Perceptions from the front line : Professional identity in mental health nursing

In the context of a growing population of people experiencing mental illness worldwide, mental health nurses are a crucial workforce. Their recruitment and retention, however, is in decline. Drawing on qualitative data obtained from interviews with mental health nurses () in ictoria, Australia, the paper employs a range of concepts from role theory to explore professional identity within mental health nursing. The data highlight three key issues in relation to the future recruitment and retention of : (i) the ambiguity of the role; (ii) the weak definition and lack of understanding of the scope of the role by nursing students; and (iii) a lack of communication about as a profession to a wider audience. These findings indicate three avenues through which recruitment and retention in mental health nursing could be improved: (i) public communication; (ii) training and educating of the next generation of ; and (iii) more accurately defining the role of the MHN