Imagine that a client comes to you with a medical lawsuit to bring against a hospital. You listen to the case and think to yourself if this is true, then this will be one of the easiest cases in the world to win – the client was most obviously the victim of careless medical care. So, you figure that you’ll analyze the client’s medical records to get the proof that you need. But, you open up the medical record and then you realize one important, tiny little detail that you had previously forgot: you have no idea what any of it means.

This is when your law firm needs legal nurse consulting. Legal nurses help close cases by interpreting valuable medical information while acting as a legal assistant. They can interview plaintiffs and defendants, write up reports, and testify as expert witnesses in a courtroom setting. These types of nurses also understand the “business” side of medical delivery. Indeed, legal nurses are absolutely vital to any law firm that’s serious about winning their cases.

Consider the following example case. An elderly nursing home has a resident with many symptoms, including dementia, diabetes, CRF, and so on. This resident is, naturally, completely dependent on the nursing home to care for them. One day, a nursing assistant found a bruise on the patient and let the nurse know about it. Later that same day, the elderly resident passed away. The autopsy confirmed that the resident had fallen within a few hours of the elderly person’s death. When the family sued, a legal nurse who was called in to review the medical records cited a lack of any documentation regarding the bruise or fall. Both the home and the nurses were convicted of tampering with medical records and wrongful death. Due to the victory, aided in no small part by the legal nurse, the administrators are now serving 10-year jail sentences.

While it may be clear that legal nurse consulting is very beneficial to your law firm, many owners are concerned about the cost. Good legal nurses have been known to charge up to $150 an hour for their work. However, many are also willing to work in-staff for less than six figures. As such, if you’re a firm that has any thoughts of dealing with medical suits, you can’t afford to not dole out much of these responsibilities to a good legal nurse.

It’s also imperative that you hire/retain a good legal nurse. The designation of LNCC (Legal Nurse Consultant Certified) demonstrates that the candidate has at least five years of registered nursing experience, plus at least 2000 hours of legal nursing experience, and has passed a comprehensive exam that directly assesses many of the duties that legal nurse consulting entails. In addition, like many other professional certifications, this has to be renewed every five years, so you know that anyone holding a LNCC has more than adequate legal nurse consulting expertise. Indeed, while it is possible to take people who are just registered nurses and use them in a legal capacity, it’s much better to look for the LNCC designation. That way you know you are getting someone who has had a lot experience in both the medical setting and the legal one.

A core consulting skill is the ability to present data and analysis. But though many technically skilled consultants do an excellent job in number crunching phase, they fall flat when they present their data. The problem is a lack of knowledge about how to structure presentations that include data and analysis. And with a simple formula it’s easy to rectify.

Over the past 10 years that I have owned and run a small consulting firm I have coached and mentored many consultants. To a person they were desperate to learn the secrets of how to analyse a company, how to get to the big issues, or how to turn around an ailing business. But when it came to presenting their data they always said the same thing “if my analysis and findings are good” then the data will present itself; wrong!

I have cringed through many a presentation where the analysis and data gathering were fantastic, but when the consultant got up on their feet to present it, they simply withered and died; and typically the client looked bored. In every single case the problem was the same: a lack of knowledge about how to structure their data so that it told a logical story and only the pertinent points were used.

For example let’s say that over a four week analysis of a business you may gather two or three hundred pieces of data. Wouldn’t you agree that to try and present all of that information to a senior management team will not only confuse them but is unlikely to help them make decisions? I think so, but that’s what happens.

So if you want to avoid death by data what can you do to help your audience to get your message, and also help you keep and grow the client?

1. Build a mega-structure for your data. Choose three main questions that you will use to categorise your data i.e. “What’s going wrong in the business, why is it happening, and how can we fix it?”

2. Take each question and answer it with two to three main points, e.g. “what’s going wrong?”

a. “Customers are complaining”
b. “There is low staff morale”
c. “You are losing money.”

3. Take each point and find the best piece of data to support your argument. Force yourself to only use one (maximum two) bits of evidence.

Finally, do your planning on paper or a large whiteboard, leave building the PowerPoint slides until the very end; if you do you’ll leave your client impressed rather than depressed.

Starting out it can all be so overwhelming. But it doesn’t need to be. We have to get our products or services exactly right. Then we have to figure out how to explain them to others through our website. We understand the reasons people should buy what we are selling. But can we successfully explain that to our website visitors in convincing language they relate to, instead of jargon and lingo related to our industry?

Finally, we have to develop an action plan to market online and within our budget, which is often limited when first starting our business. And how do we develop that marketing plan? Where do we get the information necessary to formulate marketing techniques that will actually work for us? The number of sources out there is simply overwhelming! This is when getting feedback from a professional outside our own industry can be valuable. You can turn to an affordable Internet Marketing Consultant or an SEO Consultant who understands and specializes in small businesses and new business start-ups.

What about Getting Internet Traffic to Your Site?

Some start by using pay-per-click marketing, like Google AdWords. The trouble is that AdWords can get expensive quickly. And it takes a LOT of time to set up and manage over time. Starting out it may make sense to use AdWords. Plus, it can be a great way to test your keyword search phrases to find out which ones convert best. You can use AdWords for this purpose before beginning search engine optimization (SEO). But ultimately…sooner or later…you’ll need to optimize for the search engines (SEO).

SEO can provide you qualified Internet traffic without per-visitor costs. Think of it almost as free advertising. You should also utilize article marketing, getting your message in front of article directory visitors and ezine newsletter subscribers. This can generate faster sales, while you’re waiting on your SEO efforts to pay off. Lastly, for most Internet businesses, they should use blog postings or opt-in email marketing to stay in touch with their prospective buyers, using a soft-sell method, over time. If all you focus on are people who make a buying decision they very first time they come to your site, you’re missing out on the great majority of sales you can make!

How Much Traffic Do You Need?

Here are some questions you’ll need to consider when making decisions about AdWords and SEO:

1. What is your monthly sales revenue goal from your website?
2. How much traffic on a monthly basis will you need to meet your sales goals?
3. What is (or will be) your click-through rate, whether from AdWords impressions or organic SEO listings? You need this number to determine the total number of monthly impressions you’ll need for your AdWords ads and your organic SEO listings, to arrive at the monthly traffic number you need to your website.
4. What is (or will be) your conversion sales rate from your traffic? Again, you need this number also to determine the amount of monthly impressions you’ll need.

Especially when first starting up, finding this type of data, evaluating it and then implementing a plan can be very time-consuming and can almost drive a person crazy! There are a lot of so-called experts you can follow. But how do you know if they know what they’re talking about? And without having these numbers (at least good estimates), starting AdWords or SEO is like throwing darts with a blindfold on! Again, this is where talking with an SEO Consultant or Internet Marketing Consultant can help light your path. Your result can be more sales, MUCH faster.

Which Keyword Search Phrases are Right for Your Business?

Think of keywords as the windows or doors to your website. Without using the right ones for YOUR business, your website is like a house without windows or doors — no one is coming in. Kinda the opposite of what you’re going for.
What makes good keywords for your business?
My advice to clients I coach is your keywords should:

1. accurately match what the search engine users INTEND when they type in their keywords to the services or products you offer (get inside their heads);
2. bring you enough traffic to be worth the AdWords or SEO effort;
3. offer affordable enough AdWords bid prices, if you’re using AdWords;
4. have obtainable first or second page SEO results;
5. contain words in the phrases that suggest a searcher who is ready to spend money (unless you’re offering something that is truly free) and
6. CONVERT directly to a sale, a sales lead, a sign-up…whatever your goal is.

Wrapping it Up

Be open to the value an affordable Internet Marketing Consultant or an SEO Consultant can offer you. Someone who has already gone down the road you’re on can help you avoid the potholes along the way. And those potholes can be very expensive… There are talented advisors out there who understand small businesses and new business start-ups. And they price their services for these businesses.

Using someone talented, you’ll almost certainly make more sales, more quickly. And following that advice and the other suggestions in this article, your Internet marketing plan should be off to a great start!

If you have patience, are understanding, caring and want to have influence on patient care situations and make a difference, you might want to give some thought to becoming a clinical nurse consultant as your choice of nursing career.

Areas you could consider working in

There are many different areas to consider looking into and some of these are listed below.

Diseases – if you want to specialize in diseases, there are numerous options that are available to you. For instance, you could choose diabetes or heart disease as your specialist field, and there are many more.

Environments in the medical field – you may choose to focus on the emergency room, operating room or a critical care unit.

Patients – you could go into working with patients, for example in areas such as neo-natal or geriatric.

Procedures – you may choose to major in such areas as clinical or surgical procedures.

Duties that could make up the daily routine

There are five duties, which could make up your day-to-day routine as a clinical nurse consultant:

Case management
Research
Consulting
Clinical practice
Teaching
If you want to be a central player at work and have the ability to organize and co-ordinate, then this could be the perfect job for you. Being able to educate is also an asset worth having when going into this branch of nursing. Education responsibilities are wide spread and could include patient, nursing staff, community, as well as student teaching on your part.

Working alone or part of a team

While in some areas, this type of nursing may involve working alone, but it can also involve working closely with others as part of a team. For instance, you may work in a hospital, a care facility or within an agency. Of course, whether you work alone or as part of a team may depend on the area you choose to specialize in. Here are some that you may want to consider

Acute care – if you were to specialize in this area you would be providing advanced care to those who are suffering severe but brief illness or injury. You would be helping to diagnose and treat and collaborate with other members of a team.

Infectious diseases – you may be part of a team that specializes in monitoring and preventing the spread of infections that are resistant to drugs.

Occupational health – you may specialize in promoting health and education of others in the prevention of injury or diseases.

Rehabilitation – you may choose to work with individuals who need rehabilitation to recover from injury or illness.

Womens’ health – you could choose to specialize in areas such as gynecological or reproduction in women’s health.

There are so many more areas and programs that are available as a clinical nurse consultant, and we have only scratched the surface with the above specialties. If you’re considering becoming a a clinical nurse consultant, review all of the areas carefully, and then choose the one that you know that will fit into your special gifts and talents, and one that you will find rewarding and satisfying.