It’s an exciting time for Apex Health Associates. Our first training day came upon us and we were ready to inform and entertain a group of senior nurses for the day.
It’s not an easy task to capture senior nurses’ attention as they are already ‘top of their game’. We wanted to ensure the effort they made in coming to the day proved worthwhile, not only for their work with Apex Health Associates but also to utilise the information they gleaned for their workplaces in hospitals and the community.
The purpose of the day was to ensure they know how to prepare and format a medico legal report, and secondly to give them information on the roles and duties of a nurse expert. Most senior nurses write reports so I didn’t want us to teach them what they already knew. Their time is precious so we had to make it informative, relevant, punchy and concise.
There are differences in writing reports for the hospital setting as opposed to the legal setting. Medico legal reports are written for the lay person and not for members of the multidisciplinary team such as doctors, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and so forth.
They need to be in a simple, easy to follow format and specific questions need to be addressed appropriately. The nurse experts were given a straightforward template to utilise (and improve), before a group of practising solicitors gave an overview of the legal principles of clinical negligence.
Examples were linked to their specialities as far as possible such as tissue viability, manual handling, bariatric, quality, respiratory, psychiatric as well as general medical and surgical nursing areas.
For the afternoon sessions we were privileged to have a nurse expert with many years of experience talk them through the process, sharing her knowledge and advice, and allowing plenty of time for questions and discussion. To hear real life experiences of a nurse expert was crucial and proved invaluable.
All of the nurses brought something special to the day. They contributed to the discussions and improved their knowledge on what a nurse expert witness’s roles and duties encompass. By the end of the day they were armed with the knowledge that Apex Health Associates will support them through the process.
I am proud of this. Apex Health Associates plays an important part in ensuring that senior nurses are given the support and guidance they deserve. We received good feedback and it was a great training day.
The second training day for court room skills is already in the planning stage for later this year.
If you are a senior nurse and are interested in becoming a nurse expert please contact me at: