EMPOWERING Change
Strengthening workforce sustainability and change capacity in healthcare
Healthcare systems are under increasing pressure due to workforce shortages, rising care demand and continuous organizational change. At the same time, healthcare professionals are expected to continuously adapt to new technologies, innovations and changing ways of working. Many healthcare organizations struggle to sustainably implement these changes while maintaining workforce well-being, engagement and quality of care. Supporting healthcare professionals and organizations in dealing with ongoing change has therefore become an important challenge for the future sustainability of healthcare systems.
Within the Convergence Health & Technology Sustainable Health Program EMPOWERING Change, researchers and healthcare professionals work together to better understand how healthcare organizations can strengthen workforce sustainability and change capacity in daily healthcare practice.
Successful healthcare transformation depends not only on innovation itself, but also on the ability of healthcare professionals and organizations to adapt to change in a sustainable way.
What Empowering Change works on
EMPOWERING Change focuses specifically on leadership, team dynamics, workforce well-being and organizational learning within healthcare settings. By combining organizational science, healthcare practice and implementation research, EMPOWERING Change develops practice-based approaches that help healthcare professionals and teams adapt to change in a sustainable way.
A central part of the program is the development of a Living Lab approach in which research and healthcare practice continuously inform each other through monitoring, feedback and evidence-based interventions.
Innovation highlights
Sustainability & Adaptability Monitor
The program is developing a monitoring tool focused on workforce sustainability and adaptability within healthcare teams and organizations. The monitor provides insight into themes such as engagement, burnout, psychological safety, leadership and readiness for change.
Practice-based Living Lab
EMPOWERING Change develops a Living Lab approach in which healthcare practice and research continuously inform each other. The program integrates monitoring, interventions and organizational feedback into a continuous learning system for healthcare improvement.
Leadership development modules
The program develops and evaluates evidence-based leadership interventions together with healthcare professionals and organizational stakeholders. These interventions focus on strengthening leadership, team support and adaptability within healthcare organizations.
Organizational feedback reports
Researchers are developing stakeholder-specific feedback reports that provide teams and organizations with insight into workforce well-being, team dynamics and organizational barriers to sustainable organizational change.
Sustainable Health Program News:
Empowering Change
Policy & societal impact
EMPOWERING Change focuses on practical conditions that influence whether organizational change and healthcare innovations can be sustainably adopted in healthcare practice. The program studies factors such as leadership, team dynamics, psychological safety and workforce well-being that support healthcare professionals and teams during periods of change and innovation. By combining organizational research with healthcare practice, the program aims to support healthcare organizations in strengthening workforce sustainability, adaptability and continuous organizational learning.
Partners & ecosystem
EMPOWERING Change brings together expertise from Erasmus MC and Erasmus University Rotterdam across healthcare practice, organizational behavior, leadership research and change management. The program works closely with healthcare professionals, HR specialists and organizational stakeholders to ensure that research and interventions remain closely connected to daily healthcare practice. EMPOWERING Change is connected to the broader EMPOWER network, which brings together partners from healthcare practice, research and policy around workforce sustainability and organizational change in healthcare.
Education & talent development
The program contributes to interdisciplinary learning and research at the intersection of healthcare, organizational science and leadership development. Researchers, PhD candidates and healthcare professionals collaborate on real-world organizational challenges within healthcare settings.
Looking ahead
In the coming years, EMPOWERING Change will continue developing and embedding its Sustainability & Adaptability Monitor within healthcare practice. The program will also continue developing and evaluating evidence-based leadership interventions focused on workforce sustainability and change capacity within healthcare organizations.
By combining monitoring, feedback and practice-based interventions, EMPOWERING Change aims to support healthcare organizations in strengthening sustainable organizational learning and adaptability in daily healthcare practice.
Events
EMPOWER program
Empowering Change is part of the broader EMPOWER program, which focuses on strengthening healthcare professionals and organizations in dealing with ongoing change and innovation.
