Become a Legal Nurse Consultant

Do you like medicine and law? Working as a legal nurse consultant (LNC) might be the right job for you! This exciting and challenging career requires you to be a registered nurse (RN) with at least 5 years of experience. LNCs work in courthouses, law offices, insurance offices, and other businesses helping non-medical professionals understand and interpret medical records, charts, and other documents. After you've been working as an LNC for a few years, you can become certified, which will give you even more career options. As of 2020, the average salary for an LNC is around $78,000.

Steps

Gaining Experience as an RN

1. Get a degree in nursing from an accredited nursing program. Since you need an RN license to become an LNC, start there. To become an RN, you can either get an associate's degree in nursing (ADN) or a bachelor's of science in nursing (BSN). An ADN is typically a 2-year course of study, while a BSN takes 4, provided you go to school full-time.
   • Check school rankings and try to get your degree from the highest-ranked school that you can afford. It will make a difference when you start looking for a job, both as an RN and, later, as an LNC.
   • Although you can become licensed as an RN with a 2-year degree, a BSN is more valuable if you're planning to become a legal nurse consultant. Most employers who hire LNCs prefer those who have a 4-year degree.
2. Pass the Pass the NCLEX licensure exam to become an RN. Once you have your degree, apply with your state board of nursing to get your nursing license. As of 2020, the fee for the exam is $200. You have a maximum of 6 hours to take the exam, which varies in length from 75 to 265 multiple-choice questions.
   • The test is computerized and the number of questions you have to answer depends on how well you're doing on the test. The program automatically shuts down after you've answered 75 questions if you're above the passing level. If you're not, you'll keep answering questions until either you reach the passing level or it's impossible for you to pass.
   • If you went to school in one state and want to practice in another, apply and take the exam in the state where you want to practice.
3. Find an RN position that will prepare you for legal consulting. As an LNC, you'll want a solid clinical foundation in any of the cases you take on. If you're not sure what area you want to consult in, focus on medical-surgical or critical care nursing, which allows you to address a broad range of cases. You can also specialize in an area that particularly interests you.
   • For example, if you want to work for an attorney who specializes in worker's compensation, you might look for a position at a spine clinic, since many worker's compensation injuries are back and neck injuries.
   • As another example, if you want to work for a personal injury attorney, you might work in the emergency room, where you would care for a lot of accident victims.

Finding an LNC Position

1. Take a legal nurse consultant training course. After you've been working as an RN for at least a couple of years, go ahead and sign up for an online training course. You'll learn basic legal terminology and gain skills that will prepare you to be an LNC.
   • The American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants (AALNC) has a number of training courses you can take, including a bundle with all the courses they have to prepare you for certification.
   • Outside professional development companies also have online training courses. If you take a course from a professional development company, make sure it's accredited by the AALNC.
2. Join the AALNC. Any RN can join the AALNC — you don't have to be a practicing LNC yet. Membership gets you discounts on courses and programs as well as providing free educational resources and access to job opportunities.
   • As of 2020, you'll pay $400 to become a full member of the AALNC if you're an RN with active licensure. There are other short-term membership options that are valid through December 31, 2021.
3. Tweak your résumé so it reflects your skills as an LNC. Without experience or certification as an LNC, emphasize your organizational, research, and analytical abilities. If you've taken LNC courses, list them prominently in the education section.
   • You might consider creating a "career objective" at the top of your résumé. In a sentence or two, describe specifically the work you've done with patients and how you could translate this experience into work as an effective LNC.
   • If you have managerial nursing experience, use this to highlight your organizational and leadership abilities.
4. Search online for job opportunities. The AALNC has a job board on its website with LNC and related positions. In addition to looking there, you might also find LNC openings on more general job boards, such as Indeed or Monster.
   • Don't overlook the power of networking. If you know people in the legal field, tell them you're looking for work as an LNC and see if they know of any openings. Since a lot of openings aren't posted on job boards, this can often be a better way to find a position.
5. Cultivate a professional appearance. You might be used to wearing scrubs at work, but if you're going to work in a law firm or a government office, the dress code will be very different. Invest in quality business attire and keep yourself well-groomed to ensure you always carry yourself professionally.
   • Generally, you'll do fine with a basic blazer and a few coordinates that you can mix and match. For example, you might buy a navy blazer, a pair of navy pants, a pair of tan pants, and a couple of button-down shirts. If you're a woman, you might add in a couple of skirts and blouses.
   • It can be hard to know exactly what to wear since some offices are strictly suit-and-tie type places while others are less buttoned-up. However, you'll never go wrong if you err on the side of formality. You can always lose a piece or 2 to make your look more casual. For example, if you're wearing a pantsuit, you might take off the jacket and roll up the sleeves on your shirt or unbutton a button or two at the neck.

Getting LNC Certification

1. Work as an RN for at least 5 years. LNC certification requires active licensure and experience practicing as an RN for at least 5 years. While you can work in any specialty or position, it helps to get experience helping patients with the same types of injuries you'll be analyzing as an LNC.
   • Reach for research and analysis opportunities while working as an RN. You can use these experiences to show that you have the right traits to be a strong LNC.
   • Management positions also make you a strong LNC candidate because you can use them to highlight organizational skills and attention to detail.
2. Find work as an LNC. Before you can apply for LNC certification, you need at least 2,000 hours of work as an LNC. You can fulfill this requirement with part-time work — it'll just take you longer to accumulate the hours of experience necessary to qualify for certification.
   • Use the resources available through the AALNC to find an open position and start working. You can also work independently as a freelance consultant. However, if you go the freelance route, keep detailed records of the cases that you work on so you can prove you meet the hourly requirement to qualify for certification.
3. Take a full LNC certification course. While no courses are specifically required, there are several online certification courses available that can help prepare you for the certification exam. However, certification is practice-based. To be eligible to take the exam, you only need the following:
   • A current, unrestricted RN license
   • A minimum of 5 years' experience as a practicing RN
   • At least 2,000 hours of LNC experience within the past 5 years
4. Sign up for the certification exam. Download a handbook and application on the website for the American Legal Nurse Consultant Certification Board at http://lncc.aalnc.org/. The handbook provides information about applying for and taking the exam as well as some practice questions.
   • As of 2020, the fees for the exam are $350 for AALC members and $495 for non-members.
5. Pass the certification exam. The certification exam takes approximately 4 hours and consists of 200 multiple-choice questions. All questions are case studies in which you are given a brief passage to read and then answer a series of questions related to that passage.
   • The passing score for the LNCC exam differs each year. A group of experts, each working independently, analyze the exam's questions and assign them a weight based on their perceived level of difficulty. Then, they each produce a recommended passing score. Those recommendations are averaged to find the passing score for the exam that year.
6. Renew your certification every 5 years. Once you pass the certification exam, your certification remains valid for 5 years. To renew your certification, show that you've completed 60 contact hours of continuing education, 2,000 hours of LNC work, and have an active RN license.
   • If you haven't managed to complete 60 contact hours of continuing education, you can also qualify for renewal by taking the certification exam again.
   • You'll get information about renewal from the AALNC about a year before your certification expires. This should give you enough time to get everything together that you need to renew your certification so that it doesn't lapse.

Tips

• While LNC certification isn't universally required, it's highly recommended. As an LNCC, you'll make more money than you would if you weren't certified.

Warnings

• This article discusses how to become a legal nurse consultant in the US. If you live in another country, the process might be different. Talk to an instructor at your local nursing school for more information.
• Completing the AALNC's online course doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be eligible to take the certification exam. You can only take the certification exam if you have a current, unrestricted RN license, 5 years' experience as an RN, and 2,000 hours of LNC work within the past 5 years.

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