Healthcare Workforce Wellbeing and Sustainability - Volume II: System-Level Governance, Workforce Planning, and Policy Solutions

This Research Topic is led by Annette Boaz, Janet Long, and Yvonne Zurynski, and is part of the Healthcare Workforce Wellbeing and Sustainability series:Volume I: Organisational Culture, Leadership, and Staff Wellbeing in Healthcare SettingsThe sustainability of the healthcare workforce is now a system-level question. Even the best-led organisation cannot insulate its staff from a workforce planning failure, a poorly designed funding model, or a policy environment that under-invests in training pipelines, retention, and the working conditions of frontline professionals. Governments, regulators, and integrated care systems increasingly recognise that wellbeing and sustainability are governance issues, yet the evidence base that links macro-level policy choices to workforce outcomes is uneven, and implementation often outruns evaluation.This Research Topic addresses the governance, planning, and policy architecture required to sustain the healthcare workforce over the long term. We invite empirical and theoretical contributions that examine how system-level actors (ministries, regulators, payers, professional bodies, integrated care boards, and workforce research units) can design and implement policies that translate evidence into durable change. We are particularly interested in work that draws on implementation science, complex adaptive systems theory, and health system sustainability frameworks to explain why some reforms succeed and others stall.Contributions are expected to be grounded in robust data and to offer transferable insights for policymakers and system leaders worldwide. We welcome national and cross-national comparative studies, evaluations of policy interventions, workforce modelling and forecasting research, and analyses of governance arrangements that have demonstrably improved wellbeing, retention, or workforce supply.o National and regional workforce planning models, forecasting methods, and their evaluationo Health system sustainability frameworks applied to workforce policyo Governance and accountability structures for workforce wellbeing across integrated care systemso Implementation science approaches to translating workforce-wellbeing evidence into policy and practiceo Policy levers for retention, return-to-practice, and intergenerational workforce continuityo Funding models, payment design, and incentive structures that shape workforce sustainabilityo Regulatory and professional-body interventions affecting working conditionso Cross-national comparative analyses of workforce policy and outcomeso Equity, migration, and the global distribution of the healthcare workforceo Complex adaptive systems perspectives on policy implementation and unintended consequencesSubmissions are welcome across all article types, including Original Research, Reviews, Perspectives, and Opinion. Authors are encouraged to share a manuscript summary prior to submission. Topic editors: Annette Boaz, Janet C Long, Yvonne Zurynski Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82160/healthcare-workforce-wellbeing-and-sustainability---volume-ii-system-level-governance-workforce-planning-and-policy-solutions