Diversity as an individual resource in care work of the future: a scoping review protocol

Background: Evidence suggests that appropriately managed diversity in healthcare teams can enhance problem-solving, resilience, job satisfaction – all crucial for workforce retention. This scoping review aims to map evidence on how lived diversity experience is conceptualized and operationalized as an individual resource among care workers. Methods: An interdisciplinary approach across social anthropology, health sciences, and labor economics will be adopted. The databases to be searched include MEDLINE/PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus and Web of Science and sources of grey literature. A two-stage screening process will be followed by systematic data extraction, with findings synthesized through descriptive numerical summaries and qualitative thematic analysis. Results: This scoping review is expected to shift the focus from organisational-level diversity research to research on how diversity contributes as an individual resource in care work contexts. It will map how diversity-as-resource is theoretically operationalized across disciplines, identifying existing measurement approaches and potentially revealing critical gaps in current assessment methods. Conclusion: By synthesizing evidence on how care workers’ lived diversity experiences are deployed as valuable competencies in care delivery, this review will provide foundational knowledge to inform workforce transformational strategies