Call for papers - Health workforce planning

Guest Editors:
Madhan Balasubramanian: Flinders University, Australia
Sarah J. Hewko: University of Prince Edward Island, Canada
Sunny C. Okoroafor: World Health Organization, Uganda

Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 12 March 2024

BMC Health Services Research welcomes submissions that present health workforce evidence-based planning actions, policies, and closely related research. We are interested in work that examines all aspects of planning and managing human resources for healthcare, particularly, the cost aspects of such strategic actions and analysis of the health labor market, initiatives to scale up education and training for health workers, approaches to reduce workforce imbalances and improve availability of health workforce data and evidence, strengthen staff performance, or enhance staff attraction and retention.

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Meet the Guest Editors

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Madhan Balasubramanian: Flinders University, Australia

Dr Madhan Balasubramanian is Business Research Lead, HDR Academic Advisor, and Senior Lecturer in Health and Aged Care Management at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. He specializes in integrated care, collaborative practice, migration, regulation, and future workforce modeling. In addition to his appointments at Flinders University, he holds honorary positions at the University of Sydney (Menzies Centre of Health Policy and Economics, School of Public Health) and the University of Adelaide (Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health).

Sarah J. Hewko: University of Prince Edward Island, Canada

Dr Hewko (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Human Sciences at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada and a Registered Dietitian. She is a health services researcher with interdisciplinary training and has a particular interest in producing knowledge that is directly relevant to policy makers and health administrators seeking to enhance the retention of health professionals. Her primary focus is on the allied health workforce. She is grateful to live and work on the traditional and unceded territory of the Abegweit Mi’kmaq First Nation.

Sunny C. Okoroafor: World Health Organization, Uganda

Dr Okoroafor is a Health Systems Strengthening Officer at WHO Uganda. His research focuses on health workforce, primary health care, service delivery and health systems governance. For over 20 years, he has led several large-scale programs, conducted research across various sectors, and published several research papers in various journals, reports and health communication products.

About the collection

BMC Health Services Research is calling for submissions to our Collection on Health workforce planning.

Health workforce is the backbone of health systems, fundamental towards achieving universal health coverage (UHC), and meeting sustainable development goals (SDGs). Improving healthcare delivery and promoting timely access to care for all population groups depends on a strong and effective health workforce.

Availability, capacity, training, and performance of health workers vary a lot geographically. The inability to promptly deploy the right number of health personnel, with the right training and skillsets are available at the right place and at the right time to meet population needs, but at an acceptable cost and quality is a key issue negatively affecting the performance of health systems, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

Health workforce planning is a complex process, involving trade-offs between multiple professional goals in education, training and regulation, and numerous uncertainties (demographic, epidemiological and technological).

A strategic and evidence-based approach to health workforce planning is vital to respond to changing health needs, map healthcare supply, demand and skills of health workers and adapt them to population needs in the immediate present and future, and in the development and emergency contexts.

BMC Health Services Research welcomes submissions that present health workforce evidence-based planning actions, policies, and closely related research. We are interested in work that examines all aspects of planning and managing human resources for healthcare, particularly, the cost aspects of such strategic actions and analysis of the health labor market, initiatives to scale up education and training for health workers, approaches to reduce workforce imbalances and improve availability of health workforce data and evidence, strengthen staff performance, or enhance staff attraction and retention.

There are currently no articles in this collection.

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Health workforce planning" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.