Open Access

Gerriet Fuchs, Katja Schimmelpfeng, Jens O. Brunner

• The healthcare sector, and hospitals in particular, are confronted with an increasing challenge of staff shortages. To effectively address this issue, hospitals must enhance their workforce planning and scheduling processes in a manner that ensures fairness for employees. The application of operations research/management science methods offers significant promise for the integration of fairness into these processes. To assist researchers and practitioners in capitalizing on this potential, we present a comprehensive review of the extant literature. This review examines the current trends in the integration of fairness into workforce planning and scheduling in hospitals. It analyses 97 papers, providing insightful metadata and categorising the literature based on three key questions: what constitutes fairness, what metrics are crucial for assessing fairness, and how fairness can be quantitatively measured. By structuring our review around these questions, we identify gaps in existingThe healthcare sector, and hospitals in particular, are confronted with an increasing challenge of staff shortages. To effectively address this issue, hospitals must enhance their workforce planning and scheduling processes in a manner that ensures fairness for employees. The application of operations research/management science methods offers significant promise for the integration of fairness into these processes. To assist researchers and practitioners in capitalizing on this potential, we present a comprehensive review of the extant literature. This review examines the current trends in the integration of fairness into workforce planning and scheduling in hospitals. It analyses 97 papers, providing insightful metadata and categorising the literature based on three key questions: what constitutes fairness, what metrics are crucial for assessing fairness, and how fairness can be quantitatively measured. By structuring our review around these questions, we identify gaps in existing research and suggest potential avenues for future research.…