Mapping common job demands and job resources for large-scale community health worker programmes in Southern Africa: protocol for a scoping review

Introduction High burdens of infectious and non-communicable diseases and human resource shortages strain primary healthcare systems in Southern Africa. Despite the widespread use of community health workers (CHWs) across the region, the existing literature offers no holistic exploration of the characteristics of CHWs’ work. The Job Demands-Resources model provides a framework to enable such a review, positing that two aspects of working conditions—job demands and job resources—are unique to each workplace but have universal impacts on workers’ health, motivation and the achievement of organisational aims. Methods and analysis The population, concept and context framework will guide the development of a comprehensive search strategy to source reports on CHWs working in large-scale programmes that explore job demands and job resources within at least one Southern African Development Community country. Searches to identify peer-reviewed articles and grey literature will be done in CHW Central, CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus and the WHO Library with citations purposively mined. Eligibility will be limited to reports published in English after the Declaration of Ouagadougou on Primary Health Care in 2008, as this ushered in the modern era of large-scale CHW programmes in Africa. Following publication of this protocol, two reviewers will independently complete screening and full-text review, with the lead author driving data extraction and coding. The results will include organising job demands and job resources into themes, documenting the types of research that articulate these themes and identifying potential knowledge gaps. The review’s methodology and the inclusion of various types of literature will support replicability and comprehensiveness. Ethics and dissemination Formal ethical approval is not required. Results will take the form of a summative article, and additional publications may be considered if the results warrant more in-depth reporting. The evidence from this review may also inform the creation or improvement of programmes. Trial registration number INPLASY202580052.