Student nurse practitioners – A rite of passage? The universality of Van Gennep’s model of social transition

SummaryWhilst much has been written on the competence and clinical effectiveness of qualified nurse practitioners, the literature reveals little on the educational experience of student nurse practitioners. This paper reviews an ethnography that examined, over a two-year period, the experiences of student nurse practitioners undertaking a clinical degree programme (B.Sc. (Hons) Nurse Practitioner). The findings revealed the student nurse practitioner experience as a composite of social and cultural transitions, and subsequently Van Gennep’s (Van Gennep, A., 1960. The Rites of Passage (Trans). Routledge & Kegan Paul, London) rite of passage model was found to have similarity with this emergent model. Finally, it was noted that, whilst social transition is modelled in the literature in many ways, the stages of a rite of passage had universal application.