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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