Mental Health, Lifestyle Behaviors and Occupational Well-Being Among Nursing Professionals

Dear Colleagues,

Nursing professionals work in demanding environments characterized by high workloads, long or irregular shifts, emotional demands, staff shortages, and complex interactions with patients, families, and colleagues. These conditions may affect their mental health, occupational well-being, physical health, and capacity to provide safe, high-quality care. Outcomes such as anxiety, depression, burnout, resilience, job satisfaction, and quality of life may also be influenced by lifestyle behaviors, leadership styles, organizational culture, and sociodemographic and family circumstances. Poor occupational well-being may contribute to absenteeism, presenteeism, staff turnover, reduced professional engagement, and lower quality of care, creating consequences not only for individual professionals but also for patients, healthcare organizations, and health systems. Understanding how occupational, behavioral, organizational, and personal factors interact is therefore essential for developing effective preventive strategies and promoting a healthier, more resilient, and sustainable nursing workforce.

This Special Issue aims to advance knowledge on mental health, lifestyle behaviors, and occupational well-being among nursing professionals. It seeks to provide a multidisciplinary forum for research examining determinants, consequences, assessment methods, and interventions related to nurses’ health and well-being. The topic is closely aligned with the scope of Healthcare, particularly its interest in nursing, health promotion, healthcare workforce sustainability, organizational factors, and the quality and safety of care.

We welcome original research and review articles, including observational, qualitative, mixed-methods, intervention, psychometric, and evidence-synthesis studies.

Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Anxiety, depression, stress, burnout, and psychological distress;
• Resilience, compassion fatigue, work engagement, and job satisfaction;
• Physical activity, smoking, sleep, nutrition, and other lifestyle behaviors;
• Occupational, organizational, and psychosocial determinants of health;
• Work–family balance and sociodemographic influences;
• Development, adaptation, and validation of relevant assessment instruments;
• Preventive and organizational interventions to improve well-being and quality of care.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Marta Sánchez-Zaballos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.