Photograph compliments of Lori Klingman, Secretary
About our Chapter
The Pittsburgh Chapter strives to enhance the practice of legal nursing in the greater Pittsburgh community, and to promote the involvement of legal nurse consultants in health care related litigation or other medical-legal or health care-legal matters.
Formed in 1990 and chartered in 1991, we were among the first chapters of our parent organization, The American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants, which was founded in 1989. Our national association defines our scope and standards of practice, and provides our ethical framework.
Today, most of our founding members remain active in the organization and have been joined by many new members, who have brought an additional wealth of experience and diversity to our chapter. This group of nurses meets monthly to learn about this specialty practice, to which they have been drawn, and which proves to be endlessly interesting and challenging.
A little more about Legal Nurse Consulting:
The Legal Nurse Consultant is a licensed registered nurse who performs a critical analysis of health care facts and issues and their outcomes for the legal profession, health care professionals, and others, as appropriate. With a strong educational and experiential background, the legal nurse consultant is qualified to assess adherence to standards of health care practice as it applies to the nursing and health care professions.
Legal Nurse Consultants' practices can entail:
Facilitating communications and thus strategizing with the legal professional for successful resolutions between parties involved in health care-related litigation or other medical-legal or health care-legal matters.
Educating attorneys and/or others involved in the legal process regarding the health care facts and issues of a case or a claim.
Researching and integrating health care and nursing literature as it relates to the health care facts and issues of a case or a claim.
Reviewing, summarizing, and analyzing medical records and other pertinent health care and legal documents and comparing and correlating them to the allegations.
Assessing issues of damages and causation relative to liability within the legal process.
Identifying, locating, evaluating, and conferring with expert witnesses.
Interviewing witnesses and parties pertinent to the health care issues in collaboration with legal professionals.
Drafting legal documentations in medically related cases under the supervision of an attorney.
Developing collaborative case strategies with those practicing within the legal system.
Providing support during discovery, depositions, trial and other legal proceedings.
Supporting the process of adjudication of legal claims.
from: Legal Nurse Consulting: Principals and Practice (1st ed.). (1998). Boca Raton: CRC Press.
This website is provided as a service to our chapter members and other interested individuals.
If you have additional questions after perusing our site, you may contact our membership secretary:
Phone: 412.939.3426. E-mail: kesrehab@aol.com.
Address: Pittsburgh Chapter AALNC, PO Box 97104, Pittsburgh, PA 15229-3427
Thank you for your interest in our chapter and our practice!
