Health and wellbeing of healthcare workers

Most workers spend a large proportion of their waking lives doing their job. The activities required can have both psychological and physical impacts. Healthcare workers often have to interact with people during crises, and helping others navigate these changes can have a psychological impact. In addition, healthcare workers can be exposed to potential physical dangers, such as infectious agents, toxins and radioactivity. Healthcare workers must also adapt to changes in medical practice that are required to appropriately implement ongoing advances in diagnosis and treatment of disease or as a consequence of the changing economics or policy within the countries in which they work. They can also benefit from both improvements in medicine and increased understanding of potential psychological and physical disruptors.

We welcome submissions that evaluate the mental and physical impact on healthcare workers of their work, and strategies to improve their health and wellbeing. We are particularly interested in studies that evaluate changes over time or as a consequence of particular events. These can be a consequence of planned changes or improvements to working conditions that are either preventative or introduced to address identified issues. Studies that compare different countries or healthcare systems are also encouraged. 

This is a joint Collection across Nature Mental Health, Nature Communications, Communications Medicine, Communications Psychology and Scientific Reports. Before deciding which journal to submit to, please see the relevant journal webpages to check the scope of each journal, as each journal will only publish Articles that also align with their usual scope. Also note that Nature Communications and Scientific Reports will only consider original research Articles, whilst Nature Mental Health, Communications Medicine and Communications Psychology welcome submissions of original Articles, Reviews and opinion content. Each participating journal will apply its standard editorial criteria, including for scope and advance, to the submissions received within the Collection. Authors can choose which journal to submit to based on their own preference. The targeted journal will evaluate the submission for suitability for peer-review at the journal and, where submissions are out of scope but likely suitable for another participating journal, express a recommendation to the authors.  

This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3.