In limbo: creating continuity of identity in a discharge planning unit.

Abstract

Patients in hospital discharge planning units are often described as waiting for placement, implying a passivity that is not necessarily part of their experience. The anthropological concept of liminality, which refers to both a state of being and a process during which people are suspended between former and future selves, offers a framework for exploring patients'experiences of a discharge planning unit as a transitional space. This pilot qualitative study incorporates participant observation and ethnographic interviewing to explore how two patients living in the discharge planning unit of a large urban hospital use weekly bus trips into the community to actively renegotiate their sense of self. An interpretation of the findings using the concepts of emplotment and occupation reveals how patients in a liminal environment work to create meanings through disruptions in their lives. The renegotiation of identity through occupations highlights the transformative potential of these experiences, suggesting possibilities for occupational therapists to support their clients in that process of change.