Modeling and role modeling and integral nursing guide
A one-page APA discussion post with two references, based on the chapter readings, explaining how the concept of Modeling and Role Modeling applies to nursing and how the Theory of Integral Nursing would benefit our community, with responses to two classmates.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 13, 2026
Two theories, two scales, one page
Two questions and two different scopes, which the post has to keep separate. The first is about practice: how a theory operates in the encounter between a nurse and a patient. The second is about community: what a theory would do if a population, not an individual, were the beneficiary. Answering both at the individual level, which is the easy drift, means the second question goes unanswered while appearing to be addressed. With one page and two references you have roughly three hundred words for each half, so decide the split before drafting and hold to it rather than discovering at the end that the community question got four lines. Deciding the split in advance also tells you how much theory description you can afford, which in a one-page post is considerably less than most students assume. Aim for two sentences per theory and spend the rest on application.
The first theory's name is the answer to the first question if you take it literally, and most posts do not. Modeling means building an understanding of the patient's world as the patient experiences it — their perception of their situation, what they believe caused it, what they think will help, and what they want. Role modeling means using that understanding to plan care that fits their world rather than the nurse's. The pairing is the point: assessment that reaches the patient's own model, then intervention designed inside it. That is why the theory is usually described as one of the clearest expressions of person-centred care in the nursing canon, and saying so with the two terms defined separately is a stronger answer than any amount of general appreciation. Defining the two halves separately also gives the first answer a structure, which otherwise tends to become a general statement about respecting patients that could have been written without reading the chapter.
What makes the theory practically distinctive, and worth a sentence, is that it treats the patient as the authority on their own experience and treats adaptation as something the nurse supports rather than directs. A patient with the same diagnosis and the same clinical picture as another may need something quite different, because their model of the situation differs. That has a testable consequence: two care plans should differ where the patients' understandings differ, even when the pathology does not. Give a concrete example of that happening and you have shown the theory doing work rather than described its concepts, which is the difference between a good and an adequate post on this question. An example also protects you from the commonest weakness here, which is a post that could have been written about any person-centred theory in the canon rather than about this one.
The second question uses the word community and that changes the frame from a dyad to a population, so answer at that level. An integral framework is holistic in a specific sense: it asks you to attend simultaneously to the individual's interior experience, the individual's observable behaviour and biology, the shared culture and beliefs of a group, and the systems and structures the group lives inside. Those four are not a list of things to care about; they are four different places where a problem can be located and four different places an intervention can act. That structure is what a community application needs, because it stops holistic meaning nothing more specific than caring about everything. Naming the four domains explicitly is also the fastest way to show you read the chapter, since holistic is a word every post will use and the domains are what the chapter actually supplies.
So make the community answer concrete by naming a problem in your own community and working it through the four. A local problem — falls among isolated older adults, uncontrolled diabetes in a neighbourhood, vaccine hesitancy, opioid overdose, food insecurity — has an interior dimension in how people experience and interpret it, a behavioural and biological dimension, a cultural dimension in shared belief and norm, and a structural dimension in services, transport, housing and policy. Show that an intervention acting on only one of the four will predictably fail, and you have answered the benefit question with an argument rather than an adjective. Choosing a real local problem also makes the two peer responses easier to write, because your classmates will have chosen different problems and the comparison is immediately interesting. Pick one you could name a service and a street for. A problem with a postcode is easier to work through four domains than a category.
Two practical points, given the format. One page and two references means the references have to earn their place: use them for the theory descriptions rather than for background, and cite the theorists or a substantive account of their work rather than a summary site if your course expects primary sources. And because the assignment asks you to respond to two classmates, end on something answerable — the community problem you chose and why an integral frame suits it better than a straightforward behavioural one is a claim a peer can push back on, whereas a concluding sentence about holistic care is not. Showing the predicted failure is also what converts benefit from an adjective into a claim, and it is the sentence a marker is most likely to underline in a post of this length. Say which domain your community's existing programme ignores. Name the domain your local programme leaves untouched, and the claim becomes checkable.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Define modeling and role modeling separately and show how they pair.
- 02Give a case where two care plans differ because the patients' models differ.
- 03Apply a community-level framework at population scale rather than individual scale.
- 04Locate a local problem across interior, behavioural, cultural and structural domains.
- 05Argue why a single-domain intervention would fail.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes. Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages. Concept of Modeling & Role Modeling Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor. The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument. ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS Discussion Questions (DQ) Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words. Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source. One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses. Weekly Participation Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. APA Format and Writing Quality Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required). Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation. I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition. Use of Direct Quotes I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly. As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content. It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. LopesWrite Policy For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me. Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes. Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own? Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Late Policy The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies. Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading. Communication Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours. Concept of Modeling & Role Modeling
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01An explanation of how the concept of Modeling and Role Modeling applies to nursing.
- 02An account of how the Theory of Integral Nursing would benefit our community.
- 03One page in APA format with two references.
- 04Responses to two classmates.
Modeling in practice, integral nursing in the community
Define modeling
Building the patient's own understanding of their situation, cause, expected help and desired outcome.
Define role modeling
Planning care inside that understanding rather than inside the nurse's.
The practice consequence
Two patients with the same clinical picture and different models should get different plans.
Introduce the integral framework
Four domains: interior experience, behaviour and biology, shared culture, and systems and structures.
Name a community problem
Choose a local, concrete problem the post can work through.
Work it across the four domains
Locate the problem and the possible interventions in each domain.
Argue the benefit
Show why an intervention acting on one domain alone would predictably fail.
Reading the two chapters for what they claim
Recommended databases
- Course text chapters 12 and 13
- CINAHL
- Nursology theory pages
Search sequence
- 1.Read both chapters before searching, since the assignment is built on them and the terminology should match.
- 2.Look for a published clinical application of the first theory, ideally in a setting close to yours.
- 3.Find a community or population application of an integral framework to ground the second half.
- 4.Check how your course text names the four domains, since the labels vary across accounts.
- 5.Choose your two references deliberately, one per theory, given the one-page limit.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
Modeling & Role-Modeling
Nursology · 2025
Account of the theory's concepts and its assessment-to-intervention structure; the source for defining the two terms separately.
- 02
Theory of Integral Nursing
Nursology · 2025
Description of the framework's domains, which is what the community half of the post applies.
- 03
Nursing Theories & Models
Nursology · 2025
Index confirming the level of abstraction of both theories, which matters when applying one at population scale.
- 04
Communities in Action
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, NCBI Bookshelf · 2017
Evidence that community health problems are produced across cultural and structural domains, supporting the four-domain argument.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Answering both questions at the individual level, leaving the community question unaddressed.
- Describing modeling and role modeling as one idea instead of two paired steps.
- Praising the theory without showing it changing a care plan.
- Using holistic as the whole answer to the community question.
- Spending the page on theory summary and leaving no room for application.
- Ending on a sentence about holistic care that nobody can respond to.
Submission checklist
- Modeling and role modeling are defined separately.
- A concrete case shows two plans differing because two understandings differ.
- The community answer is at population scale.
- A named local problem is worked across four domains.
- The failure of a single-domain intervention is argued.
- Two references support the theory descriptions rather than background.
- The post ends on a claim a classmate can dispute.
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.
Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.
Reviewed by
Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.