The healthcare sector is under pressure as a result of the combination of demographic developments and skilled worker shortages. This issue of BWP looks at a highly dynamic occupational field. It examines, on the one hand, how skilled workers can be acquired and trained in the healthcare professions, focusing both on the medical and technical skills that need to be taught and on the social and communicative competencies becoming increasingly important to interprofessional collaboration. On the other hand, it explores how structurally robust this occupational field is in terms of meeting the future challenges. How can task and development prospects be shaped in a way which increases the attractiveness of the occupational field and leads to the acquisition and retention of more qualified skilled workers?