Polish Your Legal Nurse Consulting Reports part 1

Highlighting key facts helps you persuade in your report. An articulate and organized legal nurse consultant is better prepared to create a persuasive report for a client. Barbara Boschert from St. Louis, MO shares her tip for creating polished legal nurse consulting reports.

Use key points

Barbara said: When possible, I keep specific key points in a box because it is a way to pull them out, set them apart, and make them a quick point of reference. ‘Key points’ depend on the type of case. In a personal injury or workers compensation case, the mechanism of injury may not fit the clinical picture, so I might put a citation/reference in a box that demonstrates that point.

Or I might find a pre-existing condition that had been missed, but has great bearing on mitigating medical specials.

The smoking gun

In a medical malpractice case, I have found one single entry – that proverbial needle in the haystack. The fact turns the case in a favorable direction for my client (plaintiff or defense). I want to be sure to highlight it.

For example, I might find a stand-alone entry that a doctor discontinued a test because the patient was greatly improved. Or perhaps the staging of a newly diagnosed cancer indicated a good prognosis in the face of other negligent care that ultimately ended in the patient’s demise.

Use a format that persuades

This format for legal nurse consulting reports really only works when you’re doing a narrative summary. If you’re doing a chronology in table format, where everything is already in ‘boxes’ essentially, I have a column for comments, and I would highlight these key points in bold italicized text and/or with a color highlight as well.

Other little techniques work for bringing facts to the forefront, both in the context of the report, and perhaps even a separate appendix that is even a faster reference tool for the attorney. Whatever I do, I give a key with my report that helps the client understand the import of emphasized content.

Read the tips in Part 2 and Part 3 here.

Pat Iyer MSN RN LNCC is president of The Pat Iyer Group. Learn more great tips to write organized and persuasive reports. We had a fast-moving webinar chock full of tips to write highly effective legal nurse consulting reports. Check out the online training provided by Dr. Lawrence Clark: Marketing Your Legal Nurse Consulting Services. Order the replay to watch at your convenience.