Nurses Now Lending Their Expertise in the Legal Field

The rise in medical-related lawsuits has prompted registered nurses such as Betty Pederson and Donna Thielker to lend their expertise as legal nurse consultants. 

Pederson and Thielker, both 47, completed St. Louis Community College-Meramec’s legal nurse consultant certificate program in spring 2005.  Both also have their own consulting firms. 

Legal nurse consulting is a specialty practice in which registered nurses apply their nursing education and clinical expertise to the medically related issues of the litigation process.  The primary role of a legal nurse consultant is to evaluate, analyze and render informed opinions about the delivery of healthcare and the resulting outcomes.  Some legal nurse consultants practice independently; others are employed by law firms, insurance companies, government and regulatory agencies, pharmaceutical companies and other institutions. 

“This program is very different in that it allows the legal nurse consultant to tailor the certificate to meet that individual’s needs versus a ‘canned’ program where everyone gets the same thing,” said Mary Fakes, 
St. Louis Community College’s coordinator of emergency nursing programs.   

More than 170 registered nurses are enrolled in SLCC’s legal nurse consultant certificate program, which features a combination of college credit and continuing education classes.  Additionally, a mentoring program allows participants who have completed a core of courses to work on their cases individually with a practicing LNC, who can offer guidance in areas such as review and analysis of medical records, identification and location of applicable standards of care, identification of potential witnesses, and development of a case summary and report. 

Pederson is employed full time at a skilled nursing facility in west 
St. Louis County.  She is certified in gerontology and holds a nursing home administrator license.  She works on a variety of cases, including nursing homes.   

Pederson, who earned her nursing degree from St. Charles Community College in 1993, has both hospital and long-term care experience.  She became interested in legal nurse consulting, but could not find a training program locally that fit her schedule until SLCC-Meramec’s program caught her attention. 

“I wanted to take classes at my own pace, and the Meramec program allowed me to do that,” said Pederson, who also is a member of the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants (AALNC) as well as its St. Louis chapter.   

Pederson started her consulting firm, Precise Legal Nurse Consulting LLC, in January 2004, before completing her certification.  She also enrolled in St. Louis Community College’s Woman Entrepreneurial Training program to build her business. 

“As a legal nurse consultant, you are very much in demand,” Pederson said.  “When you are not working on a case, you are marketing yourself.   Through the classes taken at St. Louis Community College, I learned how to develop skills needed to become a legal nurse consultant as well as market myself and my business.” 

Thielker, a graduate of Maryville University’s nursing program, currently also is employed as a case manager at DePaul Health Center.  She had attended a legal nurse consultant seminar and had taken an online program to become certified.  Like Pederson, Thielker found she needed to find a program that progressed more slowly as she juggled a job and raising a family.  SLCC-Meramec’s program proved to be a good fit. 

“I chose the program at Meramec because I preferred this type of learning environment where you focus individually on all the areas versus an intensive weeklong program,” Thielker said.  “I really liked the mix of nursing and legal classes that all were taught by professionals.” 

Thielker started her consulting firm, Concise Legal Nurse Consulting LLC, in January 2005, and also is a member of the AALNC and its 
St. Louis chapter. 

For more information about the legal nurse consultant program, call Fakes at (314) 644-9135.