OPEN CALL: Special issue of Health Policy on the health workforce in Canada
Canada’s health system is facing an unprecedented crisis, which centres on its health workforce. One in six Canadians lacks a primary care provider, emergency room closures are commonplace, and clinicians are leaving the workforce at alarming rates, all while health needs surge in this post-pandemic era. Various stopgap measures are being used by government to tackle shortages, including recruitment of health professionals from other countries but without a coherent holistic approach or long-term plan.
In this unprecedented context, a special issue of Health Policy will focus on health workforce issues in Canada that are impacted by policy choices, at the local, provincial, regional or federal levels. The guest editors for the special issue are:
- Timothy Evans, Director, School of Population and Global Health, Ï㽶ÊÓƵ
- Gail Tomblin Murphy, Professor, Department of Community Health & Epidemiology, Adjunct Professor, School of Nursing & Director, PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre on Health Workforce Planning & Research, Dalhousie University
- Gilles Dussault, Professor, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
- Pascal Zurn, Unit Head, Health Labour Market & Partnerships Unit, World Health Organization
- Priyanka Saksena, Consultant, School of Population and Global Health, Ï㽶ÊÓƵ
The special issue will present a compendium of evidence-based insights with policy implications in complementary areas, drawing on international experience where relevant. Articles in the special issue will encompass but not be limited to the following areas:
- Financing systems and funding for the health workforce
- Educating and training of health workers
- Migration and internationally educated health professionals in Canada
- Aligning the health workforce with the needs of specific disadvantaged populations (for example, Indigenous populations, rural/remote populations, migrant populations)
- Challenges related to specific health workers, particularly under-studied groups (for example, racialized health workers)
- Equipping the health workforce to tackle new challenges like climate change and anti-microbial resistance
The articles in the special issue can be original research articles, health reforms analyses, comparative analyses or systematic reviews as per the policies of the journal Health Policy.
We invite researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and stakeholders in Canada who work on the health workforce to submit a detailed proposal for articles for this special issue to hrhspecialissue.spgh [at] mcgill.ca. Proposals that are accepted by the guest editors for this special issue can then be developed into full articles by the authors by September 2025. The full articles will subsequently be subject to Health Policy’s normal peer-review process.