Legal Nurse Tip – Experience Isn’t All It’s Chalked Up to Be

I recently mentored a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant who had completed a project for an attorney. She confessed that she knowingly went down a rabbit trail and spent too much time screening the case. The result – she was uncomfortable billing for all of her hours. I asked her to describe her plan for solving this issue and her response was, “I guess I’ll just chalk this one up to experience.” That was exactly the WRONG THING TO SAY to me, especially because of the way she acted like this just happens all the time in business. I was all over that like a goose on a bug.

“No, you don’t chalk it up to experience. No, you don’t write off your time or claim you’re gaining experience just because you ignored the model for success you learned in the CLNC® Certification Program. That time you want to write off, you will never get back. The time you want to write off would have been better spent solidifying your relationship with your attorney-clients, marketing to grow your CLNC business and working on other cases for $150 per hour. Lost time is lost money. Sometimes you have to chalk a mistake up to experience, but this is not one of those times. Why? Because you didn’t make a mistake. You consciously chose to do something you knew you should not do. With that conscious decision comes a conscious price you pay.”

I am all for making mistakes (I make at least one every day, sometimes before I even get out of bed). After all people who never make a mistake never make anything. But I am not into making just any mistake – especially not mistakes that are obvious and avoidable. Instead I aim for making intelligent ones. Making a bad choice and expecting a different outcome isn’t a learning experience, it’s insanity.

In the CLNC Certification Program I teach that when you do X, you will get Y result. For 38 years I’ve taken the Xs very seriously and that is why CLNC graduates get the enviable results they do. But if you choose to do Z, do not expect to get Y, and you shouldn’t be surprised by the pain either.

My motto is “Do what is right, not what feels easier at the moment.” And if you are uncertain, go back and review the pertinent portions of the Core Curriculum for Legal Nurse Consulting® textbook or request mentoring. It’s always better to take the time to prepare in advance than to lose the time, money and possibly an attorney-client because you didn’t.

Make it your goal to only chalk up to experience that which is enriching. This is how you grow yourself and ultimately your CLNC business.

Success Is Yours,

Vickie L. Milazzo, RN, MSN, JD