Attorneys urged to become nurses

"Why Not Doctor a Stalled Legal Career With a Nursing Degree?" was posted on the May 11, 2009 Legal Blog Watch. The posting discusses how a nursing degree may be the solution for attorneys that are being laid off or that cannot find a position after law school. The posting is not as interesting as the comments posted on ABA Journal site. I have to agree with the majority of postings; a person should not go to nursing school unless they want to be a nurse. The fields mentioned as potential career choices ignore the fact that most of those careers require EXPERIENCE in nursing.

I get phone calls from nurses that are either thinking about becoming legal nurse consultants or they have already paid the money to become a certified nurse consultant and now they are seeking work (as a note, I do not typically use consultants in my practice, just my own nursing knowledge). Many of those nurses do not have enough nursing experience to be marketable. Most of what makes a LNC valuable is the nursing background and vast experience that the nurse has. Think back---how much did you really know in your first few years of experience?

Just like nurses want to pick an attorney who has appropriate legal experience, an attorney does not want to hire a nurse that has no appropriate nursing experience.

Thanks to LaTonia Denise Wright, R.N.,B.S.N., J.D. for the heads up on this article.