CLNC® Success Story: A Day in the Life of Certified Legal Nurse Consultant Patrick Stonich

My day starts at 5:30am because I know I will have at least two hours of silence without phones, emails or distractions from dogs and the rest of the world. Very strong coffee is a given. First I go through overnight emails and flag them for review or respond right away, but I never send emails until after 8:30am. If someone gets my email at 6:00am, they know I’m up working and will take that as game on. I always review my schedule to make sure I didn’t double-book or have new items that need immediate attention.

I then take a long walk outside with the dogs to get going and I get dressed to go to work. I try my best to post and/or respond to my feed on LinkedIn. I find if I spend 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes at the end of the day I get enough attention and a little marketing in.

Next I start reading and marking up my documents as scheduled. I ask my clients upfront if they want to see my progress in the comments section as I work with Adobe Acrobat. Some attorney-clients love it and some don’t want to see the comments. I track my time with my tracking program as I work. Breaks are a must and normally involve dog walks and lunch (sometimes with a client). I end my day by 3:00pm. In my house it is understood that my attorney-clients might call or text for an emergency, which we all know is never an emergency. I will take the call or respond to the text as a customer service gesture, but it will only be a few minutes of my time. If more time is required and it’s not urgent, I will schedule an appointment for the next day. I send weekly email updates to attorney-clients on open cases to check in and to address ideas.

I love working from home or on the road and sometimes even on extended vacations. I love when I have to travel for depositions or trials. I bring my family and my dogs with me which keeps my mind at ease and calm. It’s also fun to visit new places and extend the trip a day or two for vacation. Traveling with my dogs helps my brain, and I turn them into a marketing campaign with attorneys.

Guest Blogger Profile

Patrick Stonich, RN, BSN, BS, CLNC owner of Trickle Creek Group, LLC has more than 15 years’ nursing experience in trauma, CCU, long term care, home care, hospice, wound care and ostomy care. Patrick consults on medical-related cases for both plaintiff and defense attorneys.

P.S. Comment here to congratulate Patrick on his CLNC Success.

P.P.S. Read more CLNC Success Stories and send your CLNC Success Story to [email protected].