Protocol: Vocational Rehabilitation in Generalist Community-Based Rehabilitation: A Scoping Review of Existing Supports for Practitioners

Abstract

Objective: This scoping review will map supports, tools, training, strategies, and organisational arrangements that are documented in academic and grey literature to enable generalist community-based rehabilitation practitioners to initiate or deliver vocational rehabilitation (VR) for adults with functional limitations from injury or adult-acquired conditions. It will also describe the nature and content of each support. Introduction: Work participation is an important rehabilitation outcome, yet vocational rehabilitation is not consistently embedded within generalist community-based rehabilitation services. Practitioners often report challenges related to knowledge, confidence, resources, and organisational support for addressing a patient’s VR needs or work-related issues. Mapping the supports available to practitioners is therefore an important step toward understanding how vocational rehabilitation can be better integrated into routine rehabilitation practice. It is also needed before intervention development or an effectiveness-focused review. Inclusion criteria: Population: generalist community-based rehabilitation practitioners serving adults who have functional limitations from injury or adult-acquired conditions. Concept: supports that enable them to address work participation or VR. Context: community, outpatient, transitional, primary-care, or mixed rehabilitation settings. Empirical studies of any design and relevant grey literature will be eligible. Type of Sources: Empirical studies (any design) and grey literature sources will be included. Sources focused solely on settings or practitioners considered to be specialist VR (not generalist rehabilitation) or focused only on client-level outcomes without practitioner enablement will be excluded. Methods: The review will follow JBI methodology for scoping reviews and will be reported according to PRISMA-ScR. A three-step search will cover MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, and targeted grey-literature sources. Two reviewers will independently screen titles/abstracts and full texts following a pilot screening exercise to ensure consistent application of the eligibility criteria. Data will be charted in a piloted form, mapped descriptively, and summarised using directed descriptive content analysis. No critical appraisal is planned because the objective is to map rather than estimate effectiveness.