LNCtips.com: LNC Cheat Sheets

Once you've reviewed a medical malpractice case as a legal nurse consultant, the attorney expects you to know every detail about the case.  What do you do if you have dozens of complex medical malpractice cases and can't remember every factor concerning the case?  If you're like me, you use cheat sheets.

Cheat sheets have a bad rap because they're used for, well, cheating.  I use cheat sheets to jog my memory, just as I used to do when I was a bedside nurse.  If you practiced before the advent of bedside computers, you may know the type of cheat sheet I'm talking about.  It included handwritten information about the assignment, including room numbers, patient names, physician names, diagnoses, the schedule for the patients' tests and treatments, and other pertinent information. 

When I started my current job in a defense law firm, I inherited 30 cases from an LNC who had moved to another city.  When someone asked me questions about the case, I didn't always know the answer.  I had to go to a file cabinet and scour through folders to figure out the case details.  Needless to say, rifling through file cabinets wasn't very efficient or effective.  I developed cheat sheets so that I could access critical information about each case and quickly respond to attorneys.  My first cheat sheets for my current job looked like a handwritten version of this 4x6-index card:

 

I used one of these for each of my cases and kept them in a box on my desk so that I could quickly access them.  Later, I used electronic files instead of index cards and stored the information in my computer. 

My current caseload is over 70 cases, and I can't remember every detail about every case.  By using cheat sheets, I can quickly access information in response to attorney questions.

...Katy Jones