One of the most exciting career options for registered nurses is that of a legal nurse consultant (LNC). The job is a mix of medicine and law and one can achieve the qualifications required to become a legal nurse quite easily. The basic requirement is a valid Registered Nurse (RN) license along with a continuing education diploma or certification in law related to the medical field. Alternatively, a registered nurse can also get qualified as a paralegal to fulfill the certification requirements to be designated as a legal nurse.
Job Description
- As a hospital employee, a legal nurse can undertake consultancy work related to medico-legal work, while still engaged in regular nursing duties. The consultancy work can relate to reviewing medical records, conduct research on cases where there are legal implications, investigate medical malpractice or evaluate standards of care in insurance claims or suits brought against the hospital.
- Work for an attorney or legal firm, whether general on specialist, providing medical inputs on medico-legal cases as described in the previous point. Other tasks could include taking depositions from witnesses on medical issues, prepare expert opinion or testimony or help locate expert medical witnesses.
- Work in insurance companies, private health care facilities, governmental entities, etc.
Availability of jobs
Legal nurse consultancy has been earmarked as one of the nursing jobs for which there is great demand in the current market. Given the debate over health care reform, a legal nurse’s role becomes more critical and this is a job market which is expected to grow in the next few years.
As per statistics released by the American Bar Association (ABA), as much as 25% of the total cases in the legal system relate to torts such as personal injuries, class-action suits, medical malpractice or negligence cases. This means that there is no dearth of jobs which are available to legal nurses.
Where to look for jobs
A few resources where you can find job openings for legal nurses are listed here:
- In-house vacancies in large hospitals, health care facilities, insurance companies, legal firms, etc.
- Specialist recruitment firms or companies dealing with medical and/or nursing jobs
- Medical/nursing magazines, journals or other print media
- General recruitment sites such as Monster.com, Yahoo! Jobs, CareerBuilder.com, etc.
If you are already working as a registered nurse, you are just one step closer to becoming a legal nurse. Not only will you be taking your career on to a different plane, your earning potential also increases almost twofold. That said, there should be little that should hinder you in finding a job as a legal nurse.
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