Prof Buchan is Senior Visiting Fellow at the Health Foundation, UK and Adjunct Professor at the WHO Collaborating Centre at UTS, Australia.

He has specialized in nursing workforce policy as analyst, government adviser, and manager. This includes periods working for the RCN, and in government at national level in Scotland and in Australia; and for WHO.

In recent years he has worked extensively as a policy adviser and consultant on health workforce policy across Europe and Asia-Pacific for governments and international agencies including WHO, OECD and the World Bank. He is a long term consultant with the International Council of Nurses.

He is a member of the implementation group of the Scottish Government NHS nursing taskforce, and was a member of the Steering Committee of the Australian Commonwealth National Nursing Workforce Strategy 2025.

Jim is also a Senior Fellow, Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, University of Pennsylvania, USA; Editor Emeritus of “Human Resources for Health”, the peer review journal; and Vice Chair of the Aberdeen Football Club Community Trust (AFCCT)