In one of my too infrequent BLOG posts (see
the blog link at bottom of page), I responded to yet another question
about "life in the slow lane" as a retired nurse. What started out to be a
quick, glib response developed into a web page of it's
own: http://nursecrisis.com/Ask_a_Nurse---_Page_Five.html
At the end of the Blog/Web Page, I made a quick reference to
the work I am doing as a Legal Nurse
Consultant/Expert Witness.
I guess I should have anticipated the series of
questions that would follow. This legal consulting work is as interesting
a challenge as any I have encountered in my thirty year nursing
career.
In a recent conversation with friends, we came
to the conclusion that the world economy is little more than the
doctors, the lawyers and the insurance companies shuffling and
re-shuffling the available currency; and dealing themselves in for a
healthy "commission" upon each exchange.
More and more it seems that we nurses are there to
see to it that the patient actually receives some benefits from a process
that used to be known as the "Patient Health Care System"; but is now, more
than ever, referred to as the "Health Care Industry"----a subtle, yet crucial,
distinction.
You've probably heard the saying that, "Nobody likes lawyers,
doctors or insurance companies...........till you need them." So, perhaps it
makes sense, in a twisted sort of way, for the players in this unpopular
triangle to do what they can to increase our appreciation for what they
do.
Medically based law suits are increasing at
astronomical rates. So are the malpractice insurance rates that the
doctors then pass on to their patients. Coincidentally the insurance companies
then find it necessary to raise their rates to cover the "rising cost of health
care"........and let's not even get into the added costs presented by the murky
world of insurance fraud and the litigation involved there.
There are few
doctors, though I suspect the number will be on the rise, who
have any legal training. The thinking
used to be that "you don't need to understand a tort to remove an
appendix"........though as it turns out, that is now far from the
case.
There are few
lawyers, though this number must also be on the increase, who
have any medical training. Comparable
thinking was: "The only appendectomy I need to concern myself with is my
own".......and as it turns out again, nothing could be further from today's
experience.
Both of these professionals, the physician as well
as the barrister, now question their respective schooling
for paying so little attention to each other's discipline.
Enter the LEGAL NURSE CONSULTANT whose job is to
translate all the "medical-ese" into terms which can be understood by the
attorneys............for either side of a lawsuit.
The Legal Nurse Consultant's "translation" and
explanation must be a totally objective review of the facts of the
case-----totally understandable and usable to either side of the
litigation.
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