Legal Nurse Consultant
Business and Law Department
Career The Legal Nurse Consultant is a registered nurse who uses existing expertise as a healthcare professional plus specialized training to consult on medical-related cases at fees of $125-$150/hr. Few attorneys know how to read medical records or understand the terminology and subtleties of healthcare issues to achieve the best results for their clients. A legal nurse consultant bridges that gap in the attorney's knowledge.
While the attorney is the expert on legal issues, the Legal Nurse Consultant is the expert on nursing, the healthcare system and its inner workings.
According to the Houston Chronicle, "Of the approximately 1,162,124* attorneys in practice today, 25 percent deal with medical malpractice and personal injury cases." These attorneys rely on specially trained Legal Nurse Consultants to help them win their cases.
Legal Nurse Consultants work to to combine their nursing skills with legal knowledge in order to be able to assist attorneys and their clients in communicating the health care issues related to legal actions. Legal Nurse Consultants combine legal and medical research, interview witnesses, review medical records, identify standards of care, and support attorneys in all aspects of litigation, and can make a difference by contributing to the resolution of medical insurance claims, malpractice lawsuits, and workers' compensation cases.
Certificate of Achievement - 18 units (6 classes) - Legal Nurse Consultant 1
1. Introduction to Law - Law 10 (current Paralegal class) - will introduce the student to law, legal reasoning courts, and a variety of topics including consumer protection, administrative law, international law, employment and labor relations, intellectual property, torts, crimes and cyber crimes, constitutional authority to regulate buisiness - with contextualized readings and assignments in health care law.
2. Civil Litigation - Law 11 (current Paralegal class) - will introduce the student to civil litigation, including drafting and filing a complaint, discovery, pre-trial, trial and appeal procedures - with contextualized readings and assignments in health care law.
3. Torts - Law 12 (current Paralegal class) - will introduce the student to torts, including intentional torts, negligence, medical negligence and malpractice, and strict and product liability - with contextualized readings and assignments in health care law.
4. Fundamentals of Health Law - (new course) - will introduce the student to Health Care Law issues with contextualized readings and assignments in health care law including Medicare, Medical, End of Life Legal Issues, Hospice, health plan coverage and resources, Professional-Patient Relationship, Quality Control Regulation: Licensing of Health Care Professionals, Quality Control Regulation of Health Care Institutions,Liability of Health Care Institutions, Health Care Cost and Access: The Policy Context, Access to Health Care: The Obligation to Provide Care, Private Health Insurance and Managed Care: State Regulation and Liability, Regulation of Insurance and Managed Care: The Federal Role, Public Health Care Programs: Medicare and Medicaid - see Syllabus at http://faculty.smu.edu/tmayo/healsyl.htm - see textbook at HEALTH LAW, by Barry R. Furrow et al. (5th ed., West 2004) - see syllabus at https://courses.law.washington.edu/sanford/H501_Au07/syllabus.aspx
5. Legal Research - (current Paralegal Class) - will introduce the student to legal research on a variety of topice - with contextualized readings and assignments in health care law.
6. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) - (new course) - will introduce the student to Alternative Dispute Resolution with contextualized readings and assignments in health care law.
Certificate of Achievement - 18 units (6 classes) - Legal Nurse Consultant 2
1. Health Insurance and Managed Care - (new course) - will introduce the student to health insurance and managed carelaw with contextualized readings and assignments in health care law - see http://www.nyu.edu/wagner/syllabus/200701/P11.2848.001.pdf
2. Administrative & Statutory Law - (new course) - will introduce students to administrative rules, regulations, and statutory law, legislative analysis, practice and procedure - with contextualized readings and assignments in health care law
3. Medical Library Research and Report Writing (new course) - introduces the student to medical library research and report writing with practice in medical records analysis, literature review, and report writing - with contextualized readings and assignments in health care law.
4. Legal Ethics in Medical and Health Care (new course) - introduces the student to bio ethics, including patient confidentiality, Brain Death, Persistent Vegetative States, life and death decisions, Competency to decide, whistleblowing, genetic testing, drug experimentation, Reproductive and Genetic Technology, genetic counseling - with contextualized readings and assignments in health care law. - see LMU Bioethics website
5. Health Care Advocacy Law - (new course) - introduces the student to forms of advocacy, within the law, to improve the health care system. Includes also Child Advocacy Issues -
6. Legal Aspects of Medical Fraud and Abuse - (new course) - introduces the student to medical fraud, and abuse including questionable injuries, fraud investigation, medicare fraud, health fraud schemes, flags of fraud, medical record and bill review, assisting with discovery and trail activities - physical therapy and chiropractic regulations, orthopedic injuries and appropriate treatment - with contextualized readings and assignments in health care law.
Textbooks
1. Legal Nurse Consulting: Principles and Practice, Second Edition, edited by Patricia W. Iyer, MSN, RN, LNCC. CRC Press, 2003. ISBN: 0849314186
2. HEALTH LAW, by Barry R. Furrow et al. (5th ed., West 2004)
3. Alternative Dispute Resolution in a Nutshell, by Jacqueline M. Nolan-Haley, ISBN 0-314-23888-3
4. Law of Hospital and Health Care Administration, Health Administration Press, Second Ed., 1988 - Southwick AF
Articles and Books
1. Understanding and Applying Alternative Dispute Resolution Methods in Modern Medical Conflicts, Bryan A. Liang 19 J. Leg. Med. 397 (1998)
2. “Uses for Conflict Resolution in Health Care”, Training Manual, Conflict Management in Health Care – the Inside Scoop for Mediators (April, 2004), Debra Gerardi and Ginny Morrison,