Did you spend three years in law school learning medical definitions and abbreviations? What about how to organize records into hospital chart format? That was never part of my curriculum in law school. Which is precisely why attorneys and paralegals should not be trying to read their own medical records in cases involving injuries or other medical issues without the assistance of a nurse consultant or nurse analyst.
Who can help?
You may have heard of legal nurse consultants; there is a certification available to those who meet the educational and experience requirements, and pass the certification exam. But certification is not required or necessary to reap the benefits of a nurse’s medical knowledge. Nurses with a four-year Bachelor of Science degree in nursing (BSN) or Master of Science in nursing (MSN), as well as some real life clinical experience with patients, are likely going to be your best bet, but Registered Nurses (RN) and Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN) may also meet your needs in certain circumstances.
What can they do?
1. Help you read and understand the alphabet soup
Besides the numerous abbreviations doctors use (some are easy – SOB for shortness of breath, but CABG for coronary artery bypass graft is a little harder, and do you even really know what SVC – superior vena cava syndrome – is?), one of the first challenges to conquer is, “Can you read their handwriting?” Nurses and medical transcriptionists have been looking at this scribble for years and...
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