5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

Following structural, attitudinal, technological, and economic changes in the healthcare field, concerns about the impact of work and its organization on the lives of healthcare professionals became prominent. This impact was found to affect not only the working sphere but also extend to the personal sphere. Feminization of certain medical fields, as well as generational differences further accentuate this impact. In light of this situation, health organizations and professional associations have been required to reorganize work hours and shifts, and initiated support systems and intervention programs to mitigate work burnout effects, ensure work/life balance, and ensure healthcare personnel maintenance. “Wellness” is extensively used to characterize the ends of these programs, but it often lacks sociological imagination regarding its definition, delineation, application and theoretical lens. Moreover, the link between wellness and health remains obscure in this field.

This session calls for papers focusing on healthcare professionals’ wellbeing, or lack thereof; initiatives aiming to ameliorate healthcare professionals burnout, absenteeism, presentism; work/life (im)balance; healthcare working environments or conditions that impact professionals’ wellbeing and health. We aim to deepen the discussion about the status of healthcare professional groups vis-à-vis their working conditions. We encourage presentations about fully trained healthcare professionals as well as those in their training phases. Contributions about empirical research as well as theoretical-focused ones are welcome.