ReviewPublic health in practice (Oxford, England)2026
The global health workforce crisis toward 2030: A scoping review and systems-based policy framework.
Review in Public health in practice (Oxford, England), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objectives: To integrate global workforce indicators and narrative evidence in order to develop a systems-based policy framework informing coordinated workforce sustainability strategies toward 2030. Study design: Scoping review with mixed-methods synthesis. Methods: A structured scoping review was conducted of peer-reviewed literature, global datasets, and institutional policy documents published between 2014 and 2024. A mixed-methods synthesis combined quantitative analysis of workforce indicators with qualitative thematic analysis of structural drivers, governance gaps, and health system impacts. Results: Global projections indicate a shortfall of approximately 11.1 million health workers by 2030. The global nursing shortage was estimated at 5.9 million in 2018, while up to 13 million additional nurses may be required over the following decade when existing shortages, projected retirements, and future demand are considered together. An aging workforce, intensified migration flows, insufficient domestic training capacity, and deteriorating working conditions contribute to persistent shortages. Five systemic drivers were identified: deteriorating working conditions, weak retention mechanisms, demographic pressures, governance failures, and unmanaged migration flows. Impacts include increased mortality, reduced continuity of chronic care, weakened emergency response capacity, and widening geographic inequalities in workforce distribution between high-income and low- and middle-income countries. The Systems-Based Workforce Sustainability Framework integrates macro-, meso-, and micro-level determinants and identifies reinforcing feedback loops sustaining workforce instability. Conclusions: The global workforce crisis is structural and self-reinforcing. Sustainable solutions require coordinated long-term planning, strengthened retention and wellbeing strategies, ethical migration governance, and expansion of domestic training capacity. The proposed framework supports multi-level policy coordination toward workforce sustainability by 2030.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.