Meet Legal Nurse Consultant Debbie A. Pritts

Debbie A. Pritts is a legal nurse consultant at Wallace Miller. With over 20 years of clinical nursing experience, Debbie helps attorneys gain a complete understanding of the complex medical aspects of their cases. She is a past president of the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants and the chair of the American Bar Association Nursing & Allied Healthcare Professionals Taskforce.  

Tell me more about your path to becoming a legal nurse consultant.

I always thought I would be a nurse. When I finished nursing school, I took a job at an inner-city hospital in Pittsburgh. I was assigned to an inpatient unit split with one wing comprised of oncology patients, and the other wing medical-surgical patients.  

I loved oncology. Emotionally it was a difficult floor to work on. At that time, I was a twenty-year-old, beginning my professional experience in the workforce. It was a gynecological oncology unit, so I had female patients and some of them were young mothers battling a diagnosis of cancer. And I remember being overwhelmed sometimes at the sadness of what they were facing in their lives, with their spouse, their children, and their health. It was difficult to deal with, but it was so rewarding to be able to care for my patients and meet others providing them physical and emotional support. 

As a nurse, I found support not only from my co-workers but also my family. I recall my husband one time saying, “Why don’t you just take a job somewhere else that’s not so emotionally draining? You can get a job anywhere.” And I responded, “Because I love what I do.” I just absolutely loved clinical nursing.  

Why did you shift to working in law?

Initially, I received a postcard in the mail offering a course for legal nurse consulting. At the time I put it to the side, thinking I might be interested in the future. Sometime later, while working in a smaller community hospital, I faced a sudden layoff with many of their staff. 

I had no intention of giving up clinical nursing. But the way it played out opened this other door and I realized I enjoyed doing this too. I have always had an interest in research, new treatments, new medicines for my patients, and wanted to learn more. While working clinically, I was also raising a family—it was difficult to get it all done. 

When I worked clinically, I was researching to better myself in my clinical role. Now, I am still learning while working, but the vast amount of knowledge I have gained, in a variety of areas, is just unbelievable. It has been and still is an incredible experience. 

How does your perspective as a nurse impact the way you look at a case?

An attorney is looking at the case from a legal point of view, whereas I’m looking at things from a medical point of view—together we collaborate to discuss all possible scenarios of what occurred. Whether on a medical malpractice, personal injury, or product liability case, we will build the best case for our client. But we are also considering what the defense angle might be—it’s like playing chess. We must anticipate what the opposing counsel’s strategy is and recognize the defensible portion of the case, if there is one, then discuss how to refute that.  

With my experience and knowledge, I can understand and explain the medical events—what should have happened, and what may be a complication or a confounder versus a breach in the standard of care or a fault of a product.

What advantage does that provide when working on a lawsuit?

I frequently participate in our calls with our expert witnesses or treating providers. The attorneys recognize and appreciate the value I bring to these calls, as experts are normally more at ease in speaking with another healthcare professional as opposed to an attorney alone. 

My mind thinks differently than the attorneys’. So when we are speaking with an expert, I think about the scenario of events, or the underlying condition, and I ask questions more intuitively because I understand many of the medical details, while the attorneys might add, “Well, let’s look at this from a legal viewpoint.” I help facilitate the conversation, putting the expert at ease and opening the dialogue to gain a better understanding of the facts. 

Has working in law impacted your perception of the healthcare industry?

I’m always trying to stay current with what is going on in the medical world—new medications, new devices, updates in procedures, reported complaints about devices or drugs—to assist in case development for the firm, and to be an advocate for the public in general.  

I worked in oncology for so many years, and while working clinically, I remember thinking, “Oh my, I can’t wait until there’s another drug on the market,” so that when someone’s first line of chemo was no longer efficacious, there was something else to offer them. The hope of having another form of treatment was always in the back of my mind. 

Now, since working in the legal field, I see how some drugs or devices may have been approved too swiftly, or after approval you think, “How did that ever get approved?” You learn a corporation had maybe not been fully transparent on all results from clinical trials, or maybe trials appear to have been stopped early because they didn’t like an outcome, and that outcome was important for people who might decide to use that drug or medical device. 

This is why I try to stay up on what is being reported, to get an early look for my family, myself, my friends, and people in general. If a family member or friend with a chronic illness calls and asks what I think, is this a new treatment that feels safe? How can I best guide them? Even though I’m not clinically active now, I’m still caring for people, in a different way. 

What do you value most about working in this role?

Being an advocate. A nurse assesses patients’ needs and provides physical care, monitoring, emotional support, and knowledge to educate their patients—but they must also be an advocate for the patient to allow them to make critical decisions that impact their lives.  

For example, if my patient was asked to consider participating in a clinical trial, and by participating it meant she might suffer some unwanted side effects that could impair her ability to care for small children or an aging parent, as a nurse, you have to advocate for your patient—that yes, while it’s very important to participate in clinical trials to further knowledge, not everybody can contribute in that way, and that’s okay. You can find another way to help. 

There are always ways to advocate. I still advocate for people in my current role, for those patients who are now clients of ours, by helping to ease their mind while taking a step towards legal action—which is hard to do. I support and educate our clients and guide them through a process that can be difficult. They have already faced a health issue, and now they have to maneuver through the legal system because of it, which is something they never really anticipated. I play a crucial role in that. I feel like I’m still helping clients and patients, just in a unique way. 

Hear what Debbie has to say about how medical records impact your lawsuit and the importance of organ donation, and learn more about the role of a legal nurse consultant in Debbie’s interview on WGN Radio’s Let’s Get Legal.