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BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILEMELANIE OSLEY, RN, MBA, CPHRM, DFASHRM has been in the medical-legal field for eighteen years, and has been a Registered Nurse for twenty-four years. She holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Law Enforcement and Nursing, as well as an MBA in Healthcare Administration with a primary focus on risk management. She has also completed a specialty certificate in healthcare risk management from the New England Healthcare Assembly. Before entering the field of nursing, Melanie spent seven years working in law enforcement. She has experience as a probation counselor for misdemeanor offenders, and as an assistant to the county prosecutor for the child support recovery program. In addition, she spent four years on the Indiana State Police, three years in dispatch and communications, and one year as a photographic processor and evidence security specialist in a forensics laboratory that served 24 southern Indiana counties. Melanie’s clinical nursing experience includes six years in adult critical care, including trauma, cardiac, neurosurgical, and open heart intensive care nursing. She also has over 13 years of experience as an emergency department nurse in both rural community as well as metropolitan teaching hospitals in Indiana, Maryland, and Connecticut. She held certifications in critical care nursing (CCRN) and emergency nursing (CEN) for over eight years, and was an Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) instructor for ten years. She remains current on clinical issues by continuing to work part-time as a nursing supervisor for a 600 bed teaching hospital. Her medical/legal career began by working as a nurse consultant for two Connecticut healthcare defence law firms. For six years, she also owned and operated her own multi-state medical/legal nurse consulting practice. Prior to becoming a risk manager, she worked for four years as a Senior Claims Representative for a medical professional liability insurance company. Identifying lack of communication as the one of the primary reasons for errors in the clinical setting, in 2005, Melanie created the Patient Passport to Safer Care. This passport-sized copyrighted medical history document is for the healthcare consumer to use when presenting themselves for care. Melanie makes the Patient Passport to Safer Care available when she presents her Patient Boot Camp to community groups on how to be advocates for their own safer healthcare experience. The "Patient Passport" has now been distributed to eighteen states, and developed in to medical health history software for physician's offices. Melanie has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed professional nursing journals, co-authored a chapter in Principles & Practice for Legal Nurse Consultants, and has been a much requested speaker over the past 18 years at national, state and local medical and legal seminars and conferences. Melanie is a past member of the national Board of Directors of the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants. She has served as Board member, Secretary, and President of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Society for Healthcare Risk Management, the Connecticut affiliate of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management. In 2007, she earned the designation of Distinguished Fellow of the American Society of Healthcare Risk Management, making her the only Registered Nurse in New England to attain that title. In addition to working as Director of Risk Management at The Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington, Connecticut, Melanie continues to operate a robust consulting practice, RNs/Risk Networking Solutions, LLC, and is maintains clinical competence by working as a nursing supervisor at a 600 bed metropolitan teaching hospital in Hartford, Connecticut.
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