The Power of First Impressions

Let’s face it some LNCs provide their first work product to an attorney…and never hear from him again. 

Maybe you tell yourself that this was the only LNC service he needed.  Deep down you know that was not the issue.  Most LNCs build their business by providing repeat services to present clients while working to gain new clients.  The best marketing tool is the attorney who shares your name with other attorneys because they find you credible and skilled.

Your professional credential as an RN is first and foremost.  Your nursing knowledge, skills, and experiences are the key to your success. Without this background, you would not be able to work through thousands of pages of an EMR and identify key facts that meet legal requirements in tort cases. It also allows you to not only identify key information but to identify what key information is missing or is in conflict with other data in the medical record.  Nurses can easily identify red flags or information that sends our antennas up!

Your first impression must also reveal your education, knowledge, and skill as a LNC.  Is there a difference between any nurse or a nurse who has invested time and money into understanding how to bridge law and medicine?  You bet there is.  Any nurse can read a medical record. However, if she does not understand the legal theory that she is trying to prove (plaintiff) or disprove (defense), then she is just reading and restating the facts in the medical record. Demonstrating critical thinking skills in the analysis of medical records will be one reason why the attorney will find you credible and send you another case.

But there is one more essential element to your credibility as a LNC.  Because we work with many attorneys not located near us, our first written work product is the attorney’s first impression of our credibility.  Can you concisely write an error-free professionally written report that consists of only the key facts of the medical record and how each relates to the legal theory of your case?  The quality of your work product most often determines if you will be asked to work with the attorney again.

Make sure your first impression is that of a skilled and credible LNC.  As Will Rogers famously stated, “You will never get a second chance to make a first impression.”