” thick, faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a Cray® XE6 and weighing less than a change of mind. Turns out I ended up with a 11”x19”x 1 ¾”, 7 lb. “desktop replacement.” I don’t have a problem with that because when I’m saving the free world on a daily basis, I need the computing power (You’re still here aren’t you?).
*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.
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