TREC Professional Well-being Scale

Trauma Resilient Educational Communities (TREC)

The goal of the Professional Well-Being scale is to help you reflect on your own compassion satisfaction and potential compassion fatigue in serving in a helping profession. This scale is not intended to be diagnostic, but rather a tool for understanding yourself and your emotions.

Compassion Satisfaction

Compassion Satisfaction is about the fulfillment and deep meaning you derive from being able to perform your work well. For example, you may feel pleasure in supporting colleagues through your work. You may feel positively about your colleagues or your ability to contribute to your work environment or even the greater good of society. Higher scores represent a greater satisfaction related to your ability to be effective in your career.

The average score is 62. If you’re in the higher range, you probably are deriving higher levels of satisfaction from your professional work. The relationships with your colleagues and those you serve may better sustain and support your wellbeing. If your score is below 62, you may find challenges with your career, the working environment, and/or the relationships at work. Other reasons you may score low could be, for example, you are deriving your satisfaction from activities other than your career. We encourage you to mindfully practice self-care and self-compassion.

Compassion Fatigue

Associated with difficulties in managing work-related stress which can manifest in different ways, such as, feelings of hopelessness, chronic exhaustion, increase in emotional intensity, or decrease in one’s capacity to empathize. These feelings can reflect that your efforts do not have an impact or they can be associated with a very high workload or a non-supportive environment. Lower scores on this scale mean you’re at a higher risk of secondary traumatic stress which could lead to burnout.

Secondary traumatic stress is about your work-related stress and secondary exposure to traumatic stressful events. For example, you may repeatedly hear stories about traumatic experiences from other individuals, commonly called vicarious trauma. Symptoms of compassion fatigue may include being afraid, having difficulty sleeping, having images of the upsetting event pop into your head, and avoiding things that remind you of the event or cause the previously mentioned feelings.

Scoring Breakdown and Additional Resources

Your well-being is our top priority. If your score landed in the compassion fatigue area, you are encouraged to seek out help for strategies to support you. There are various resources and research available below.

The range of your score is from 30 - 124 points.

Below, please find a breakdown of the results ranging from compassion fatigue to compassion satisfaction.

Chart showing the ranges between compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction

This scale is not used to be diagnostic, but rather a tool for understanding yourself and your emotions.

Research / Resources