sustainability Review Talent Management in Healthcare: A Systematic Qualitative Review Konstantinos D. Mitosis 1 , Demetris Lamnisos 2 and Michael A. Talias 1, *   Citation: Mitosis, K.D.; Lamnisos, D.; Talias, M.A. Talent Management in Healthcare: A Systematic Qualitative Review. Sustainability 2021, 13, 4469. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084469 Academic Editors: János Sándor and Marc A. Rosen Received: 1 January 2021 Accepted: 8 April 2021 Published: 16 April 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Healthcare Management Postgraduate Program, Open University Cyprus, P.O. Box 12794, Nicosia 2252, Cyprus; konstantinos.mitosis1@st.ouc.ac.cy 2 Department of Health Sciences, School of Science, European University of Cyprus, Nicosia 2404, Cyprus; D.Lamnisos@euc.ac.cy * Correspondence: michael.talias@ouc.ac.cy Abstract: Talent Management (T.M.) constitutes a modern and emerging research area in Human Resources Management (HRM). Using a systematic literature approach, we searched in Talent Management literature in the healthcare sector context. We conclude that the number of related studies is minimal. The benefits of implementing Talent Management strategies in healthcare organizations are essential for the organization’s sustainable development and the talented staff and healthcare services patients. Our goal is to undertake a systematic literature review to identify these factors related to talent management practices suitable for healthcare organizations and professionals. We have conducted, according to PRISMA guidelines, a systematic literature review (2010–2020) in the electronic databases PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Health Source/Nursing Academic Edition. Search terms related to T.M. were (“Talent Management” AND “Talent Healthcare”). Strict inclusion and exclusion criteria were set for observational studies, while grey and unpublished literature, uncontrolled studies, protocols, commentaries, and conference proceedings were excluded. All included items were assessed for their quality according to set criteria. Six hundred and eighty-four studies were identified, of which 24 met the requirements. The resulting Talent Management Factors were grouped into nine categories: Programming, Attraction, Development, Preservation, Performance Assessment, Work Climate, Culture, Succession Planning, and Leadership. Based on these factors, we provide a holistic picture of the referred domain’s leading developments. The paper determines the Talent Management factors and explains what happens in practice. In this way, we contribute to building a theoretical framework for T.M. in terms of the organizational context. Keywords: talent management; healthcare; systematic literature review; qualitative content analysis; strategy; leadership; quality services; sustainable services; organizational commitment 1. Introduction Most theorists on Management describe Talent Management (T.M.) as the process of attraction, development, and preservation of working people of increased abilities, skills, and knowledge [1,2] T.M. constitutes a modern research field in Human Resources Management (HRM) and is vital to survival and the organizations’ competitive advantage. Through HRM, organizations manage their staff in the best possible way to increase pro- ductivity, effectiveness, and quality of their services [3–5]. Implementing T.M. strategies for the health services organizations positively impacts the organization itself, the personnel, and the patients-beneficiaries. There are several research studies in the international bibliography supporting the positive effect of T.M. on outflows in the field of health [6–8]. A recent overview of T.M. in nursing concludes that the implementation of T.M. strategies enhances nurses’ clinical skills, increases the personnel’s work satisfaction, improves specialized medical attendants’ skills, and increases the organization's efficiency therapy rates of the patients [9]. Some Sustainability 2021, 13, 4469. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084469 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability