Organizational Approaches That Support Nurses and Healthcare Workers to Thrive: Moving Beyond Burnout

Dear Colleagues,

The International Council of Nurses estimates a global shortage of 13 million nurses by 2030. Nursing is the largest occupational group in the health sector; however, attracting and retaining sufficient numbers of nurses is a near-universal challenge. In 2024, approximately 25 percent of nurses in America left the profession within their first year. Job stress and work environment are listed as challenges encountered by nurses, with burnout stated as the primary reason for leaving. Beyond the negative impacts on the individual nurse, burnout is associated with poor quality patient care, decreased patient satisfaction, and lower organizational commitment and productivity. While common approaches to dealing with nurse retention and burnout issues have been targeted at individuals, the evidence suggests that a major focus needs to be on job characteristics and organizational support.

Thriving at work focuses on identifying the personal and organizational factors that influence the ability of nurses to be energized and thriving, thereby reducing their intention to leave. Thriving is a positive psychological state in which individuals experience both a sense of vitality and a sense of learning at work. Thriving employees experience growth and momentum marked by feeling energized and alive (vitality) and a sense that they are continually improving and getting better at what they do (learning). The outcomes of thriving at work include reduced burnout and turnover. Paying attention to thriving at work is an important means by which managers and their organizations can improve both the health outcomes of nurses and organizational performance.

This Special Issue aims to move the focus from building personal resilience in nurses to cope with anticipated burnout towards creating supportive organizational environments to improve thriving and mitigate the development of burnout. We are pleased to invite you to contribute innovative research on issues of burnout and thriving in nurses, providing evidence-based recommendations and intervention evaluations on how organizations can better support nurses, thereby reducing burnout and improving thriving.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research may include (but is not limited to) the following:

• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of existing approaches to burnout and thriving in nursing or healthcare.
• Cross-sectional studies exploring issues of burnout and thriving in nursing or healthcare.
• Longitudinal studies reporting changes in burnout and thriving in healthcare over time.
• Intervention studies that evaluate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing burnout or promoting thriving in healthcare.
• Qualitative research exploring personal experiences of burnout and thriving among nurses or other healthcare workers.
• Mixed-methods studies that provide a comprehensive understanding of burnout and thriving in nursing and healthcare.
• Technological research on the use of technology, such as apps or telehealth, to support nurses and other healthcare workers’ well-being.

I/We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Stephen Phillip Jacobs
Dr. Willoughby Moloney
Dr. Daniel Terry
Guest Editors

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-blind 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.

• burnout
• thriving
• nurses
• workforce
• organizational support
• turnover