Overcoming risks in legal nurse consulting is a key factor in success as an LNC.
I had been reviewing cases as an expert witness for about seven years when I decided that I needed to make more of an effort to meet attorneys in person. I’m a shy person and it takes a lot of energy for me to be able to walk into a room with a smile plastered on my face and not know a soul. In addition, exhibiting puts me under pressure to make a good impression and meet people who might hire me. If you’re extroverted, you thrive in that environment. If you’re introverted, you know exactly what I mean.
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The first time I exhibited (which was at an attorney conference in New Jersey), I was terrified but committed to myself that I would do it again.
The second time I went into a room to meet attorneys was when I walked into the Waldorf Astoria in New York City to meet attorneys attending a national conference. I was scared out of my mind.
I rented table space at the conference and brought my assistant to help me meet and greet attorneys. She was equally shy. Half the time, I wanted to hide behind my booth. But I had paid a lot of money and put much effort into getting to that beautiful hotel.
In addition to the idea of meeting attorneys all day long, the environment intimidated me. There were mirrors and chandeliers and marble floors and velvet curtains. It was an opulent setting.
Overcoming Risks: Nothing Random
At my booth, I had a bowl to collect business cards for a drawing. I planned to pick the card of the attorney who looked like the most likely prospect. There was nothing random about my drawing.
I selected the card of a man who was one of the partners of a law firm with offices in six cities in New Jersey and New York.
His office was about an hour and a half away from my home, so I called him up to make an appointment to deliver the prize.
I said, “I met you in New York, and you’ve won a prize at my drawing. I’d like to arrange to deliver it to you.” He replied, “You’ll have to speak louder. I’m in my private helicopter.”
My hand was sweating; I almost hung up. A little voice of self-doubt said, “Pat, who do you think you are? Do you want to deliver a prize to a man who’s got a private helicopter? Are you really in that league?” I said to that little voice, “Stop! I’m not giving up that easily.”
Overcoming Risks: Be Confident
When I entered his office, we planned to have lunch. Before we could leave to go to the restaurant, he said to me, “I’ve got this case I want you to look at while you’re here. It involves an infant who received an overdose of potassium chloride. He received it by IV push. Can you take a look at this?”
He held up a little black-capped 30 cc multi-dose vial of potassium chloride. I was very familiar with the drug. I said to him, “Nurses are not supposed to give this drug IV push.” The defendant nurse was supposed to give three meq and instead gave 30 meq. That overdose put the child into cardiac arrest. Although he was successfully resuscitated, he had anoxic brain damage and quadriparesis.
I told the attorney, “Not only did she give ten times more than she was supposed to, but she should never have given it by IV push.”
He said, “Are you sure she shouldn’t have given it by IV push?”
“Oh yes, there’s a list in every hospital, which states what drugs nurses are allowed to give. And I know that potassium chloride by IV push is not allowed.”
“How do you know there’s such a list?”
“Because I was responsible for updating that list and teaching nurses about the list in the hospital where I worked.”
“I’ve had six doctors look at this case, and none of them realized that the nurse wasn’t supposed to give this drug. How do you know this?”
“Because I’m a nurse.”
We never got to lunch that day. After I reviewed the records of the child’s case, he handed me a set of records of a man who had a stroke during surgery.
Lunch was a bowl of Japanese seaweed that he’d gotten as takeout. Three hours later, I left the law firm with a new client and two cases.
Eventually, after much resistance, the defense attorney handed over the list of medications nurses were permitted to give by IV push at that hospital. The list confirmed that the neonatal nurse was not allowed to give potassium chloride IV push. My client settled that case for $7 million.
After that first office visit, he started working with me closely. This attorney gave me so much business that he put my oldest son through four years of an Ivy League college education.
I’m working with him today. He returned to me as a client in February 2021 and said, “Pat, I’ve got a case I want you to help me with.”
I replied, “I had a five-year non-compete agreement with the woman who bought my business. It’s been six years since I sold the company. Tell me about your case.” We’ve been working on cases ever since.
Overcoming Risks Gives You Results
About three years after I first started working with this attorney, I said to him, “I’ve seen your Porsche. I’ve seen your BMW. But where’s your private helicopter? Where do you keep that?”
He looked at me and said, “Private helicopter? What are you talking about?”
I said, “When I called you to make this appointment, you said you were in your private helicopter. And that’s why it was so noisy.”
He said, “Pat, I was probably standing under a fan in the men’s room.”
I thought, “What if I had hung up on him? What if I had listened to that little voice of doubt that said, ‘Pat, you’re not in the right league to deal with this man?’” That little voice can shoot down your dreams before you have a chance to fulfill them.
Overcoming risks of legal nurse consulting means doing things that are a bit scary, a bit beyond your comfort level. Without taking risks, you cannot grow. Life is too short to remain static.
Pat Iyer is president of The Pat Iyer Group, which develops resources to assist LNCs in obtaining more clients, making more money, and achieving their business goals and dreams.
Pat’s related websites include the continuing education provided on LNCEU.com, the podcasts broadcast at podcast.legalnursebusiness.com, and writing tips supplied at patiyer.com.
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