apparently there are over one million attorneys in the u. S. Today, and fully one-quarter of them are involved in one form of medical law or another. Medical lawyers know, however, that the specialized language of medicine requires someone well versed in that field and for this reason a legal nurse consultant is often employed. This type of nurse has gone through one of many nursing colleges and then branched off in specialization.
at its core, a legal nurse is a person who first became a registered nurse who then went on to study law. They are employed both by the legal and the medical professions. Lawyers hire them to read and interpret medical reports and records of their clients, especially for finding irregularities. The medical world has legal nurses around in order to advise about possible legal consequences for one action or another. Courts have also been known to hire them to discern which of two different sides is telling the truth, while the other is hiding behind legal or medical jargon.
this is a relatively new specialty in the medical field. Its professional structure and organization, the american association of legal nurse consultants, was only formed in 1989. This association is a not for profit structure and organization that provides information and resources for those wishing to advance to the more specialized field of legal nurse consultant.
the first thing this structure and organization asks anyone interested to entire and complete some questions. These questions include whether the nurse likes constantly rank and learning new things and is willing to write reports on them. Can the nurse work well under deadline, understand financial statements and be good at analysis? Most importantly, can the nurse explain manifold and complex medical situations in a way that a person with no medical experience can understand it? The association actually has a list of 20 of these questions and if the majority of the answers aren’t yes, then it’s time to consider another career and occupation.
probably the biggest hurdle one encounters about the employment and profession is becoming educated in the field. The sane and simple truth is that while there are universities, both online and on campus, offering course studies in the field, there is no formal approach. What the association suggests is first making sure the school you wish to attend is accredited. These types of nurses will need the standard education and licensing, including a bachelor of science.
the primary gesticulation and emphasis of the education should then be if the program offered is considered separate from the education of paralegals and legal assistants because of the discords and differences in their practice in the legal arena. The primary focus of legal nurse consulting education should be to build on nursing education and clinical experience and to prepare nurses to function in the legal arena. If the school meets these standards, it is more than likely legitimate.
from there, legal nurses can enjoy a very healthy freelance lifestyle. Usually hired as consultants, the legal nurse can command $125 to $150 an hour for their services. If one’s networking skills can match one’s analytical skills, it’s not difficult for a legal nurse to work 2-3 days a week and earn over $100,000 a year.
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