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Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL)3

Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) Test

Designed for professionals who support or care for others, the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) Test takes about 6 minutes and contains 30 questions. Your result highlights patterns of professional satisfaction, burnout, and stress related to others’ trauma, offering a practical starting point for self-reflection about wellbeing at work.

Questions: 306 minutes

Professional Quality of Life: test ticket with numbers

October 2, 2025October 2, 2025Material has been updatedOctober 2, 2025Material has been published

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Scale Explorer

How the Scales are Structured

BurnoutB

This scale measures the degree of work-related physical and emotional exhaustion with reduced motivation and satisfaction.

example score17/30

17/30Moderate burnoutexample score

6 – 14Low burnout

15 – 22Moderate burnout

23 – 30High burnout

A score of 17 falls in the Moderate burnout range, suggesting noticeable fatigue and reduced work satisfaction that may affect day-to-day functioning.

Secondary Traumatic StressSTS

Measures the degree of stress reactions a professional experiences from repeated exposure to clients’ traumatic material.

example score17/35

17/35Moderateexample score

7 – 16Low

17 – 26Moderate

27 – 35High

A score of 17 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting a noticeable but manageable level of secondary trauma symptoms related to work exposure.

Compassion FatigueCF

Measures the degree of emotional exhaustion and strain that can build up from sustained empathic engagement with others' difficulties at work.

example score33/65

33/65Moderateexample score

13 – 30Low

31 – 47Moderate

48 – 65High

A score of 33 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting a noticeable but not pronounced level of empathy-related fatigue.

Career SatisfactionCS

Job satisfaction measures how positively you feel about your professional role and how well it aligns with your personal values.

example score15/25

15/25Moderateexample score

5 – 12Low

13 – 19Moderate

20 – 25High

A score of 15 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting a generally steady but not strongly pronounced sense of satisfaction and value alignment in your work.

Job SatisfactionJS

Job satisfaction measures how content a person feels with their work duties and conditions and the sense of meaning and value they derive from their work.

example score37/50

37/50Highexample score

10 – 23Low

24 – 36Moderate

37 – 50High

A score of 37 falls in the High range, indicating generally strong satisfaction with work conditions and a clear sense of meaning in professional activities.

Professional SatisfactionPS

This scale measures how much pleasure and meaning a person experiences in their helping work and how supported and effective they feel in the role.

example score39/75

39/75Moderateexample score

15 – 34Low

35 – 54Moderate

55 – 75High

A score of 39 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting a mixed but generally workable level of professional satisfaction with some room to strengthen positive aspects of the work experience.

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DATA-BASED USER COHORTS

Who Usually Takes This Test?

Practicing therapists and counselors

41%OF USERS

Specialists in active client work who want to check their job satisfaction and early signs of emotional exhaustion.

Crisis and trauma helpers

34%OF USERS

Professionals working with high-intensity cases who need to monitor compassion fatigue and stay effective under pressure.

Supervision and training participants

25%OF USERS

Psychologists and counselors in supervision or learning programs who use results to discuss workload, boundaries, and self-care.

BASED ON AGGREGATED, ANONYMIZED DATA FROM TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FREUDLY USERS.

Benchmarking

See How You Compare

Once you complete the test, your results are compared with real-world data from people in your country.
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.

Shaded area — where most people score

Dot — the average

You — your score lands on each curve after the test— your score, after the test

BurnoutB

You?

Average12.5

Typical rangeTypical9.5 – 15.6

Possible6 – 30

Secondary traumaSt

You?

Average25.4

Typical rangeTypical21.3 – 29.6

Possible7 – 35

Fatigue from EmpathyFfE

You?

Average41.7

Typical rangeTypical32.5 – 51

Possible13 – 65

Job SatisfactionJS

You?

Average12.1

Typical rangeTypical9.5 – 14.7

Possible5 – 25

Job SatisfactionJS

You?

Average36.3

Typical rangeTypical30.4 – 42.2

Possible10 – 50

Job SatisfactionJS

You?

Average38.9

Typical rangeTypical29.6 – 48.2

Possible15 – 75

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SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Example Questions From the Test

When working with clients, you have likely noticed that your compassion for them can have both positive and negative effects on you. Consider each of the questions below and select the response that most accurately reflects how often you have experienced these feelings and thoughts during the past 30 days.

- Never
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often
- Never
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often
- Never
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often

These are 3 of the 30 real questions — the rest appear in the test. No sign-up needed to start.

WHAT THE TEST MEASURES

Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) Test - Description and methodology of the test

psychotherapy

compassion

burnout

People who care for others can use a structured profile to examine how demanding work affects wellbeing, emotional responses, and professional meaning. The Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) Test is intended for counselors, clinicians, social-care workers, educators, and other helping professionals who want to reflect on patterns of satisfaction and strain. This professional quality of life questionnaire makes that reflection more specific.

What This Assessment Explores

These results show how helping work may shape strain, boundaries, motivation, satisfaction, and meaning. The ProQOL burnout assessment distinguishes work-related depletion from trauma-linked reactions and positive engagement at work. The displayed result dimensions are:

Burnout (6-30) measures exhaustion, reduced motivation, and job dissatisfaction: Low burnout 6-14; Moderate burnout 15-22; High burnout 23-30.
Secondary Traumatic Stress (7-35) measures emotional response to others’ trauma: Low 7-16; Moderate 17-26; High 27-35.
Compassion Fatigue (13-65) measures helping-related emotional exhaustion: Low 13-30; Moderate 31-47; High 48-65.
Career Satisfaction (5-25) measures attitude toward the field and value alignment: Low 5-12; Moderate 13-19; High 20-25.
Job Satisfaction (10-50) measures satisfaction with duties, conditions, and usefulness: Low 10-23; Moderate 24-36; High 37-50.
Professional Satisfaction (15-75) measures pleasure, fulfillment, and work value: Low 15-34; Moderate 35-54; High 55-75.

Methodology and Scientific Basis

Each statement uses five frequency choices: Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Often, or Very often. Items cover positive experiences-connection, competence, usefulness, and pride-as well as exhaustion, blurred boundaries, sleep disruption, and reactions to clients’ trauma.

Results are reported as separate scores for the displayed scales, with each interpreted using its own range and band. The pattern across bands matters more than a single number; each result is meaningful only within its scale definition.

The questionnaire is conceptually consistent with the ProQOL-5 instrument described in Stamm’s manual. It is a professional wellbeing assessment that considers compassion fatigue alongside work-related exhaustion, trauma-related reactions, and professional satisfaction.

Stamm’s manual supplies administration and interpretation guidance. A study by Hemsworth and colleagues reported psychometric concerns for parts of ProQOL-5; in this online version, the bands function as displayed reporting categories for interpreting each score.

Self-report results can shift with workload, recent cases, sleep, mood, and willingness to answer openly. Use the profile to identify patterns worth reflecting on in the context of working conditions; it does not establish a diagnosis.

Author: Beth Hudnall Stamm

Literature:

Stamm, Beth Hudnall. (2010). The Concise ProQOL Manual (2nd ed.). Pocatello, ID:.
Hemsworth, David, Anahita Baregheh, Samar Aoun, and Arminee Kazanjian. (2018). A critical enquiry into the psychometric properties of the professional quality of life scale (ProQOL-5) instrument. Applied Nursing Research, 39, 81-88. 10.1016/j.apnr.2017.09.006

Updated: 2025-10-02