The Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) Self-Test is a free 30 question self-assessment test that was designed by Dr. Beth Stamm to assist helping professionals in evaluating their current levels of burnout, secondary traumatic stress and compassion satisfaction. You can learn more about the test including the theory behind the test at ProQOL.org.
Disclaimer from Dr. Beth Stamm:
Excerpted from: Stamm, B.H. (2010). The Concise ProQOL Manual, 2nd Ed. Pocatello
“The most important aspect about interpreting the ProQOL is that it is not a diagnostic test. There are no official diagnoses in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10) or in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR, 2000). The body of research on burnout and post traumatic stress disorder indicates a close kinship with each to depression. While this is useful information, depression is a general term that also is a specific diagnosis of a mental disorder and is widely and officially recognized by both the medical and the mental health communities. Therefore, it is impossible, and grievously inappropriate, to diagnose depression or any other disorder from the result of the ProQOL.
What the ProQOL can do, from a diagnostic perspective, is to raise issues to address with use of appropriate diagnostic procedures. For example, as noted above, both burnout and PTSD are frequent “co-travelers” with depression. A high score on either burnout or secondary traumatic stress, or a high score on both with a low score on compassion satisfaction, can be an augury of clinical depression that deserves treatment. Clearly the disorder most commonly associated with secondary trauma is PTSD. In fact, the DSM-IV-TR PTSD A1 criteria specify that the event may happen to self or to others. Additionally, it specifies that a person’s reaction must involve fear, helplessness, or horror. However, what it does not specify is when one has “experienced, witnessed, or was confronted” with the threat to another.
Despite this parallel of compassion fatigue and/or secondary trauma to PTSD, it cannot be overemphasized that these issues are a natural consequence of trauma work and not necessarily pathological in nature (Figley, 1995; Larsen & Stamm, 2008; Stamm, 1999). Given these concerns, the ProQOL can be a guide in regard to an individual’s or organization’s balance of positive and negative experience related to doing either paid or volunteer work. For an individual or an organization, high scores on compassion satisfaction are a reflection of engagement with the work being done.”
For more information, read the ProQOL Manual.
The ProQOL can be taken online on the ProQOL website. This online version allows you to complete the entire assessment online and receive your results in both an email and PDF format.
Currently, the online version is only available in English. The ProQOL has been translated in 28 languages, however these versions must be completed manually.
Note: The Provider Resilience App (developed by psychologists at DHA Connected Health, a branch of Defense Health Agency) was recently retired and has been removed from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.