Aim This study aimed to examine whether and to what extent, empathy mediates the association between nursing professional values and professional quality of life (ProQOL) in Chinese female nurses. Design Cross‐sectional study design. Methods A convenience sample of 733 nurses from Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China, was recruited. Each participant was invited to complete a self‐administrated socio‐demographic questionnaire, the Nursing Professional Values Scale, the Jefferson Scale of Empathy and the Professional Quality of Life Scale. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and the bootstrap method were employed to analyse data using SPSS 23.0 software. Results The participants reported a medium level of ProQOL. Nursing professional values were positively associated with compassion satisfaction but negatively associated with burnout. Empathy mediated 9.2% and 57.1% of the total observed effect of nursing professional values on compassion satisfaction and burnout, respectively.