Liminality in Preregistration Mental Health Nurse Education: A Review of the Literature

This paper provides an analysis of the anthropological concept of liminality in relation to undergraduate
preregistration mental health nurse education, and considers implications both for students and nurse
educators working in this field.
A review of educational and professional literature was undertaken in order to clarify the concept of
liminality within the context of nurse education to aid in understanding how nurse educators could
maximise the potential of liminality within the mental health preregistration nursing programme, and to
consider the relationship between liminality and the preparation of future mental health nursing
practitioners.
A survey of the findings and conclusions of the selected studies yielded two key areas in which the
concept has an explanatory function: in relation to “threshold concepts” in nurse education and as a way
of describing a stage in the development of a role and identity.
Discussion of each of these areas points to suggestions for changes in the understanding of education
and training for mental health nurses, particularly in the context of the United Kingdom.