A life-saving collaborative network: repairing ventilators in Brazil

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the formation of an inter-organizational collaboration network that made it possible to repair 2,516 mechanical respirators that were inoperative in Brazil during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach was used in a single case study with semi-structured interviews. The interviewee selection process was non-probabilistic through snowball sampling.FindingsThe results suggest that society, through different social groups with their different roles, can organize itself quickly through the formation of collaborative networks, and this organizational configuration can be an alternative for facing crises where actions isolated would be insufficient or slow to urgently address complex situations.Practical implicationsThis paper aims to (1) demonstrate that society, through different social groups with their different roles, can organize itself quickly through the formation of collaborative networks;(2) favor the understanding and dynamics of the formation of a network;and (3) contribute to a possible replication of this initiative in future contexts.Originality/valueThe case portrays an unprecedented formation of a collaboration network involving more than 144 organizations that mobilized quickly in a complex context of a pandemic and that generated remarkable results through the reintroduction of equipment that were responsible for the preservation of thousands of lives during the year from 2020.

Functioning of a higher educational institution under force majeure circumstances: A case study of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv

Over the last decade, Ukrainian higher educational institutions have faced extraordinary and even dire circumstances three times: russia's attack on Ukraine in Donbas and occupation of Crimea (2014);a total lockdown caused by a pandemic due to the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) (2020);russia's full-scale war against Ukraine (2022). Each time, Ukrainian higher educational institutions had to reformat the educational process to meet the challenges of the time. Lviv region began accepting internally displaced people from Donbas and Crimea in 2014. In this regard, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Lviv University) has established itself as one of the regional leaders. The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic required the immediate organization of distance learning and, therefore, the improvement of information and technical support. russian crimes against humanity in 2022 caused an enormous wave of internal displacement of citizens. Employees and students of Lviv University have been helping internally displaced people with housing, food, and basic necessities since the beginning of the full-scale war;they have also assisted refugees at checkpoints along the Ukrainian-Polish border. Over a hundred University students and employees serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Those who remain at home work hard to bring victory over the enemy closer. They are volunteering, fund-raising, arranging humanitarian aid, cooperating with international charitable organizations, etc. Under difficult wartime conditions, the University's academic community continues to fulfil its primary mission: to provide modern, high-quality education. © Halyna Kaplenko, Inna Kulish, Olha Hrabovetska, Andrii Stasyshyn, Viktoriia Dubyk, 2023.

Helping in times of crisis: Examining the social identity and wellbeing impacts of volunteering during COVID‐19

COVID‐19 produced the largest mass mobilisation of collective helping in a generation. Currently, the impact of this voluntary activity is not well understood, particularly for specific groups of volunteers (e.g., new vs. existing) and for different amounts of voluntary activity. Drawing on social psychological work on collective helping, and work from the Social Identity Approach to Health, we seek to address this gap through an analysis of survey data from 1,001 adults living in the south of England (333 men;646 women;age range = 16–85) during the first UK lockdown. Measures included time spent volunteering pre‐/post‐COVID, community identification, subjective wellbeing, and volunteering intentions. Those who volunteered during COVID‐19 reported higher levels of community identification than those who did not. However, subjective wellbeing benefits were only found for those volunteers who maintained the same level of volunteering (in terms of time) pre‐and post‐COVID lockdown. New volunteers showed significantly lower levels of wellbeing when they were undertaking 5 or more hours of volunteering a week. Our findings provide unique insight into the variable relationship with wellbeing for different groups of volunteers, as well as how the experiences and functioning of ‘crisis' volunteering are different from volunteering during ‘normal' times. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Infrastructures for Virtual Volunteering at Online Music Festivals

Volunteering benefits recipients, volunteers, communities, and society, while digital technologies establish new opportunities for virtual volunteering. We describe how volunteers transitioned the UK's long-established Oxjam grassroots music festival online in response to the COVID pandemic, delivering a local pilot before scaling up nationwide. We adopt an infrastructural perspective to reveal how two teams of volunteers defined a flexible festival format, knitted together diverse technologies into a technical platform, and operated this to deliver the festival. We highlight the need for teams of volunteers to orchestrate both audience and performer trajectories through festivals. We argue for deliberately designing in volunteer labour rather than automating it out by translating traditional roles online while defining new digital ones. We propose to make these roles rewarding through a more social volunteer experience, including privileged backstage access. We highlight the challenges of using social media for such events, including complying with algorithmic policing of rights. © 2023 Owner/Author.

Exploring the Effects of Volunteering on the Social, Mental, and Physical Health and Well-being of Volunteers: An Umbrella Review.

Volunteering provides unique benefits to organisations, recipients, and potentially the volunteers themselves. This umbrella review examined the benefits of volunteering and their potential moderators. Eleven databases were searched for systematic reviews on the social, mental, physical, or general health benefits of volunteering, published up to July 2022. AMSTAR 2 was used to assess quality and overlap of included primary studies was calculated. Twenty-eight reviews were included; participants were mainly older adults based in the USA. Although overlap between reviews was low, quality was generally poor. Benefits were found in all three domains, with reduced mortality and increased functioning exerting the largest effects. Older age, reflection, religious volunteering, and altruistic motivations increased benefits most consistently. Referral of social prescribing clients to volunteering is recommended. Limitations include the need to align results to research conducted after the COVID-19 pandemic. (PROSPERO registration number: CRD42022349703). Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11266-023-00573-z.

Senior Volunteering in Pandemics: Impact on the Social Participation of Older People

In successful ageing, the social relationships of older people are essential, as is the feeling of usefulness. Senior volunteering brings these qualities together in a single activity and is directly related to the emotional, psychologic and physical well-being of older people. The global pandemic of COVID-19 has widely affected all sectors of today's society. This research investigates the consequences that the pandemic has had on the lives of senior volunteers, as this demographic cohort has been doubly affected. The methodology used in this research was qualitative. Two focus groups were conducted, with seven participants each, from different volunteer organisations across Extremadura, using the ZOOM platform. The analysis of the data shows how senior volunteers and beneficiaries have suffered and continue to suffer from the effects of the pandemic. They have been forced to adapt to new regulations and situations, which has had an impact on their activities and probably also on their physical and emotional well-being.

Insights into the Activities of Civil Society in Croatia during the Pandemic of the Covid-19 Disease

The COVID-19 pandemic that started at the beginning of 2020 has put great constraints and significant challenges in organization of social and economic life. This paper analyses the civil society response to the COVID-19 pandemic and presents specific adaptations and opportuni-ties to contribute to the society in the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.The stories that civil society organizations published on the webpage ZADobroBIT.hr have been analysed by the means of a qualitative research. Thematic analysis in different scopes of activities shows that civil society organizations were more focused on the general population and various vulnerable groups. Vulnerable groups were recognized as those needing particular additional support in the course of this period. The activities aiming at general population fo-cused on newly emerged needs related to civil protection. Civil society also worked on keeping the everyday routines in communities by conducting various types of activities. Informing and educating aimed at creating new and maintaining existing information and education-al practices that adapted to pandemic circumstances. The results of the research show also that organizations have significantly changed, and quickly adapted their work with the help of technology and by using volunteer work.The results of the analysis suggest that civil society has proved flexible and able to respond quickly to emerging social needs, but also emphasized the contextual limitations of the ac-tions. Thus, the paper discusses the position and role of civil society in the "new normal ", and the impact it has on its further development in the Croatian social and political environment.

Volunteering behaviours among UK military Veterans during the COVID-19 pandemic and associations with health and well-being

LAY SUMMARYThe COVID-19 pandemic influenced ways in which individuals volunteered and created barriers for participation because of differing restrictions. The research assessing how Veterans volunteer is limited, but there may be aspects of military culture that encourage service to others. The authors investigated volunteering among UK Veterans during the COVID-19 pandemic and what factors made Veterans more or less likely to volunteer. The study found that 60% of Veterans had volunteered in the past 12 months, a level similar to that among the UK general population. Overall, Veterans volunteered more often through formal organizations rather than on an informal basis, such as helping individuals such as neighbours. However, in relative terms, levels of formal volunteering decreased and levels of informal volunteering increased during the pandemic. Veterans were more likely to volunteer if they were officers or to increase volunteering if they felt lonely. Veterans who reduced volunteering were more likely to have mental health problems. Understanding volunteering among Veterans may open up more opportunities for participation. Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic facilitated new methods of and motivations for volunteering and created barriers to participation through social restrictions and lockdowns. The research assessing the volunteering behaviours of ex-service personnel (Veterans) is limited;however, as a group they may be more likely to volunteer because of aspects of military culture that encourage pro-social behaviours. The authors investigated levels of formal and informal volunteering among UK Veterans during the pandemic, factors associated with volunteering, and whether the pandemic affected Veterans' volunteering behaviours. Methods: An additional wave of data was collected from a longitudinal cohort study of the UK Armed Forces through an online survey conducted from June to September 2020. Participants were included if they had left the armed forces after regular service and were living in the United Kingdom. Invitation emails were sent to 3,547 Veterans, with a 44% response rate (N = 1,562). Results: Overall, 60% of Veterans reported volunteering in the past 12 months. Of those who volunteered, 41% reported formal volunteering, and 44% reported informal volunteering. Veterans reported reducing formal volunteering because of the pandemic (45%), but they also reported increasing informal volunteering (66%). Discussion: During the pandemic, UK Veterans volunteered at a level similar to the UK general population. They reported higher levels of formal volunteering and lower levels of informal volunteering compared with the UK general population. Understanding who among Veterans is likely to engage in volunteering could support future strategies to engage volunteers and open more opportunities for participation.

Better CSR? return to neighborliness

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is often criticized for being overly broad and , if not cynical and deceitful. This leaves many stakeholders frustrated or disengaged, including occasionally the organization's own staff and shareholders. We see the extraordinary disruptions of the past three years amid the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to reengage with CSR in a more meaningful way. Echoing early conceptualizations by academics and practitioners, we turn to the idea of neighborliness as a guide for this transformation, outlining concrete ways in which this can be operationalized for focused engagements that reflect each company's embeddedness in distinct communities. © The Regents of the University of California 2023.

Toward COVID-19 secure events: considerations for organizing the safe resumption of major sporting events

The current COVID-19 pandemic has already impacted both elite and grassroots sports in a series of ways. Whilst accepting that many answers to emerging and relevant questions cannot be provided at this stage, this commentary discusses some of the organizational prospects of "post-pandemic” sports mega-events by focusing predominantly on the topics of volunteering and security management. Importantly, these are two central facets of mega-event organization that are likely to be impacted by the current crisis in some way as the world of sports aims to resume. By considering a number of emerging questions, this commentary calls for an engagement with some of the individual and social implications related to future mega-event organizations. It sheds light on some of the potential organizational challenges and management issues related to "restarting” sports and provides some directions for future interdisciplinary work.

Pandemic Pivots for Older Volunteers: Online Tutoring and Pen Pal Programs.

This study explored the experiences of older adult volunteers who pivoted from in-person tutoring to letter writing and online tutoring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sixty-one older adult volunteers were surveyed in the beginning and end of the school year about their experiences, including their perceived benefits, challenges, and feedback on the pandemic transition. Eleven of the surveyed volunteers participated in focus groups at the end of the school year. Perceived benefits included having a positive impact on a child's life and meaningful engagement during the pandemic, and perceived challenges included difficulty engaging students and lack of control over learning environments. The participants also suggested increasing opportunities for informal interactions with staff and students, technology training, and peer support between volunteers. There was agreement that the remote volunteering experience was not a substitute for in-person tutoring, but it was better than no volunteering at all.

Changes in corporate social responsibility activity during a pandemic: The case of COVID-19

This study examines the practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) during COVID-19. Little is known about how organizations practice CSR during acute exogenous crises. Overlooking how CSR practices change during a crisis matters because organizations are compelled into trade-offs that carry implications for their CSR initiatives. Analysis of interview data with CSR managers, from 21 Dubai-based business organizations during COVID-19, uncovers changes in the content and process of CSR during the pandemic. The results show that the practice of CSR underwent a fundamental change in focus as organizations shifted to an employee-centric model of CSR and away from an environmental one. Measures placed on organizations and society to combat the pandemic also led to a recalibration of stakeholder and issue salience, with notable effects on CSR that challenge the capability of the power–legitimacy–urgency framework to anticipate these shifts. We consider the impacts associated with the shift in the content of CSR initiatives and process of their implementation and discuss the implications of the findings for CSR theory, research, policy, and practice. © 2023 The Authors. Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

COVID-19 and its impact on volunteering: Moving towards virtual volunteering

These unprecedented times due to the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the everyday lives of individuals. A particular activity impacted by this pandemic is leisure. Within leisure, an important activity to enhance social outcomes (e.g., civic participation) and the survival of organizations and events is volunteering. However, and given social distancing measures and the combination of postponements or cancelations of organizational or event operations, the traditional form of in-person volunteering is threatened. The purpose of this essay is to discuss opportunities and challenges for organizations and events to apply virtual volunteering as a strategy during the pandemic and beyond. Both opportunities (i.e., creating accessibility) and challenges (i.e., management process) are discussed according to pertinent literature. From this, an understanding of virtual volunteering's value to create leisure opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond is presented to advance its implementation in organization and events by leisure practitioners. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

DIGITALIZATION OF OLDER PEOPLE'S VOLUNTEERING DURING THE PANDEMIC: OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS OF THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The development of volunteering with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic became difficult, and in some cases impossible without the use of digital technologies. For some groups digitalization of volunteering was not only an opportunity to participate in volunteer activities, but also an important factor of inclusion in social life on the basis of overcoming isolation created by the pandemic. This article is based on the results of an empirical study conducted among older volunteers in two regions of the Russian Federation, namely the city of St. Petersburg and the Republic of Karelia. It examines the potential and limitations of digital technologies in the implementation of volunteer practices, including in terms of inclusion and social participation of older volunteers during the pandemic. The article considers the role of communication of older people with their devices using artificial intelligence. It appears that the communication creates new types of artificial sociality and volunteer solidarity for older people, where the devices themselves become intermediary actors, structuring and changing the usual practices of volunteer activity and setting special communication contexts within the framework of volunteer practices. Digitalization of volunteer activities of older people during the coronavirus period demonstrates a positive impact on overcoming social exclusion both for the volunteers themselves and their wards. The difficulties of digitalization of volunteer activities include the issues of digital skills and the use of information technologies, infrastructure shortages associated with power outages, and problems of'digital fatigu. © 2022 National Research University Higher School of Economics. All rights reserved.

The Position of Medical Students on Volunteering: Online Survey Results

Introduction: The youth volunteer movement is becoming one of the available ways of reducing the spread of COVID-19 and providing practical support to healthcare workers. The main activities of volunteers include participation in the work of healthcare institutions, medical support for mass events, assistance to charitable organizations, health and blood donation promotion, and first aid training. Volunteering develops competent qualities in future graduates, educates them in an active citizenship, reduces medical staff outflow, and increases safety of health care. Objective: To establish the attitude of medical university students towards volunteering. Materials and methods: In autumn 2021, we conducted an anonymous online survey of 202 medical university students aged 17–25 years using a specially developed questionnaire created on Google Forms based on the Holmes and Rahe Life Stress Inventory (Social Readjustment Rating Scale, SRRS) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) validated by Tarabrina (2001) on a Russian sample. The answers were then analyzed using the SPSS 12.0 statistical software with the calculation of relative values (extensive and intensive indicators) and the Spearman correlation coefficient. Results: We established the attitude of young people towards volunteering and specified its attractive aspects for students, the reasons for refusing to volunteer, and perceived personal qualities of an ideal volunteer. We also confirmed the hypoth-esis that volunteering has a direct impact on anxiety and stress resistance of students. Our findings will contribute to deter-mining further directions for expanding the volunteer movement and involving future healthcare professionals. Conclusion: The attractiveness of the volunteer movement for students is mainly due to pragmatic motives. To create a per-sonnel reserve of employees with a practical understanding of professional activity, it is necessary to develop targeted forms of support for student volunteers. © 2022, Federal Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology. All rights reserved.

A mixed-methods study on the social networks and loneliness of low-income diverse older volunteers

Although the health benefits of volunteering among older adults were well established in gerontological research, older migrants' abilities and interests in social participation have hardly been recognized. To address this gap, a convergent mixed-method design was used to understand the volunteering experiences, social networks, and feelings of loneliness among low-income Russian, Khmer, Somali, Nepali, and English-speaking older volunteers in the Senior Companions Program (SCP) in Columbus, Ohio (N=41). The first aim of the study was to identify the social network structures among the SCP volunteers. The second aim was to understand how the social network contributed to volunteers' experiences with loneliness. Data were collected through focus groups and surveys during the SCP monthly in-service training in October 2022. A grounded theory approach informed the qualitative analysis. Five major themes emerged from the focus groups: (1) Expanding and strengthening social networks through volunteering;(2) Experiencing and coping with loneliness;(3) Experiencing and managing the social impact of COVID;(4) Exploring and loving the program;(5) Social connections outside of the program. Participants also completed a demographic survey, a friendship nomination form, and the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale. Exponential Random Graph Modeling (ERGM) was utilized to identify statistically significant structural features in the volunteers' network. Graphs and ERGM results demonstrated that participants tended to form homophily-based relationships with other volunteers of the same gender (beta=3.27, p<0.001), from the same country (beta=2.89, p<0.001), with the same education level (beta=0.71, p<0.001), and from the same site station (beta=2.77, p<0.001). However, transitive ties (beta= -1.01, p<0.001) and total meetings (beta= -8.8, p<0.001) had a negative contribution to tie formation. Furthermore, the linear network autocorrelation model (LNAM) results suggested that the average level of dependency was negative within the network (beta= -0.06, p<0.05). That is to say, less lonely volunteers were inclined to socialize with those experiencing higher levels of loneliness. According to the mixed-method results, all the qualitative findings confirmed or expanded the quantitative results for both aims. One exception was that the qualitative results were incongruent with the negative statistical significance of transitive ties to relationship formation in the first aim. The methodological explanations behind the above discordant results are provided in the discussion section of this dissertation. Findings imply that: (1) cross-cultural relationships among volunteers within formal volunteering programs require intentional facilitation, resources, and organizational commitment. Addressing language barriers and promoting collaboration among site stations can facilitate cross-cultural friendships. (2) The less lonely volunteers have connected with lonelier volunteers in this network possibly out of altruism. Thus, practitioners can consider intentionally encouraging altruism to prevent the spread of loneliness among older volunteers. Moreover, loneliness interventions need to account for the correlation among network members' loneliness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Motivations of Volunteering during Crises—Perspectives of Polish Youths during the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis

Volunteering work has always played a key role in dealing with crises around the world. Understanding the motivations behind volunteering during a crisis could not only explain such behaviour but also become a guide for the government for future policies, to non-governmental organizations for attracting and recruiting more volunteers, for companies to attract and engage young talent and for society to encourage volunteering more. The present military conflict between Russia and Ukraine has resulted in an influx of over six million Ukrainian refugees in Poland. Given the phenomenal response of Polish people towards welcoming the Ukrainian refugees and, in general, the favourable attitude of the youth in Poland towards extending humanitarian aid to them, our present study examines the motivations of Polish youths behind volunteering during crises. The study also examined how volunteering has influenced their lives and future, besides understanding the barriers to volunteering. The research participants were Polish youths aged between 17–30 years of age. The participants were from both genders, students as well as working professionals. To take part, they had to prove that they took an active role in volunteering during a crisis and were able to share their personal stories and emotions in English. The findings of the research revealed normative, hedonic, eudaimonic and personal motivators behind volunteering during crises, with greater dominance of hedonic motivators, followed by normative, then eudaimonic and personal motivators. The influence of a mix of collectivist and individualistic cultures of Poland, with a progressive lean towards individualism, is clear in shaping the motivations behind the volunteering of these Polish youths. The role of intrinsic motivation is more pronounced when it comes to volunteering during crises.

Rapid Assessment of COVID-19 Screening Program for Travelers in Iran: A Qualitative Study.

OBJECTIVE: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) screening stations set up by Iranian Red Crescent Society have been available for 17 d with the aim of identifying and treating people with coronavirus, reducing road trips, and sensitizing people to the problem. This study aims to investigate the challenges of the procedure. METHODS: A qualitative study was used to find the challenges of the COVID-19 screening centers. Volunteers, branch managers, and headquarter managers of the Iranian Red Crescent Society participated in this study applying snowball sampling. Data were collected by means of in-depth semi-structured telephone interviews in April 2020 after completion of the fever screening plan. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim, always with prior permission of interviewees. RESULTS: The interviews with 20 participants in the plan indicated 6 relevant challenges, including logistics, lack of planning, lack of coordination, legal challenges, mental health, and ethical challenges. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that, although establishing fever detection centers in Iran was a rapid response to COVID-19, it had significant flaws in the structure and adversely affected volunteers' and staff's health and financial resources. Therefore, well-structured protocols are required for similar responses in the future.

Volunteering in an emergency project in response to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis: the experience of Italian midwives.

OBJECTIVES: During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Region of Lombardy in Italy and its Regional Emergency Service (Azienda Regionale Emergenza Urgenza [AREU]) created a dedicated 24/7 free phone service to help the Lombard population. After an invitation from their professional order, local midwives collaborated on the AREU project as volunteers to address the needs of women from antenatal to postnatal periods. The aim of this article was to explore the experiences of midwives who volunteered in the AREU project. STUDY DESIGN: This was a qualitative study using an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA). METHODS: The experiences of midwives volunteering in AREU (N = 59) were explored using audio diaries. Written diaries were also offered as an alternative. Data collection took place between March and April 2020. Midwives were provided with semistructured guidance that indicated the main areas of interest of the study. The diaries were thematically analysed following a temporal criterion; a final conceptual framework was created from emerging themes and subthemes. RESULTS: The following five themes were identified: (1) choosing to join the volunteer project, (2) the day-to-day difficulties, (3) strategies to cope with the unexpected, (4) professional relationships and (5) reflecting on the personal experience. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to investigate the experiences of Italian midwives who volunteered in a public health project during a pandemic/epidemic. According to participants, taking part in the volunteer activities was informed by and impacted on both their professional and personal lives. Overall, the experiences of midwives who volunteered in AREU were positive and of humanitarian value. Providing midwifery services within a multidisciplinary team for the benefit of public health represented both a challenge and personal/professional enrichment.

Health worker education during the COVID-19 pandemic: global disruption, responses and lessons for the future-a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: This systematic review and meta-analysis identified early evidence quantifying the disruption to the education of health workers by the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuing policy responses and their outcomes. METHODS: Following a pre-registered protocol and PRISMA/AMSTAR-2 guidelines, we systematically screened MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, CENTRAL, clinicaltrials.gov and Google Scholar from January 2020 to July 2022. We pooled proportion estimates via random-effects meta-analyses and explored subgroup differences by gender, occupational group, training stage, WHO regions/continents, and study end-year. We assessed risk of bias (Newcastle-Ottawa scale for observational studies, RοB2 for randomized controlled trials [RCT]) and rated evidence certainty using GRADE. RESULTS: Of the 171 489 publications screened, 2 249 were eligible, incorporating 2 212 observational studies and 37 RCTs, representing feedback from 1 109 818 learners and 22 204 faculty. The sample mostly consisted of undergraduates, medical doctors, and studies from institutions in Asia. Perceived training disruption was estimated at 71.1% (95% confidence interval 67.9-74.2) and learner redeployment at 29.2% (25.3-33.2). About one in three learners screened positive for anxiety (32.3%, 28.5-36.2), depression (32.0%, 27.9-36.2), burnout (38.8%, 33.4-44.3) or insomnia (30.9%, 20.8-41.9). Policy responses included shifting to online learning, innovations in assessment, COVID-19-specific courses, volunteerism, and measures for learner safety. For outcomes of policy responses, most of the literature related to perceptions and preferences. More than two-thirds of learners (75.9%, 74.2-77.7) were satisfied with online learning (postgraduates more than undergraduates), while faculty satisfaction rate was slightly lower (71.8%, 66.7-76.7). Learners preferred an in-person component: blended learning 56.0% (51.2-60.7), face-to-face 48.8% (45.4-52.1), and online-only 32.0% (29.3-34.8). They supported continuation of the virtual format as part of a blended system (68.1%, 64.6-71.5). Subgroup differences provided valuable insights despite not resolving the considerable heterogeneity. All outcomes were assessed as very-low-certainty evidence. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted health worker education, inflicting a substantial mental health burden on learners. Its impacts on career choices, volunteerism, pedagogical approaches and mental health of learners have implications for educational design, measures to protect and support learners, faculty and health workers, and workforce planning. Online learning may achieve learner satisfaction as part of a short-term solution or integrated into a blended model in the post-pandemic future.