You're going to have an opportunity to hear from Dr. Brenda Tousley, who is a neurology clinical nurse specialist, has her Doctorate in Nursing, and serves attorneys as an expert witness helping them as well behind the scenes with stroke care malpractice.

Watch this podcast to find out what is the best possible scenario that a patient could undergo who’s having a stroke, in terms of where they are when it happens and the type of stroke, and what you can do as a legal nurse consultant to help an attorney who is questioning, could there have been a different outcome if people had acted differently? That's our key strength as legal nurse consultants.

Falls in nursing homes make up a substantial portion of malpractice suits. Here to help you understand the dynamics of the circumstances surrounding falls is Tina Baxter. She is a legal nurse consultant, nurse practitioner, and certified gerontological nurse.

She first addresses the issue of hydraulic lifts, which can be the cause of many falls. Sometimes the age and quality of the lift plays a role.

Sometimes one person isn’t enough to manage it. Tina recommends that the LNC reviewing a case always look to see if a hydraulic lift was involved.

To help you learn more about this field, Dana Bissontz, who has more than 25 years of nursing experience and 15 years in the medical-legal arena, shares her experiences in the area of life care planning.

Life care planning involves the life expectancy of a plaintiff and calculating the cost to provide him or her with the ability to meet anticipated needs. These are often greater than a layperson would realize. Equipment, such as wheelchairs, need to be serviced, altered, and replaced.

Currently in the U.S. diabetics make up 11% of the population. That statistic alone makes it an important illness for legal nurse consultants to understand. In addition, diabetes treatment typically involves a triple threat: misdiagnosis, incorrect medication doses and drugs, and mismanagement.

Jenelle Lea, a nurse with over 30 years of clinical experience, and a legal nurse consultant, describes the issues that complicate diabetic treatment and can lead to medical malpractice

On television and in Internet commercials, we frequently see images of cheerful, dancing pills and happy humans with the voiceover, “Do you have XXX? Ask your doctor about YYY.” This is often followed by a horrifying list of possible side effects.

As you will learn from Amanda Parrott, who has worked extensively with attorneys on class action and other suits against pharmaceutical companies, long as these lists are, they are often not all-inclusive.

While any illness in a premature baby must be taken very seriously, Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) demands special and rapid attention. Crystal Crawford, a highly experienced nurse, LNC, and expert witness, shares her experience in neonatal intensive care, particularly her deep knowledge of care for premature babies.

NEC, a gastrointestinal disorder often associated with blood transfusions and donor milk, has symptoms that can be confused with other illnesses that premature babies acquire. For this reason, any sign of distress must be monitored closely.

Crystal emphasizes that the nurse and doctor don’t have days and days to observe the symptoms, which rapidly intensify.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) play an essential role in primary care and other medical settings. Increasingly, they are being named as defendants in malpractice suits. Rebecca Paschall, who both works as an NP and a legal nurse consultant, shares her experience in these areas of expertise.

She learned that her LNC work deepens her diagnostic and analytical abilities in her clinical work.

Rebecca also finds many opportunities to instruct other clinicians on her job about best medical practices.

Does any area of an LNC’s work present greater challenges than marketing your business? How great a difference would it make to your well-being and confidence if you could learn how successful LNCs do it?

Jacquelyn Maki, a Wisconsin resident, who worked her way from being a CNA to getting a master’s degree in health care administration, knows the value of persistence, and her marketing practices reflect this value.

Ostomy surgery is one of the most delicate and difficult of procedures—not only in the surgery portion but during the recovery, which can be psychologically traumatic and physically challenging

Wound, ostomy, and continence nurse Emily Dean shares her expertise in this complex area of medicine. Throughout this interview, she accompanies her explanations and descriptions with guidance for the legal nurse consultant who has to evaluate the standard of patient care from preop to postoperative care..

Even if nurses are familiar with the term, “Board of Nursing,” they don’t always realize the potential impact it could have on their careers. Anyone can complain about their professional performance, and that complaint may lead them into being investigated.

Maggie Ortiz, who worked for the Board of Nursing in Texas, became disturbed by the practices she witnessed. Sometimes she was assigned to cases she wasn’t qualified to investigate. Often the charges were vague and misleading. She also witnessed bias in handling of cases.

Ultimately, she left her job and formed an organization, Advocates for Nurses, which helps nurses navigate the difficult journey through this legal system.