ObjectiveTo identify what motivates medical students to join a pandemic emergency healthcare workforce.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingAalborg University, Denmark.ParticipantsAll medical students.Main outcome measuresMotivational points as perceived by the students to be important. Demographic characteristics and 11 motivational domains scored on a Visual Analog Scale from 0 (low) to 100 (high) responding to the question: ‘To what degree are the following statements important for you to join a national emergency preparedness workforce?’ The questionnaire was developed by an expert panel in a process of four iterations.ResultsA total of 486 students of 688 (70.6%) completed the survey within 7 days in March 2020. 80% had decided to join the pandemic emergency healthcare workforce. Ranked median scores for motivational statements in each domain were: care, 100; learn, 90; pride, 83; team, 77; needed, 75; safety, 75; supervision, 75; job, 73; duty, 66; salary, 62; historic, 50. Supervision (p<0.001), salary (p<0.001) and duty (p=0.001) were given increasing priority with advancing study years. Interestingly, students added that support by the university and clarification of study plans were priorities.ConclusionsResults guide decision-makers and colleagues on how to motivate or reinforce medical students in joining the pandemic emergency healthcare workforce. Importantly, students emphasised protection for themselves.

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Background: The covid-19 pandemic hit healthcare systems globally, and demands on healthcare worker resources rose dramatically. Medical students are a potential resource to meet these demands, but to what extent can they be expected to step up, and where can they fill in. Aims: To evaluate medical students’ contribution as healthcare workers during the pandemic and assess motivation and deterrence factors. Methods: A cross-sectional survey questionnaire was distributed one year following the lockdown of the country and accessible from March 18th through April 14th 2021. All medical students enrolled at Aalborg University were asked about positions held, number of working hours, and factors of motivation and deterrence. Results: The response rate was 69% (557 of 806), and 80.4% (448 of 557) of the respondents had performed paid work as healthcare workers during the pandemic. Students took up an array of jobs in the healthcare system, the most prevalent being Covid-19 test-personal (302, 54%), assistant nurse (149, 27%) and locum physician (115, 21%), with 42.2% (235 of 557) of medical students holding more than one position. The majority worked between 11 and 20 hours weekly, and the 448 medical students working in the pandemic reported filling in for 205 full-time jobs. Working students differed from non-working students by giving the most markedly higher scores to taking pride, participating in a historical event, receiving salary and improving job opportunities (all, p<0.001). Conclusion: Medical students proved to be willing contributors and flexible resources. The 448 medical students worked an estimated 344,000 hours during the first year of the pandemic, and they supported several job types. Differences within domains for motivation and deterrence were identified.

Who would have thought that, when the first call for papers for our event was published in the summer of 2019, we would meet in a very differently looking world two years afterwards? The Corona pandemic has challenged the educational world. PBL practitioners and researchers alike were called upon to bring forward their knowledge, experience and creativity in designing and implementing solutions to digitally supported pedagogies.In a way, the PBL and active learning community has held huge resources here -a deep understanding of the cognitive, motivational, emotional and social implications of the learning process. Extensive experience with the orchestration of self-directed and student-centered approaches as well as a long-standing engagement in exploration and enrichment of learning scenarios by digital possibilities. However, the challenges have been considerable as well: how do we maintain engagement amongst students in a time of physical and therefore also social distancing? How do we create places and spaces for group work and meaningful interaction in the digital sphere? And not to forget, how do we keep the relationships alive between the university-ecosystem and the rest of the world, in which the problems our students are working on have their arena?The PBL2021 International Conference is intended as a space and place to bring together PBL practitioners and researchers to share our insights and experiences around the powerful approaches of PBL and Active Learning. Under the conference title Transforming PBL Through Hybrid Learning Models we want to invite all participants to share, watch, listen to, discuss and engage with the insights and experiences from both the Corona-period and from PBL and active learning practices in general. With three outstanding keynotes and almost 100 contributions in various formats we hope the conference will provide a rich (digital) environment for this. The proceedings certainly are a testament to the richness and breadth of the topics and insights the PBL and Active Learning community has to share. The conference would not have been possible without the willingness to collaborate with us. We would like to express our gratitude to the PAN-PBL Association of PBL and Active Learning for entrusting us with the hosting of the 11th conference in the successful conference series, and for being excellent collaboration partners throughout this journey. Difficult decisions, such as the postponement of the conference, had to be made and we were extremely glad to have the PAN-PBL board with us on these decisions at all times.