PNC's Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Survey
In response to requests from PNC sites, our counseling development team created a brief survey to assess the psychological impact of COVID-19 on students. The survey queries students’ distress level over the last two weeks as it impacts wellbeing, relationships, finances, and health status. Respondents are also asked about counseling services sought or received related to the pandemic and associated events. This 15-item survey may be completed in 1-2 minutes and is available to all PNC sites at no additional cost. Providers may view individual student responses, and administrators have access to the aggregate results in PncReport. Details about the Survey Survey respondents are asked, “Over the last two weeks, please rate your distress level concerning the COVID-19 pandemic as it impacts,” to the items below. Distress ranges on a 5-point Likert scale (i.e., not, mildly, moderately, very, extremely).
Ability to self-motivate, focus, or academically perform
Coursework format changes (e.g., distance learning, hybrid, onsite)
Concerned about another’s physical health and safety
Concerned about your physical health and safety
Delayed medical care
Experienced racial discrimination and/or harassment related to pandemic politics
Financial problems, or anticipated/actual loss of employment
Grief or loss of someone
Having enough to eat / food insecurity
Housing insecurity / homelessness
Missed opportunities or experiences
Relationship problems (i.e., partner, friends, family)
Social isolation and loneliness
Your mental health (e.g., increased anxiety or depression)
And respondents are asked, “Have you received (or are you currently seeking) counseling services related to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated events?” (Yes/No).
We piloted the survey at a site recently and received positive feedback about the usefulness of the aggregated results from the providers, administrators, and university’s senior leadership.
Recommended Use of the Survey
Your site may issue the survey with whatever frequency best fits your needs. While the survey may be issued recurrently to unique clients, only the last completed survey will be considered in the aggregate results (in PncReport). We anticipate that the pandemic’s impact on individual wellness may change over time (e.g., months). However, we do not anticipate that individual survey results will necessarily change week-to-week. We encourage sites to consider issuing the survey for 7 to 14 days to all individual clients on a monthly or bimonthly basis. This frequency recommendation may be achieved by enabling/disabling the survey in PncAdmin for individual appointment visit types during the chosen time intervals. While the psychometric reliability, sensitivity, and specificity of this survey is under review, we suspect that responses of “very distressed” and “extremely distressed” to items may be clinically relevant.
How do I get the survey and reports?
The survey and reports are available to all PNC web apps users. Please submit a ticket to PNC’s customer support and request an update that includes the “Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Survey.”
Once installed, your site's survey results are available in PncReport > Counseling Measures > Impact of COVID-19.