Nurse paralegal

Specialties Legal

Published

Specializes in Med/surg/ortho.

I'm interested to know if anyone works as a nurse paralegal/ consultant? I'm considering becoming certified. Any information would be appreciated.

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I've been a legal nurse consultant for many years. Please check out the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants' website, (AALNC : American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants), which provides lots of information to those thinking about this profession. By the way, LNC programs offer certificates. To be certified, you must meet certain requirements above and beyond taking an LNC course just as you would for any nursing certification.

Be careful! There is a lot of hype about this profession. Many nurses don't succeed as LNCs.

Best of luck in your future endeavors!

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Paralegal is not the same thing as legal nurse consultant. Different job description.

There's only one legal nurse consultant CERTIFICATION, the LNCC. The AALNC website can give you more information.

Another thing to realize is that legal nurse consultants working in atty offices are not practicing nursing. We have to be nurses for attorneys to want to use us in the role, but we do not need to have current nursing licensure (unless we are being asked to be testifying experts), or even any certificate or certification; if the atty wants to use our brains and experience to help figure out medical issues, then there's nothing to stop that from happening. Look at the ANA definition of nursing and you'll see why. That's why we aren't "legal nurses." We're "legal nurse consultants."

Nurses acting as testifying experts in their fields do need to be licensed and practicing as nurses to pass muster as testifying experts.

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Specializes in ER.

So to go back to the OP's question, what training and certification is required for a Nurse paralegal?

And what are the differences in the role of an NP and a LNC?

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