Optimising workforce competence in home care services: a scoping review protocol

Home care services face increasing challenges driven by population ageing, ageing-in-place policies, growing complexity of care needs among home care recipients and shortages of qualified personnel. These developments underscore the need to better use the available workforce and its competencies. Workforce composition refers to the skill mix and organisational structures of home care services, including professional backgrounds, team configurations and work scheduling practices. Competence utilisation refers to how effectively health personnel apply their skills and qualifications in service delivery. This scoping review aims to map existing knowledge on how workforce composition and professional skill sets influence (1) the organisation of tasks, roles and responsibilities and (2) competence utilisation in home care services. By examining the relationship between workforce organisation and competence use, the review seeks to identify factors that support or constrain the optimal use of workforce competence in home care services.

This scoping review will be conducted according to the Arksey and O'Malley methodological framework as refined by Levac. The review process will be guided by the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. The review has been conducted between April and August 2026. The literature search will be conducted on MEDLINE, EBSCOhost CINAHL, Scopus, ProQuest and Embase to include peer-reviewed primary research studies published in scientific journals. The search will also be supplemented by Google Scholar to identify additional and grey literature in order to improve search coverage. The search strategy has been developed with support from an experienced university librarian. Using the Population-Concept-Context (PCC) framework, inclusion criteria are: (1) employees in home care services, (2) workforce organisation and competence utilisation and (3) municipal or district-based home care services. Exclusion criteria are: (1) volunteers or staff without care responsibilities, (2) studies focusing only on patient outcomes without addressing competence or workforce structure and (3) institutional or hospital-based settings. An online platform will be used to share search results and perform record screenings by two reviewers independently to enhance accuracy and reliability. Data from included sources will be charted and synthesised narratively, supported by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews flow diagram (PRISMA-ScR).

The scoping review will not require ethics approval, as all data will be obtained from publicly available literature. The review authors will adhere to principles of honesty and transparency throughout the data extraction and reporting processes and enhance the trustworthiness of the synthesised findings. Findings will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal and disseminated through presentations at relevant conferences.