Legal Nurse Consultant I and II - Certificate of Achievement - LNC I & II COA

NARRATIVE: Describe the development of the proposed program, addressing the criteria listed. 

Criteria A.    Appropriateness to Mission (20 points)

1.    Program goals and objectives (Measurable objectives) - The goal and objective of this program is to provide the necessary classes and skills for students who wish to become a a Legal Nurse Consultant.

2.    Program description - The program is called - Legal Nurse Consultant, and it is divided in Legal Nurse Consultant I and II.  The Legal Nurse Consultant is a registered nurse who uses existing expertise as a healthcare professional plus specialized training to consult on medical-related cases Few attorneys know how to read medical records or understand the terminology and subtleties of healthcare issues to achieve the best results for their clients. A legal nurse consultant bridges that gap in the attorney's knowledge. While the attorney is the expert on legal issues, the Legal Nurse Consultant is the expert on nursing, the healthcare system and its inner workings. 

The program consists of tweleve classes (12) - LNC - I consists of the following: First the student starts with Law 10 and the Introduction to Law. The syllabus will be contextualized withs readings and assignments in health care issues and law. The second class is a new class to our law program, Law 11 - Civil Litigation, Law 12 - Torts, and Law 34 - Legal Research. These classes already exist in the Parralegal Program and just next to be contextualized for health care and Legal Nurse Consultant.  The final two classes ar developed in the Patient Righs Advocate class and just need to be contextualized for health care and Legal Nurse Consultant. Those two classes are Fundamentals of Health Care Law. This will introduce the student to Health Care Law issues including Medicare, state regulations, federal and pubic health care programs. and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Many of the current health care practices and procedures require heatlh care beneficiaries to arbitrate, mediate, and negotiate to obtain services first before filing costly and timely litigation. The LNC needs to be familiar with ADR to be an effective Legal Nurse Consultant.

LNC-2 consists of six classes, two of which are developed under the Patient Rights Advocate,

They are Health Insurance and Managed Care - (new course) which will introduce the student to health insurance and managed carelaw with contextualized readings and assignments in health care law and Legal Nurse Consultant and Administrative & Statutory Law - (new course) which will introduce students to administrative rules, regulations, and statutory law, legislative analysis, practice and procedure - with contextualized readings and assignments in health care law and Legal Nurse Consultant. The final 4 classes are new classes - Medical Library Research which will train the LNC to do required Medical research to support the legal arguments in court, Legal Ethics in Medical & Health Care which will train the LNC to determine ethical issues related to the medical field., Health Care Advocacy Law which introduces the LNC to forms of advocacy, within the law, to improve the health care system. Includes also Child Advocacy Issues - and finally Legal Aspects of Medical Fraud and Abuse - (new course) - introduces the student to medical fraud, and abuse including questionable injuries, fraud investigation, medicare fraud, health fraud schemes, flags of fraud, medical record and bill review, assisting with discovery and trail activities - physical therapy and chiropractic regulations, orthopedic injuries and appropriate treatment - with contextualized readings and assignments in health care law.

3.    Program requirements - a total of 6 classes - 3 units each - total of 18 units  for Legal Nurse Consultant I and  a total of 6 classes - 3 units each - total of 18 units  for Legal Nurse Consultant II. 

4.    Background and rational -  According to the Houston Chronicle, "Of the approximately 1,162,124* attorneys in practice today, 25 percent deal with medical malpractice and personal injury cases." These attorneys rely on specially trained Legal Nurse Consultants to help them win their cases.  Also the classes are general in nature that any health care practitioner,  Nurse Practitioner, CNA, or LVN would be interested in taking the classes for career advancement. So these classes will be very popular. We should attempt to articulate the classes with other programs and the four year universities to make the classes transferable.

Criteria B.   Need (20 points)

5.    Identify the problem the program will address (provide documentation) - The program will address the increasing need for training of our health care practitioners including Legal Nurse Consultants, Nurse Practitioners, CNA and LVN and other related health care professoinals. 

6.    Enrollment projections - Currently the Paralegal Program is one of the fastest growing disciplines on campus due to meeting the needs of students by providing online classes. Law classes lend themselves very well to online delivery. This entire LNC Certificate of Achievement (COA) will be provided in an online format. The student will be able to complete all 12 classes within three semesters (4 classes per semester) and will be able to then jump into the workforce to obtain meaningful employment. This program will allow older students who are recently unemployed to enter the workforce in the area of health care and will also allow nurses to transition from active nursing into a consultant capacity.

7.    Similar programs at other colleges in service area - there are no such current programs at Mission College, or even at other LACCD colleges.

8.    Labor Market Information & Analysis (CTE only; include attachment) - see attached Labor Market Information on the Health Care Industry and Services. 

Criteria C.  Curriculum Standards (20 points)

9.    Course development - Law 10,11, 12 and 34 will be upated and contextualized for the health care professions and Legal Nurse consultants. Of the remaining 8 classes, four classes will have to be contextualixed, and four classes will be developed.  The four other classes which are new need to be written, along with a syllabus, course outline of record, assigments, case studies, reading assignments, textxbooks which are relevant to the course subject and topic. Since all of these classes are law classes, with the exception of Medical Library Research, require a lawyer who specializes in these areas of law will be paid a stipend to develop the course outline of record. A web spcialist will upload all of the materials online to the moodle course management system to make it available in an online format to the  LNC and Health Care student.

a.    Name course(s) - Intro to Law (Law 10), Civil Litigation (Law 11), Torts (Law 12), Legal Research (Law 34), Fundamentals of Health Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Health Insurance & Managed Care, Administrative & Statutory Law, Medical Library Research and Report Writing, Legal Ethics in Medical and Health Care, Heath Care Advocacy Law, Legal Aspects of Medical Fraud & Abuse.  They are all credit classes - 3 units each.

11.  Development green curriculum - there is no green curriculum integrated into the LNC COA. However, because it will be deliverred entirely online, it will save driving time, costs, fuel, energy, and classroom space which has a favorable "green impact" on our community. 

Criteria D.  Resources (20 points)

12. Facilities and equipment - none required, all classes online

13.  Faculty qualifications and availability - some of our current online law faculty may be used to develop these classes. Also we will obtain lawyers with expertise in their field of law to develop the classes, and they can be trained to deliver the class online. Lawyers all have J.D. degrees and meet the minimum quals to teach law classes. Many lawyers are interested i the area of Public Health and advocacy, and it should be relatively easy to find capable attorneys to both develop and teach these classes online. The Medical Library Research class should be developed by an expert in the medical filed in conjunction with a Library Science and Library Research specialist.

14.  Professional expertise needed - legal experts, i.e. trained attorneys in the area of expertise will develop and teach the law classes. a medical expert who can develop and teach the Medical Library Research class.

Criteria E. Compliance (20 points)

1.    Based on model curriculum  

2.    Licensing or Accreditation Standards - no licensing required for this Certificate of Completion - LNC can apply to become a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant - see LNCC Certification requirements (2000 hours of Legal Nurse Consulting) - see American Legal Nurse Consultant Certification Board 

PROJECT WORK PLAN AND TIMETABLE: In detail show the work plan including activities, responsible individuals, and completion dates, as well as the expected date that the courses(s) or program be implemented. Legal Nurse Consultant I - Law 10,11, 12 and 34 will be contextualized and updated in Spring 2009. The two new classes Fundamentals of Health Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution will be developed in Spring 2009, along with a course outline of record submitted to the Curriculum Committee, and a syllabus along with contextualized assignments and readings created for the two new classes. In the Summer of 2009, all 6 classes of Legal Nurse Consultant will be uploaded to moodle, faculty will have received training to teach online in Spring 2009, and the LNC I Certificate of Completion will be ready to roll out for the Fall 2009 semester. Legal Nurse Consultant II - The Health Insurance and Managed Care - (new course) - is also a class which is part of the Patient Rights Advocate classes. It will be developed in Spring 2009, with a new course outline of record, syllabus, assignments, and contextualized assignments, along with selection of a law faculty who will be trained to deliver the course, and approved by Curriculum in Spring 2009, and then ready to deliver online in Fall 2009. The Administrative & Statutory Law class is also part of the Patient Rights Advocate and Legislative Research Analyst Certificates of Achievement. These classes will be developed in Spring 2009 and then delivered online in Fall 2009. The remaining four classes of LNC II will be developed in Fall 2009 and delivered in Spring 2010.

To Summarize, Legal Nurse Consultant I will be developed in Spring 2009 and delivered online in Fall 2009, and Legal Nurse Consultant II will be developed in Fall 2009, and delivered online in Spring 2010. See chart below for timelines.

 ** also being developed in Leglislative Research Advocate (LRA)

** also being developed in Patient Rights Advocate (PRA)