Legal Nurse Consultant

I took an online Legal Nurse Consultant course. Google it-there are many programs out there. I paid less than $1000 and I know there's a famous program out there that costs over $4000! It isn't going to get you working any faster or give you more cases than the course I paid for. What will get you started is joining your local chapter of Legal Nurse Consultants but you must be a member of AALNC first (American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants.) By going to meetings, you will be networking with other legal nurse consultants, most of whom have a wealth of experience and knowledge to get you started. I started going 3 years ago and since then got many referrals from my fellow nurse consultants who already have an established practice and/or group of attorneys who were looking for someone with my expertise (LTC.) Begin with the course and by joining the LNC association and local chapter. Good luck and please post and let us know how it turns out!

Cienurse - how many years of experience does a consultant typically have when transitioning into a career like this? Thanks.

There are many courses out there that can teach you the basics. Be sure that the one(s) you take lead to the LNCC certification, the only one approved by the American Board of Nursing Specialties (as they used to be called, but that's still what most people call them). You want to go to the AALNC, American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants, get on their email listserv, and check out their educational offerings. They are a tremendously supportive group and will be able to give you good advice. Their 2-volume core curriculum is THE resource. (Peterson & Kopishke, eds., Legal Nurse Consulting Practices, 3rd ed.)

At the most basic, attorneys would want to hire you to help them review cases to understand the medical and nursing issues. This means they want someone with a good clinical background-- this is totally not a job for rookies. All the LNCCs I know have been in nursing at least 15-20 years in a variety of settings. That's not to say that some less-experienced ones aren't doing it, of course. More is better when it comes to credibility with attorneys, though.

Also, although the splashy ads say you'll be earning $125/hr in no time, many people never (that's never) earn back the cost of that program as LNCs. Marketing is hard. Do not count on work flying to you just because you took the course. Most people will tell you to plan on not quitting your day job for at least 5 years.