What is an LNC? |
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What is a Legal Nurse Consultant?
What Does a Legal Nurse Consultant Do?
Where Does the Legal Nurse Consultant Practice?
What is the Role of the Legal Nurse Consultant?
AALNC Code of Ethics and Conduct
Why Hire an LNC?
What is a Legal Nurse Consultant?
The legal nurse consultant is a licensed, registered nurse who performs a critical analysis of clinical
and administrative nursing practice, healthcare facts and issues and their outcomes for the legal profession,
healthcare professions, consumers of healthcare and legal services, and others as appropriate. With a strong
educational and experiential foundation, the legal nurse consultant is qualified to assess adherence to standards
and guidelines of healthcare practice as it applies to the nursing and healthcare professions.
What Makes a Legal Nurse Consultant Distinct?
As licensed registered nurses, legal nurse consultants bring specialized healthcare education and clinical
experience to the medically related issues of the litigation process. This education and experience distinguishes
legal nurse consultants from paralegals and legal assistants and provides the foundation for the legal nurse
consultant's ability to recognize, interpret and analyze all relevant medically related information in a claim
or case.
<What Does a Legal Nurse Consultant Do?
- Acts as a liaison with attorneys, physicians and clients
- Educates attorneys regarding medical facts and issues relating to a case or claim
- Researches applicable literature and evidence to determine the merits of a case
- Reviews and analyzes documents and compares them to the allegations
- Summarizes medical literature
- Screens for record tampering
- Defines and evaluates the standards of care practices
- Evaluates the possible breach of duty on the part of the healthcare practitioner or facility
- Prepares witness and exhibit lists
- Interviews witnesses and involved parties
- Prepares persuasive graphic exhibits for trial
- Assesses issues of damage and causation
- Identifies and retains expert witnesses
- Assists in obtaining medical records and identifying missing records
- Organizes medical records and other medically-related litigation materials
- Prepares chronologies of medical events and correlates them to the allegations
- Developes collaborative case strategies with those practicing within the legal system
- Provides support during discovery, depositions, trial and other legal proceedings
Where Does the Legal Nurse Consultant Practice?
As a liaison between the legal and the healthcare communities as well as the consumer, the legal
nurse consultant can practice in a variety of settings including:
- Law firms
- Government offices
- Insurance companies
- Hospital risk management departments
- Forensic environments
- Consulting firms
- HMOs
- Self-employed independent practices
What is the Role of the Legal Nurse Consultant?
The primary role of the legal nurse consultant is to evaluate, analyze, and render informed opinions on
the delivery of health care and the resulting outcomes. For nearly 20 years, legal nurse consultants have
acted as collaborators and strategists, offering support in medically-related litigation and other medical-legal
matters in the variety of practice areas including the following:
- Personal injury
- Product liability
- Medical malpractice
- Workers' compensation
- Toxic torts
- Risk management
- Medical licensure investigation
- Fraud and abuse, compliance
- Criminal law
- Elder law
- Other Applicable Cases
AALNC Code of Ethics and Conduct
Click here to download the AALNC Code of Ethics.
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