Joyce Travelbee 1926-1973 Human-to-Human Relationship Model

Joyce Travelbee

A psychiatric nurse, educator, and writer born in 1926.

• In 1956, she completed her BSN degree at Louisiana State University

• In 1959, she completed her Master of Science Degree in Nursing at

Yale University.

• 1952, Psychiatric Nursing Instructor at Depaul Hospital Affiliate

School, New Orleans, and in Charity Hospital School of Nursing at

Louisiana State University, New York University, and University of

Mississippi.

• In 1973, Travelbee died at age 47.

Travelbee's works

• Interpersonal Aspects of Nursing

• Intervention in Psychiatric Nursing: Process

in the One-to-One Relationship.

Joyce Travelbee's Contribution to Nursing

Theory:

Human-to-Human Relationship Model

Person

• A human being is a unique, irreplaceable individual who is in the

continuous process of becoming, evolving, and changing.

Health

• “A person’s subjective health status is an individually defined state of

well-being in accord with a self- appraisal of physical- emotional-

spiritual status.”

• “Objective health is an absence of discernible disease, disability, or

defect as measured by physical examination, laboratory tests,

assessment by a spiritual director, or psychological counselor.”

Environment

• Human conditions and life

experiences encountered by all men as sufferings, hope, pain and illness. These conditions are

associated to the environmen

Nursing

• “an interpersonal process whereby the professional nurse practitioner assists an individual, family or community to prevent or cope with the experience of illness and suffering and, if necessary, to find meaning in these experiences.”

Human-To-Human Relationship Model

“ A nurse does not only seek to alleviate physical pain or

render physical care – she ministers to the whole person. The

existence of suffering, whether physical, mental or spiritual is

the proper concern of the nurse”

Original Encounter

This is described as the first

impression by the nurse of the sick

person and vice-versa. The nurse and

patient see each other in stereotyped

or traditional roles.

Emerging Identities

This phase is described by the nurse

and patient perceiving each other as

unique individuals. At this time, the

link of relationship begins to form.

Empathy

Travelbee proposed that two

qualities that enhance the empathy

process are similarities of

experience and the desire to

understand another person. This

phase is described as the ability to

share in the person’s experience.

The result of the emphatic process

is the ability to expect the behavior

of the individual whom he or she

empathized.

Sympathy

Sympathy happens when the nurse

wants to lessen the cause of the

patient’s suffering. It goes beyond

empathy. “When one sympathizes, one

is involved but not incapacitated by the

involvement.” The nurse should use a

disciplined intellectual approach

together with therapeutic use of self to

make helpful nursing actions.

Rapport

described as a nursing

intervention that lessens the patient’s

suffering. The nurse and the sick

person are relating as human being to

human being. The sick person shows

trust and confidence in the nurse. “A

nurse is able to establish rapport

because she possesses the necessary

knowledge and skills required to assist

ill persons, and because she is able to

perceive, respond to, and appreciate

the uniqueness of the ill human being.

Practice

• The hospice is one good example in which Travelbee’s theory is

applied. The hospice nurse attempts to build rapport or a working

relationship with the patient, as well as with his significant others.

She stated that understanding illness and suffering enables the

patient not only to accept the sickness, but also to use it as self-

actualizing life experience.

• A sick person’s insight of worthlessness in his or her sickness leads to

non-acceptance of his condition and the great possibility to lose

hope.

• A hospice nurse believes that the dying person must find meaning in

his or her death before he or she can ever begin to accept the

actuality of death, just as his or her loved one must find meaning in

death before they can complete the grieving process.

Education

Travelbee’s concepts served as better assistance for nurses who help individuals understand the meaning of illness and suffering. Travelbee’s second book, Intervention in Psychiatric Nursing: Process in the One-to-One Relationship, has been used in different nursing programs. According to Travelbee’s model, courses in philosophy and religion would also be helpful in preparing nursing students to fulfill the purpose of nursing sufficientl

Research

Numerous researches in research studies have cited some aspects of the one- to-one relationship projected by Travelbee. One study by O’Connor, Wicker and Germino, which is nearly related to some of Travelbee’s ideas, discovers how individuals who were recently diagnosed with cancer described their personal search for meaning. The results of this study make known that the search for meaning seems to be both a spiritual and psychosocial process. The researchers acknowledged nursing interventions that would support this process. No other theory of Travelbee that would create further development is av

Clarity

• The definition of Travelbee’s theory are not consistent in clarity and

origin.

• She had more focus on adult individuals who are sick and the nurse’s

role in helping them find meaning in their sickness and suffering. She

dealt with families and their needs minimally, but they do not include

communities.

Simplicity

• The theory contains different variables.

• It is intended to assist nurses appreciate and understand not only the

patient’s humanness, but also her own.

Generality

• She mainly develop this theory from her experiences with psychiatric patients.

• It is applicable whenever the nurse encounters patients in distress and life

changing events.

• Most useful when working with those who are chronically ill, those who are

undergoing long term rehabilitation, and the dying or terminally ill.

Accessibility

• Travelbee’s theory appears to have a low measure of empirical soundness.

• She defines concepts theoretically, but she does not define them operationally,

or in the practical setting.

• The model has not been tested; thus it has no empirical support.

Importance

• Travelbee’s theory is useful for the reason that it has the ability to

describe, explain, predict, and control phenomena.

• The theory explains some variables that may affect the establishment

of a therapeutic relationship between the nurse and the patient.

• Her theory focuses on the development of the quality of caring.