Table 1.

Definitions used for the scoping review

• Focus—we are interested in the following aspects of workforce management:

o Development refers to when organisations start a completely new role

o Recruitment refers to when organisations identify, attract, interview, select and hire new workers

o Integration refers to enabling workers to understand each other’s roles and contributions, and building support networks around individuals and their community [23]. We include the onboarding and orientation process as part of the integration

o Retention refers to keeping and continue employing existing workers

o Career development refers to enabling individual workers’ professional growth

• Roles—we recognise different APP roles have different titles; in this review, we have grouped the articles into the following categories:

o Physician associates (PA) including physician assistants

o Nurse practitioners (NP) including advanced nurses, nurse specialists and nurse consultants

o Clinical officers commonly seen in low- and middle-income countries

o Others including anaesthesia associates and surgical care practitioners

• Levels—we summarise findings across different health system structural levels:

o Macro-level refers to system-wide issues and those external to the organisation

o Meso-level refers to organisational and departmental issues

o Micro-level refers to individual and interpersonal issues