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.

Legal Nurse Podcast, although based in the U.S., has an international audience, A highly experienced nurse, Joan Davis has worked in both Canada and the U.S. In this podcast she describes how malpractice suits work in Canada.

To put the Canadian legal environment in perspective, we need to realize that, although it’s a large country, the total population is only around 40 million.

In addition, it has national health insurance, which covers many, although far from all, medical expenses. The Canadian legal system sets limits on how many experts on a side can be involved in a case. A financial cap of $400,000 (Canadian dollars) exists for most settled cases.

The financial cap acts as a strong deterrent to attorneys taking on case. They are also far more reluctant than U.S. attorneys to take cases on a contingency basis. This is turn deters potential plaintiffs from engaging an attorney.

Probably nothing frightens someone more than having a diagnosis of cancer. What’s worse is having a misdiagnosis or a delayed diagnosis. Another primary concern is the loss of quality of life. Lakeisha Falwell, legal consultant, and a highly experienced nurse practitioner with a focus on oncology, shares her expertise and her passion for helping cancer patients.

Lakeisha begins with an analysis of how cancer can be missed by a practitioner. They may focus on less threatening diagnoses, or they may, as Lakeisha puts it, fall in love with their first diagnosis and ignore other implications. Tragically, they may assume a person is too young to have cancer.

A practitioner may also fail to truly listen to what the patient is telling them. For Lakeisha, nothing is more important to her work than listening, whether the person is describing symptoms or explaining what is important to them in terms of quality of life.

Hospital readmissions due to inadequate or incorrect treatment cost healthcare and the U.S. government billions of dollars. This is particularly notable in cardiac care. By continually reviewing and revising standards of care, professional medical organizations seek to ensure that the standard of care reflects the latest proven findings regarding treatment and care.

Ruth Pierce, a nurse with 37 years of experience, who is also a legal nurse consultant, currently works as a field reviewer for a national accreditation company. She is a charter member of Pat Iyer's LNC Elite coaching program.

She shares her wealth of knowledge about how standards are developed, how long it takes for them to be generally adopted, and why knowing the timeline in a legal case is crucial to applying the time-appropriate standard of care principles.

Some of the biggest damages in medical malpractice cases result from malpractice in the area of obstetrics. Savannah June, a legal nurse consultant with a strong background in the area of maternal-fetal medicine, describes how practitioners in this field try to ensure protection for at-risk mothers and babies and where malpractice may occur.

Maternal-fetal medicine (MFM) is a specialty of obstetrics that requires advanced training. Savannah points out that high-quality MFM care is not as widely available in the U.S. as it should be, especially in comparison to another economically advanced country.

What’s the best way to create a work product when you’re working on a personal injury case? Laura Keegan, an LNC who brings to her work 28 years of widely varied nursing experience, gives you the answers you need.

Her most important piece of advice is: Always ask the attorneys what they want. You’ll get a range of responses.

In a personal injury or medical malpractice case, the cost of future care plays a key role. Debbie Wuerl, a legal nurse consultant with a range of experience in nursing areas, specializes in personal injury cases and working with medical malpractice attorneys. She has particular expertise in working on cost projections.

This is not the same as but is part of a life care plan. Debbie focuses on future costs that derive from the injury or other conditions: medications, future surgeries, in-patient and outpatient therapies, and other expenses associated with the condition.

This podcast follows up on Jean Cooper’s dramatic account of a young African American mother accused of and imprisoned for the death of her 10-month-old baby.

Jean Cooper, an LNC, has a passion for working on criminal defense cases. She became involved in the young woman’s post-conviction relief case. This involved, in summary, going through all the records and seeing what facts had not been included in the original trial.

This podcast follows up on Jean Cooper’s dramatic account of a young African American mother accused of and imprisoned for the death of her 10-month-old baby.

Jean Cooper, an LNC, has a passion for working on criminal defense cases. She became involved in the young woman’s post-conviction relief case. This involved, in summary, going through all the records and seeing what facts had not been included in the original trial.

As a legal nurse consultant, when you go through medical records, you may see indications that an ethics consult was called or that ethical issues were considered. You may also find yourself struggling with aspects of the decisions made regarding the patient and feel the need of advice from an expert in medical ethics.

Camille Renella opens the door to this little-understood aspect of medicine. She begins by pointing out that ethics has lower regard than the law in terms of application simply because legal violations generate so many more repercussions. At an earlier time, doctors and administrative personnel didn’t even want to deal with issues like setting up ethics committees in their institutions. Today no formal qualifications exist for sitting on such a committee.