As a legal nurse consultant you can make significant money. It is not unheard of to make upwards of $200 an hour. What do you have to do to qualify for this career? First have experience as a registered nurse and then take some training in this particular area. Reading the records of patients they are representing isn’t what most attorneys are good at. This is where the role of a consultant comes into play. The knowledge gap is filled in for the attorney by using one of these professionals. Being expert on a particular subject usually comes from being employed in that area. And being a nursing professional gives the registered nurse the ability to transition into a legal nurse consultant.
The amount of the nation’s lawyers who specialize in medical malpractice law is staggering. Some reports show as many as one in five attorneys specialize in this area. The legal consultant is a must have for these law firms. There are legal consultants everywhere, small and large legal nurse consultant program alike. The consultant can be found in just about all areas of the country. So what kinds of cases does the consultant work on? They will work on cases as diverse as slip and fall accidents someone’s grandmother suffered in the hospital, to cases that can involve infection related issues a litigant may have suffered while receiving an operative procedure at an outpatient surgical facility.
This specialized professional can also be employed by government agencies, private corporations, and insurance companies. There are legal nurse consultants that have made a great living by doing nothing more than review charts to look for errors. Charging up to $200 just to look at it. The range of services you can provide as a legal nurse consultant is wide. Interviewing potential expert witnesses for trial to see if they can contribute to the case at hand, researching medical records for problems and determining whether a potential case has merit or not.
The types of nursing consultants that make the most money are those who specialize in being expert witnesses. If you care about fairness and the law, then this may be a great career choice for you. Because as a specialist your knowledge can make or break a case.
Being in this career field ensures you will always have work. There is an ever growing need for the legal nurse consultant to help those who don’t have specialized medical knowledge.