Legal Nurse Consultant expert witness, expert testimony & fact witnesses – CLNC Jobs

July 22, 2010 by nurse
Filed under: Q&A 

In the beginning of July a special speaking event was held for Liz Buddenhagen to talk about the different issues that arise in the legal nurse consulting field. Ms. Buddenhagen is not only a CLNC but is also an RN.

Certified Legal Nurse Consultant CLNCThe speaking event had a session that explain how closely the ideas of nursing flow together to comprise of the legal nursing consultant career. When looking at what things can make up the CLNC career it can be legal, ethical and safety procedures that are common in nursing and are known as a standard of care. The paper work process of the career comes down to looking over a patients medical records and making sure these procedures were followed correctly in a legal manner and everything was carried out and addressed as they should be.

The common guide that is used in evaluating whether standard of care issues are carried out by a CLNC is by referencing the American Nurses Association Standards of Practice, hospital and organizational publications and different rules that have to be abided by in nursing niches and professions. An example of a standard practice that most on duty nurses abide by is the Infusion Nursing Standards of Practice for IV therapy. IV therapy has strict practices and making sure all nurses carry the procedures out correctly is a common job of a legal nurse consultant.

CLNC Jobs

One of the jobs of a legal nurse consultant is prevention in making sure procedures are followed and abided by so that lawsuits don’t happen in the first place. If rules are laid out and common practices are often focused on nurses can make sure they don’t get sued and also improve the quality of care the patient receives. Forensic nursing also provides a more in depth view of this on the reverse side once problems have occured and it must be decided on what went wrong.

When interviewed, Ms. Buddenhagen said, “duty, breach of duty, damages and causation” were the four things that can make a lawsuit more common place in the nursing field. If these are not followed, the eventual result will be a lawsuit that can damage a career of any RN.The Atlanta legal nurse reviewed medical-legal case studies and the “Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter” for nurses was introduced as a resource of real life lawsuit results involving nurses.

There are different types of a CLNC job but there are really three main types of the profession. There can be a legal nurse consultant expert witness who delivers and expert testimony in a court case, a legal nurse consultant fact witness that backs up the facts that are being discussed in a court case argument or a behind the scenes consultation, a legal nurse consultant lay witness.

There are a vast number of medical-legal cases that legal nurse consultants can end up providing their consulting services to. Some of them are product liability, toxic torts, medical professional licensure investigation, personal injury, compensation, medical negligence or malpractice or criminal law.

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