[Creating Nursing Workplaces That Appropriately Manage Legal Risk].

Nursing professionals constitute the largest occupational group in all healthcare system departments, and are the healthcare professionals who work most closely and frequently with patients. The complexity and variability of the human body make nursing a high-risk occupation. The practice behaviors of nursing professionals must be safe, competent, and ethical, and must comply with relevant laws and regulations. Based on statistics published by the Colorado Nurses Association and the Nurses Service Organization (2020), professional conduct (32.5%), scope of practice (2.8%), and documentation error or omission (9.7%) are the three most-common categories of litigation faced by nurse practitioners. Smart medicine, which has emerged in the past decade, poses potential risks to patient privacy, safety, and professional nursing-care standards and holds the potential to significantly transform or even revolutionize the legal industry (Neary & Chen, 2017). Therefore, legal risk management is of particular importance to the nursing profession. Creating a legal-risk-management program in a workplace may start by focusing on one or more workplace aspects (e.g., individuals, teams, organizations, systems). However, the most crucial element is the frontline implementer. Therefore, the beliefs and attitudes of nursing staff and hospital care attendants toward the legal risks that may arise from the process of patient care are critically related to whether these professionals adhere strictly to the code of practice (Fontaine et al., 2019). This column proposes a safety initiative (SAFE) for the nursing-care workplace through special articles such as "Legal Risk Management in Nursing Practice: The Importance of Duty of Care," "Legal Liability for Negligence: Nurse Aides Working in Hospitals," and "The Legal Risks Faced in Nursing and Smart Healthcare." This initiative entails familiarizing nursing staff and care attendants with the legal risks associated with the patient-care profession (Support); setting high standards for patient care in the workplace that address these risks (Arousing); giving positive feedback to strengthen personal motivation, technical operation, and interpersonal interactions (Feedback); and creating a healthy workplace for practitioners while carrying out complex patient care (Environment). Shakespeare's famous drama The Tempest includes the timeless saying: "what's past is prologue." Analyzing litigation cases provides critical evidence to guide the evolution and improvement of nursing workplaces. Learning from past experience enables nurses and hospital care attendants to help others in a safe and dignified manner that will benefit all people.