Role Models in Mental Health Nursing: The Good, the Bad, and the Possible

Broadly, role modeling is about junior staff learning from more senior or experienced colleagues, and it is considered to have a range of positive outcomes. Positive role models do not necessarily possess higher degrees, but they apply knowledge to practice so that novices can learn and feel inspired by observing them practicing in situ (Fowler, 2012). What is role modeling? Fowler (2012) defines a role model as a person who is “good at their job” and able “to carry out their role with natural talent, ability and consummate ease” (p. 311). Within mental health nursing, role modeling involves a staff member viewing a more experienced person as competently, expertly, and caringly inhabiting a professional role; a second aspect incorporates the notion of modeling, which is the matching of “cognitive skills and patterns of behavior between a person and an observing individual” (Gibson, 2004, p. 136). According to Bosma and colleagues (2012) there are four interrelated opportunities that role models can provide: