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5 Strategies on How to Become a Legal Nurse Consultant with the Support of Mentors

5 Rules You Don’t Want to Break with LegalNurse.com’s Certified Legal Nurse Consultant Mentors

I just finished a mentoring call with a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant who broke five of my five rules you never want to break when seeking advice from a CLNC® Mentor. Check out the five rules and how she broke each and every one of them:

  1. Be clear about what you want. In your mentoring request be sure to include any pertinent facts that might affect the CLNC Mentor’s response. The CLNC consultant I mentored didn’t disclose all of the facts, only those that supported a bad decision she made. My legal nurse consulting skills analyzing medical records and probing witnesses came in handy and I was able to extract what she wasn’t disclosing. The CLNC Mentors can’t always read your mind. When you leave out relevant facts you risk getting the wrong advice.
  2. Thoroughly review the CLNC Mentor’s response before seeking additional advice. If the CLNC Mentor leaves you a voicemail, listen to the entire message (twice) and make notes before you delete it. If the CLNC Mentor sends an email response, thoroughly review the response and any associated attachments. When I started talking, it was immediately obvious that this legal nurse consultant hadn’t read my email or the attached document I had critiqued and sent back to her. She was not prepared to discuss her own mentoring request and wanted to start over from scratch. My time is valuable and so is yours as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Every minute you spend trying to “get up to speed” is a minute you could be billing an attorney and a minute I could be spending mentoring a prepared Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. What’s worse is that from her response I immediately inferred that if she was willing to waste my time, she would be wasting her attorney-client’s time too. And guess what? She had been going around and around with her attorney-client on the same issue.
  3. Never argue with the CLNC Mentor. You can disagree, but keep it professional at all times. After the Certified Legal Nurse Consultant finally opened and read my response and the attached document, she then proceeded to argue about the advice received. The problem was she had made several bad decisions with the attorney-client and it was going to be uncomfortable for her to undo them. That’s when she decided it was better to argue with me about why she was right rather than attempt to fix the bad moves she had made with the attorney.
  4. Be prepared to buck up and follow the advice given. The CLNC consultant asked me for advice on how to proceed with the attorney-client. When I gave her what I thought the two best options would be, she didn’t like either and reverted back to arguing. It was obvious she had no intention of following my advice, so why bother to ask for it?
  5. Don’t expect the CLNC Mentor to make business decisions for you. This is your legal nurse consulting business. You, and only you, are ultimately responsible for the decisions you make regarding your CLNC business. Neither of the two viable options I had given her had perfect outcomes because she had made a wrong decision from the beginning that set her up for an imperfect ending. “Vickie, just tell me what to do.” What to do? Well I’d already given her the best two options and the impact of each. But asking me to make a business decision that could affect her relationship with an attorney-client? No way. The job of a CLNC Mentor is to advise you, help you weigh the risks and possible outcomes and let you make the decision that works best for you. At the end of the day your legal nurse consulting business is your responsibility. You have to make the tough decisions. Some will be right, some will be wrong but they’re all yours. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. But one of the joys of being in business is being responsible for your own outcome. That’s what entrepreneurs thrive on.

Back to the mentoring call. Once her crying ended (just kidding 🙂 ), this legal nurse consultant knew what she needed to do and all I can hope for is that she did it.

Now that I’m freed up for the next mentoring call – I’m ready for you if you’re ready for me. LOL!

I’m Just Sayin’

P.S. Click here to read more on working with a CLNC Mentor.

P.P.S. Comment and share whether or not you’ve broken any of these 5 rules with a CLNC Mentor.

2 thoughts on “5 Rules You Don’t Want to Break with LegalNurse.com’s Certified Legal Nurse Consultant Mentors

  1. Very well said, Vickie. I admire all your and your mentor’s expert advice.

    Time is valuable in the Certified Legal Nurse Consulting business. We become skilled in consulting attorneys and thus great communicators…but, poor communication can cause confusion and loss of trust from your clients.

    Attorneys went to school to become the best arguers in the country on their client’s behalf. This story made me think; you yourself Vickie, were educated to argue cases and your patience shines in your mentoring. Even though she took your time, maybe she will learn something.

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*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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