Legal Nurse Consulting Program Guest Blog Article

4 Common Auto Accident Injuries and How to Handle Them

Auto accident injuries can negatively impact your physical, mental and financial wellbeing in many ways. Getting the proper treatment if you’ve been in an auto accident and taking other measures to rectify the situation can help restore your quality of life. Here are some of the most common auto accident injuries and what you can do to treat them.

 

Burns

Burns can occur when a vehicle catches fire, when parts of the body are grazed, or parts of the body are pressed up against a hot surface during an accident. Burns may range from minor first-degree burns to major third-degree burns that need prompt treatment to prevent infection, minimize scarring and address other health concerns. Burn units in hospitals treat the most severely burned patients, but burns that aren’t as serious in nature can often be treated using antibiotic ointments or household items like honey or lotion containing aloe vera. After being seen by a professional, aloe and coconut oil are often very helpful in soothing the itching dryness that often accompanies burn injuries.

Broken Bones

Vehicle impacts can result in broken bones. Arm, leg and pelvic bones are among the most commonly broken in car accidents. You may also sustain damage to facial bones, which may need cosmetic surgery to fix. Doctors will usually prescribe casts, slings or splints to stabilize appendages where bone are broken and facility healing. Though bones will typically heal on their own with time, it is important to take time off of work as recommended by your doctor to allow the break to set before attempting to put weight on it again.

Concussion

A concussion is a traumatic brain injury that sometimes results in loss of consciousness, persistent dizziness and vision problems. Cognitive skills and emotional reasoning can also be negatively affected after sustaining a concussion. The best treatment for a concussion is usually prolonged physical and mental rest. If a concussion makes it difficult for you to return to your normal work functions, resulting in a loss of income, there are auto accident injury attorney services that can help you get compensation for your financial and personal losses.

Whiplash

The sudden back-and-forth movement of your head and neck that might occur during a collision can result in whiplash. This condition often causes symptoms like neck pain, muscle stiffness and headaches that can greatly interfere with daily life. Resting the head and neck can help facilitate healing and minimize pain. Chiropractic care and physical therapy are other treatment methods that often prove to be effective. While you may not recognize whiplash at first, prolonged back and neck pain after an accident are clear signs of whiplash that should be addressed as soon as possible.

Taking proactive measures to treat your auto accident injuries will increase your chances of faster recovery and help minimize the hassle of dealing with such an unfortunate incident. Seeking the right medical treatment and legal guidance can help you move on from your accident injuries while sustaining minimal losses overall to your personal and financial wellbeing.

 

Author Meghan Belnap, Blogger, Researcher and Freelance Writer

Also please review our Legal Nurse Consulting Program and see if it matches your educational and professional goals.

Legal Nurse Consulting Program Article

What are the rights of a dismissed nursing student?  It can happen and one can be expelled or removed from a program.  In this article, these questions are looked to be answered.  It can definitely be a horrible feeling to be removed from a program you have worked so hard to succeed in.  Your rights may be violated and you may need to seek professional and legal help in finding justice.

What are your rights in a nursing school? Also please review our Legal Nurse Consulting Program
What are your rights in a nursing school? Also please review our Legal Nurse Consulting Program

The article, “Dismissed nursing student wants to know her rights” discusses one’s rights and how to find justice if inappropriately removed.   The article states,

“Generally, if you’re a nursing student your rights in a dismissal proceeding depends on, first and foremost, if you are in a public post-secondary nursing education program or in a private nursing education program.”

To read the entire article, please click here

Also please review our Legal Nurse Consulting Program and see if it matches your academic and professional needs.  As a Legal Nurse Consultant you can deal with a wide variety of cases with various legal firms dealing with nursing laws and malpractice.   AIHCP offers an online program where one can earn a certification in Legal Nurse Consulting and apply their knowledge to variouis cases throughout the country, hoping to help others escape injustice.   If you are interested in nursing and legal cases, please review the program and see if it matches your academic and professional needs.

Legal Nurse Consulting Article on Nursing Home Neglect

Good article on recognizing nursing home neglect. If you would like to learn more about Legal Nurse Consulting, then please review the program and see if it matches your academic and professional needs.

The article, How to Recognize Nursing Home Neglect and What to Do About It, by Randy Appleton states

“Families who make the difficult decision to place an elderly parent or disabled spouse or child into a nursing home expect their loved one to receive sufficient and professional care. Sadly, incidents of sometimes shocking nursing home neglect appear to be on the rise. Worse, the mistreatment of mentally and physically vulnerable patients often escalates to outright abuse.”

To read the entire article, please click here

Please also review our Legal Nurse Consulting program

Legal Nurse Consulting Article on Nursing Home Drug Abuse

Nursing homes find themselves in many legal battles due to poor patient care.  This is not to say all homes are bad but the ones that are make headlines.  Legal cases erupt due to these abuses.

The article, US: Nursing Homes Misuse Drugs to Control Residents, source; Human Rights Watch, states,

“Nursing homes across the United States routinely give antipsychotic drugs to residents with dementia to control their behavior, despite rules against the misuse of drugs as “chemical restraints,” Human Rights Watch said in a report and video released today. This abusive practice remains widespread, even though the use of antipsychotic drugs on older people with dementia is associated with a nearly doubled risk of death.”

To read the entire article, please click here

Please also review our Legal Nurse Consulting program.

Legal Nurse Consulting: Preparing for Medical Malpractice Legal Action

The article, “PREPARING FOR MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LEGAL ACTION” by  John Damron states

“With a rise in medical malpractice cases, it is important that your firm be visible to prospective clients Make your firm visible to victims of malpractice.”

American Institute Health Care Professionals‘s insight:

A good article for Certifed Legal Nurse Consultants.  If you are interested in learning more about legal nurse consulting, then please review our program.  With so many malpractices, lawyers are looking for good legal nurse consultants to help with their cases

#legalnurseconsultingprogram

See on www.lawwebmarketing.com

Legal Nurse Consulting Can Help With Personal Injury

Legal Nurse Consulting Can Help You Choose The Right Lawyer.

If you are in the middle of a personal injury lawsuit, you may feel a bit overwhelmed and hopeless. You must be sure that you learn all you can about this situation, and that’s what this article aims to assist you with. Continue reading for more tips on preparing a winning case.
Choose a lawyer you like. You don’t need to stay with one that you don’t get along with just because that person knows what they’re doing. If you don’t get along with them, you won’t win your case.  Legal nurse consulting can help you understand the medical terms so you can make your choice correctly.
You should not move your vehicle after an accident unless a law enforcement officer tells you to. Moving the car can lead to more damage, leaving you at least partially liable. When it’s in a busy street’s intersection, that’s the only exception.
If you receive injuries in a car crash or while at work, get yourself a lawyer right away. Time is important with this kind of suit. When you hire a lawyer quickly, he will be able to help you gather photographic evidence, take witness statements, and interview parties involved.
Prepare yourself before meeting with your lawyer. When they work on contingency, this is even more important. Your lawyer will only get money if you get a favorable ruling, so it is possible they may turn your case away if you don’t have adequate information. Bring everything needed with you.   Also talk to a legal nurse as well to get a medical point of view.
Save all receipts related to your personal injury expenses. You can use these items to show how much money you had to pay as a result of your injury. If you don’t keep these, the court may not reimburse this money.
Take your time choosing your personal injury lawyer. Often people will rush to choose a lawyer to represent them. This is almost always a mistake. There could be a superior lawyer that may be better for you. Do some research and interview a good selection of lawyers before you choose one to represent you.
If you’re handling your case yourself, you must locate every policy that the at fault party owns. Perhaps you can make multiple claims. If the at-fault party will not willingly give you the information, you can compel the court to order them to do so.   Lastly make sure you get advice from a legal nurse consultant.
Never hire a lawyer off the TV. This is not a good way to judge if a lawyer is competent. If you want to consider such a lawyer, be sure you research them thoroughly before making an appointment. Failing to do this may sabotage your case, costing you even more money and making it impossible to hire a talented lawyer.
When you’re thinking of getting a personal injury lawyer, pick out one that is close by. This person and you will be spending lots of time together, therefore, the more convenient his office location is, the better it will be for you. Email and phone calls just won’t cut it for some types of needed conversation.
Before choosing a lawyer, do your research about them. Various firms and lawyers deal with certain cases, and you also need to look at their history. Hire someone that is familiar with cases like yours.
Assist your lawyer in finding holes in the other party’s story when dealing with a court case. If you can prove the other side is lying your case becomes very easy to win. These lies will make the judge or jury doubtful of their entire case, and cause your side to be much more believable.
Hopefully you now have a much better understanding of what can be done to help you build your personal injury case. You have to get started on hiring a lawyer, so use the tips that you have learned to help you do that. It’s time to get going now, so get to work!
If you are interested in online continuing health care education, you should take a look at our website.

Legal Nurse Consulting and Radiology Malpractice Statistics

Legal Nurse Consultants and Radiology Malpractice

The chance of a health care provider being sued is always high and realistic.  Legal nurse consultants can help in cases where there is legitimate case or even defend the health care provider if they feel the patient is in the wrong.  One such area is radiology.  Below is research on malpractice within radiology.

The article, “The demography of medical malpractice suits against radiologists.”, by Department of Radiology, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School states

“PURPOSE: To delimit demographic characteristics of malpractice claims against radiologists in the United States by sex and location and to note the varying percentages of favorable outcomes and award amounts to plaintiffs by state.”

To read the article click here

If you are interested in taking Legal Nurse Consulting Courses, please click here

AIHCP

Elements of Health Care Malpractice

The Legal Nurse

Medical or Health Care malpractice can be defined as a professional negligence by a medical professional i.e. a doctor, a surgeon, a nurse or any other healthcare professionals that results in emotional or physical harm to a patient. Medical malpractices come in many forms. For instance, a medical malpractice can be as a result of an act or an omission of a necessary act or care that eventually harms a patient.

 The four elements of medical malpractice

There are four main elements that have to be proven in any given medical malpractice case. These elements include; duty, breach of duty, damage and cause. These elements have to be assessed for a medical malpractice case to be determined.
1. Duty
Duty as the name suggests refers to the doctor patient, or health care provider relationship whereby a duty exists for the doctor to treat a patient according to the set professional code of conduct and practice. For a medical malpractice case to be determined, there must have been a given duty owed (to a patient) by a given healthcare practitioner i.e. doctor, nurse, pharmacist e.t.c charged with the care of a patient. The doctor-patient relationship is a common example of a situation where that duty would exist. A good example of a malpractice based solely under duty is when there is delayed treatment which is treatment that over four hours late. In such a case the duty owed is breached by a responsible party. It is however important to note that a medical malpractice case has to prove that all the four elements exist for it to qualify as a legal medical malpractice case.

 2. Breach of duty

Breach of duty in medical malpractice occurs in cases where a healthcare professional who has been charged with the responsibility/duty of care for a given patient fails in his or her duty by failing to exercise a certain acceptable degree of care or a given medical skill that any other healthcare professional practiseing in the same capacity or specialty would be able to give or address in equal circumstances. Such medical malpractices considered when an expert or experts in similar fields confirm that the professional should have been able to adhere to the set standard of care as required. A medical malpractice example based on breach of duty may include a practitioner i.e. a doctor failing to prescribe standard medication that may have serious health implications on a patient. A medical malpractice case has to proof that a practitioner breached their duty for compensation among the other elements for the case to qualify.

 3. Damage

In cases of medical malpractice damage, the patient has to have suffered either physical or emotional injury while under the care of a given healthcare professional/practitioner. This is among the most common element that dominates medical malpractice cases. For instance a medical practitioner i.e. a doctor may have operated a patient without following the set code/standards which eventually results in physical injury. A good example would be to operate on a patient and causing more new injuries that were not there initially or aggravation an existing injury. A medical malpractice case has to prove that the medical practitioner caused the new damage or aggravated as well as proof the existence of the elements for a case to qualify for hearing which can eventually lead to a patient wining the medical malpractice case and eventually getting compensated.

 4. Cause

The last element of medical malpractice is cause. For a medical malpractice legal case, there has to be concrete/solid proof that a given medical practitioner/professional directly caused a patient injury. Like all the above elements, the cause of injury must be as a result of all the above elements i.e. a breach of duty, duty and damage causing injury to a patient. Such medical malpractice cases are also common for instance when a doctor or a pharmacist prescribes the wrong medicine to a patient and then the patient takes the prescribed medicines and falls ill. The ’cause’ has to be proved in a medical malpractice case.
In conclusion, a successful medical malpractice lawsuit has to prove the existence of all four elements mentioned above four elements. If a healthcare practitioner being sued is able to prove that none of the elements exists, then the medical malpractice case is dropped.
Are you interested in becoming a Legal Nurse? If you are a registered nurse than you may qualify to enter a legal nurse consulting program. Legal nurse consulting is a highly rewarding career specialty for nurses and continues to be in high demand in our country. If you would like to learn more about a legal nurse courses and programs, click here.

Legal Nurse Consulting: Expert Witness

Legal Nurse Consulting: The Nurse as Expert Witness

Exploring The Nurse As An Expert Witness

It is not unusual for an attorney to utilize a nurse as an expert witness when the malpractice issue involves another nurse. There was a time when the attorney would have sought this information from a physician, but times have changed, and many states have ruled that expert testimony about a nurse should come from a nurse. The need for expert nurse witnesses is growing, and the job is not as easy as some might expect. The requirements to be an expert witness are many, and the job responsibilities are even more demanding once received. Let us explore the journey to becoming a nurse as an expert witness.

 The Nurse

The registered nurse is a highly sought after profession that involves providing personal health care to patients in a wide range of health care applications. To be a nurse one must complete the educational requirements necessary for specific specialties and degrees. There are various levels of credentials that can be earned in nursing that cover some 200 areas of certification. The more credentials a nurse have the better should they desire to become an expert witness.

 The Nurse As An Expert Witness

Some believe that an Expert Witness Nurse must be credentialed as a Legal Nurse Consultant. However, the two are not necessarily the same. The legal nurse consultant may well be an expert nurse witness. But, conceivably, any nurse may serve as an expert witness in a malpractice case and deliver an expert opinion.  An expert witness must maintain all of their existing credentials, qualifications, and be clinically active at the time of testifying. It is best if the nurse is certified, and current on the most recent procedures and related information. The basic mission of the expert witness is to conduct a review of the case and decide if the case should be pursued.
Should witness testimony be required from the nurse, they would utilize their experience, training to provide a scientific and technical opinion on whether or not there were deviations in the heath care standards surrounding the issue involved. Some malpractice areas where the expert witness nurse might be required include falls, misuse of medication, bedsores, or any deviation in the nurses function of adhering to applicable health care standards.
The expert witness is often used to show that the patient was not protected because a colleague administered substandard care. They may also determine if charts were accurately filled out, and to report incompetence by the nurse involved in the issue.

 The Role Of A Nurse As An Expert Witness

The expert nurse will review all records associated with the medical issue in question, and then provide their professional opinion to the retained attorney, as to whether or not the given case should be pursued. This requires a great deal of research to ensure the expert can see all aspects of the case clearly. In most cases the expert will review the Administrative Code of the Board of Nursing for the state in which the issue occurred. Any pertinent information discovered by the expert witness should only be provided to the attorney on the case.
Many states ask that a Certificate of Merit be filed by the expert witness. This will be used by the state to determine if the case should be pursued. The expert will either need to deliver a written or oral report on their opinion. They may need to gather information involving the relevant standards regarding the issue in question. All information must be handled with care. Court decisions have been decided all too often because paperwork was mishandled or filing dates were not met. The expert must be prepared for extensive questioning on the stand in reference to their credentials and professional opinion.
It can easily be determined that the responsibilities of an nurse as an expert witness is not easy in any form or fashion. These expert witnesses can earn a lot of money for their efforts, but they develop a sound reputation for honesty, and sustain the credentials to back up their testimony. Whether they work for the defense or the prosecution, it is imperative that their homework has been done. A malpractice decision may very well rest on the expert opinion they provide.
Registered Nurses may learn more about doing expert witness work as well as legal nurse consulting by access information: click here.

Legal Nurse and HIPPA

Legal Nurse Consulting Corner

HIPPA Privacy Rules In Simple Terms

HIPPA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This act, which was passed into United States law in the year 1996 under the mandate of President Bill Clinton, is intended to do several things at the same time. HIPPA is a very complex act that can seem inaccessible and difficult to understand to patients, entities and even some physicians. HIPPA privacy rules for health care are simply, when it comes down to it, a federal law used to protect patients from their information being used or released without their consent to other entities. This article discusses issues related to HIPPA as a review for practicing legal nurse consultants.

What Is Covered Under HIPPA

All your medical charts, your medical history, any conversation you might have with a medical professional, your billing information and any information on your insurance company’s computer systems are all protected by HIPPA from being shared to anyone unless it is necessary to do so.

When Is It Necessary?

When it comes to your care, if you are ever in an emergency, HIPPA allows for your medical history and information to be shared. Your information can be shared with your family or other caretakers, but you can stop this by putting a request in writing. Health professional are also allow it to be shared for billing, to protect the public’s health (if they think you might have an infectious or highly contagious disease, like the virus that causes SARS) or for the police to make reports on wounds. Doctors are not allowed by law to share any of this information with your employer and the information cannot be given to third parties that would use it for marketing or advertising.

Who Is Governed by HIPPA?

Not all health organizations that you are involved it will answer to HIPPA. Doctors, hospitals and insurance companies will, but if any other companies have your information like the place where you purchased life insurance, your employer, your school or even state agents, they do not have to abide by HIPPA.

What Are You Entitled To?

You can see your health records whenever you want, but you must submit a written request to get this done. You must say how you are going to use this information and who is going to see it. You may be charged for copies of your records.

What is a HIPPA form?

Health care providers need to inform patients how their information will be used and could possibly be shared. Health care providers must also ensure that the patient is always aware of his or her rights. This would usually be done in a HIPPA form. This is a document written in simple and straightforward language and it should ensure that the individual knows of his or her right to complain about any information being shared regarding medical records.

What Constitutes As A HIPPA Violation?

You might be accidentally violating HIPPA if you show your own medical records to a friend after having obtained them. Doctors and health insurance companies might be committing one if they are discussing your condition verbally or in a written form without your consent. A good indication of a HIPPA violation is if your medical records have been accessed too many times – this can happen due to curiosity and patients with very rare conditions are particularly vulnerable to this type of HIPPA violation.
Since its start, The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) has been a rather controversial law. Although many patients like the protection it provides, it can be difficult for physicians to make the right judgment calls when they do not have all the information available to make a difficult decision. There can be a court summons of someone’s medical records, but this is a complicated and very long process that hinders how effectively doctors can do their job.
It has also affected some medical researches because they are no longer allowed to look at statistical data on medical charts to provide a historical sample of significance in their studies. This means that doing a historical study of a particular type of disorder or disease could be near impossible.
Additionally, HIPPA is very complicated and it can be quite difficult to follow. That is why many people in the health industry need to have extensive training when it comes to it. Many legal nurses are well versed in HIPPA and provide consultations to health care organizations regarding the many issues involved in the Act. They also provide staff education and training seminars related to HIPPA issues. To learn more about legal nurse consulting, access here.