ProQOL Test — Professional Quality of Life Scale (Compassion Fatigue Assessment)
The Professional Quality of Life Scale — 30-item measure of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress for caring professionals. Free in the Mindtalk app.
Important safety information
The ProQOL-5 includes a question about thoughts of self-harm (question 9). If you have had any such thoughts recently, please reach out for support before or instead of taking this assessment — you do not need to take a test to deserve help.
- iCall India: 9152987821
- Vandrevala Foundation: 1860 2662 345
- AASRA: +91 98204 66726
- Cadabams 24/7: +91 97414 76476
All lines listed are free and confidential.
The 30 ProQOL items — three sub-scales
Each item asks how often, in the past 30 days, you have experienced the statement while doing your helping work:
1 = Never · 2 = Rarely · 3 = Sometimes · 4 = Often · 5 = Very Often
Compassion Satisfaction sub-scale (10 items): The positive feeling that comes from doing the work well. Items ask about feeling satisfied by helping, feeling energised by the work, being pleased with how you help, believing you can make a difference.
Burnout sub-scale (10 items): The exhaustion, frustration, and disengagement side. Items ask about feeling worn out, feeling overwhelmed by the caseload, wondering if you can help, feeling connected to the work.
Secondary Traumatic Stress sub-scale (10 items): Trauma symptoms from exposure to clients' or patients' trauma. Items ask about intrusive imagery of client cases, jumpiness and startle, avoidance of activities that remind you of clients, sleep disturbance from case content, difficulty separating personal and professional life.
Each sub-scale is scored via lookup table (not simple sum) — the app handles the conversion and shows you the three sub-scale scores.
ProQOL profile interpretation
Each sub-scale is banded Low / Average / High:
| CS | Burnout | STS | Profile | Recovery focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | Low | Low | Thriving — the well-supported helper | Continue current supports; ProQOL retake at 3-6 months |
| Average | Average | Low | Sustainable — typical of well-functioning professionals | Preventive self-care; retake in 3 months |
| Low | High | Low | Classic burnout | Recovery + structural change; consider Workplace Wellbeing |
| Any | Any | High | Secondary Traumatic Stress present | Trauma-focused therapy for yourself + trauma-informed supervision |
| Low | High | High | High-risk profile — likely to leave the field | Same-week clinical evaluation; comprehensive intervention |
How the ProQOL was developed
The ProQOL evolved from Charles Figley's Compassion Fatigue Self-Test (1995) — the first instrument designed to measure the emotional cost of caring work. Beth Hudnall Stamm refined the instrument through multiple iterations; Version 5 (published 2010) is the current standard.
Stamm's key theoretical contribution was separating three constructs that had been merged in the earlier literature: Compassion Satisfaction (the positive), Burnout (the depletion), and Secondary Traumatic Stress (the trauma-exposure symptoms). Each responds to different intervention, and merging them missed the recovery pathway.
The ProQOL has been translated into over 30 languages and validated across healthcare (physicians, nurses, allied health), mental health (therapists, psychologists), first responders (police, fire, EMS), child welfare, humanitarian aid, and hospice / palliative care. Indian samples of nurses, doctors, and mental health workers have been published since 2015; the three-factor structure replicates.
The Center for Victims of Torture and multiple humanitarian aid organisations use ProQOL for routine staff wellbeing monitoring.
ProQOL vs other helping-profession burnout scales
| Test | Items | Time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| ProQOL-5 | 30 | 6 min | Three-dimension profile (Satisfaction / Burnout / STS) |
| MBI (health professionals version) | 22 | 5 min | Emotional exhaustion + depersonalisation + accomplishment |
| OLBI | 16 | 4 min | General workforce burnout — exhaustion + disengagement |
| Compassion Fatigue Short Scale (CFSS) | 13 | 3 min | Fast fatigue screening; less rich profile |
| STSS (Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale) | 17 | 4 min | STS specifically — deeper trauma-symptom mapping |
Use ProQOL for helping-profession self-monitoring — captures the positive of the work, not only the negative.
When to act on your ProQOL result
- Thriving profile (high CS, low B, low STS): No action. Retake at 3-6 months or after major work stress event.
- Sustainable profile (avg / avg / low): Preventive self-care — protected recovery, supervision hygiene, boundaries. Retake in 3 months.
- Burnout emerging (low CS, high B, low STS): Address recovery + structural work now. Talk to supervisor about caseload, take planned time off, reduce non-essential work. Consider the Workplace Wellbeing programme.
- STS present (any CS/B, high STS): Trauma-focused therapy for YOU — not just supervision. EMDR, TF-CBT, and Somatic Experiencing all work for secondary traumatic stress. Continuing to work while STS is untreated increases risk of your own PTSD.
- High-risk profile (low CS, high B, high STS): Same-week clinical evaluation. This profile predicts leaving the field, medical leave, or clinical depression / PTSD onset. Consider full assessment including PHQ-9 and trauma screening.
After the ProQOL
- Distinguish burnout from depression. Take PHQ-9 — 30-40% of high-burnout helping professionals meet MDD criteria.
- Distinguish STS from PTSD. If STS is high, consider whether your own trauma exposure has crossed into full PTSD — the ITQ or PCL-5 can help.
- Structured programme. The 90-day Workplace Wellbeing programme has a helping-profession track calibrated for high-B or high-STS profiles.
- Peer support matters. Compassion satisfaction is heavily driven by feeling that colleagues understand the work. Peer supervision, Balint groups, or reflective practice groups protect Compassion Satisfaction.
- Book a specialist. Mindtalk's clinicians experienced in supporting helping professionals work across Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mysore, and online for anywhere in India.
How to take the ProQOL-5
- 1
Open the ProQOL in the Mindtalk app
Tap "Take the ProQOL" to open the assessment. You will need a free Mindtalk account — sign-in takes under a minute.
- 2
Answer the 30 items
For each of the 30 statements about your work as a helper, rate how often you have experienced it in the past 30 days (1 = Never, 2 = Rarely, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Often, 5 = Very Often).
- 3
Get your three-dimension profile
Receive three sub-scale scores (Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout, Secondary Traumatic Stress), each mapped to a Low / Average / High band, and a personalised recovery-pathway recommendation.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How accurate is the ProQOL?
- The ProQOL has strong psychometric properties — Cronbach's alpha 0.88 for Compassion Satisfaction, 0.75 for Burnout, 0.81 for Secondary Traumatic Stress. It has been used in over 200 published studies across healthcare, mental health, child welfare, disaster response, and military populations. Its main strength is the three-dimension model — separating the positive (Compassion Satisfaction), the depletion (Burnout), and the trauma-exposure (Secondary Traumatic Stress) sides of caring work, which respond to different interventions.
- What's the difference between Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress?
- Burnout is exhaustion, depletion, and disengagement — a chronic response to sustained work demand. It builds up slowly, can happen in any job (not only trauma-exposed work), and responds to recovery + structural change. Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) is work-related trauma symptoms from repeated exposure to clients' trauma — intrusive imagery, avoidance, hypervigilance, negative alterations in cognition. STS can happen after a single very difficult case, feels like PTSD, and responds to trauma-focused therapy (not just recovery). Someone can be high on one and not the other. Recognising which is which is important.
- Who should take the ProQOL?
- Anyone in a helping profession where you regularly encounter people who are suffering. Explicit fits: doctors, nurses, other healthcare workers, therapists, counsellors, social workers, teachers of at-risk children, first responders (police, fire, ambulance), disaster response workers, hospice / palliative care staff, child welfare workers, humanitarian aid workers. Also relevant: family caregivers for a chronically ill or trauma-affected family member. Less relevant: professions without direct exposure to others' suffering.
- What are the ProQOL band cut-offs?
- ProQOL uses percentile-based bands from a large reference sample. Each sub-scale is scored using a lookup table, giving a T-score-like number. Rough guidance: Compassion Satisfaction under 43 = low (not much positive from the work), 43-57 = average, above 57 = high (finding meaning). Burnout under 43 = low, 43-57 = average, above 57 = high (concerning). Secondary Traumatic Stress under 43 = low, 43-57 = average, above 57 = high (concerning). A high-CS + low-B + low-STS profile is thriving; low-CS + high-B + high-STS is at risk of leaving the field or serious mental health impact.
- How is ProQOL different from OLBI or MBI?
- MBI (Maslach) and [OLBI](/assessments/olbi) measure general workplace burnout — exhaustion and disengagement across any occupation. ProQOL is specific to helping professions and adds two dimensions: the positive (Compassion Satisfaction) and the trauma-exposure (Secondary Traumatic Stress) that other burnout scales miss. If you work in a helping profession, ProQOL is the more relevant instrument.
- What does treatment for compassion fatigue look like?
- Depends on the profile. High Burnout → recovery strategies + structural (caseload, boundaries, supervision). High Secondary Traumatic Stress → trauma-focused therapy (EMDR, TF-CBT, Somatic Experiencing) for your own trauma symptoms + trauma-informed supervision. Low Compassion Satisfaction → meaning work, reconnection with mission, or an honest look at whether the field still fits. Cadabams' clinicians experienced in working with helping professionals treat compassion fatigue across all three dimensions.
- How do I take the ProQOL?
- Click 'Take the ProQOL'. Complete the 30 items (5-6 minutes), receive your three-dimension profile and personalised recovery pathway. Free in the Mindtalk app.
Need a clinician's read on your results?
A high score is a signal, not a diagnosis. Mindtalk's psychiatrists and clinical psychologists can interpret your results and recommend next steps — same-day appointments available.