April 15th is just around the corner and for many nurses tax season serves as a rude awakening. This time every year we’re forced to run the numbers and take a long, hard look at our true financial picture. Unfortunately for many of us, the end result is always the same: we pony up to Uncle Sam and then push everything our tax forms revealed to us to the back of our minds… until next year. Maybe it’s time to ask these four questions instead:
Certified Legal Nurse Consultants don’t just work with attorneys. They also apply their CLNC® experience to corporations. Catherine Glenz, RN, BSN, CHISP, CLNC shares how her employer, Microsoft®, recognizes the value of her CLNC® Certification in her role as a subject matter specialist and nurse executive. Watch and listen to the variety of ways Cathy puts her CLNC® Certification to work at Microsoft.
30 years ago, one of my favorite attorney-clients labeled me a communication specialist. Little did I know when I started my legal nurse consulting business how much and how fast communications options and methods would change.
While visiting temples on my biking trip in Japan, I learned about the Japanese concept of “ikigai.” A loose translation is “your reason for being.” I like to think of it as the reason you get out of bed in the morning, your passion and purpose in life.
We all have a story. Sometimes our story is about the family we’ve raised, our CLNC® business or the problems we’re struggling with. For most of us, our stories define who we are. How and what we think of ourselves is only in the context of our story.
Today I’m sharing one of my favorite excerpts from my book Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman. Every time I read this excerpt I laugh and am instantly transported back to Kyoto.
In Lewis Carroll’s book Through the Looking Glass (more commonly known as Alice in Wonderland) the White Queen and Alice have an exchange that goes:
2012 is upon us, yet for many over-extended nurses it feels like just another mile marker in an endurance race going nowhere. Depressing, but true. We trudge through the week at a dreary job, drive home fretting about money and spend our evenings robot-walking through the usual haze of homework battles and half-finished chores. Passion and fulfillment? Nope, just sheer survival. And the worst part is, most nurses accept that this is just how it is.
Successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultants know that being nice always pays off with your attorney-clients, subcontractors, vendors and employees. Being nice in no way implies that you are weak or have to kowtow to someone else’s whims, nor does it mean you’re always agreeable or a pushover. Being nice can mean that you have the ability to deliver an unpleasant message or opposing viewpoint while coming from a place of professionalism rather than emotion or antagonism.
I started my legal nurse consulting business with the intention of testifying, but working behind the scenes with attorneys was how I really built my business. Despite that fact, I was always open to testifying and did so occasionally. And that’s exactly what you should do when your attorney-client asks you to testify. That’s right, go ahead, say yes!
*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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