Joan Riehl-Sisca by Lisa Wood, Nursing Student from New Zealand,

March 2001

Joan Riehl was born in Davenport, Iowa but spent most of her childhood and
young adult life in a Chicago suburb, she attended the University of Illinios,
where she obtained her BSN.

Riehl theory and model adapt four key concepts.

People – “people, individually and collectively, are prepared to act on the

basis of the meaning of the objects that comprise their world. The term
person includes the patient, the nurse, and other health professionals. Riehl
describes the nurse as one who knows her capabilities, is self-directed, and
assumes than one role in a given period.

Association – “The association of people is necessarily in the form of a

process in which they are making indications to one another and interpreting
each others indication.” Riehl summarizes tis as the defining process of role
taking. Role taking occurs when an individual cognitively internalises another
person’s perceptions of reality in varied situations. The nurse-patient
interface is an example of this interaction.

Social Acts – “Social acts, whether individual or collective, are constructed

through a process in which the actors note, interpret, and assess the
situations confronting them.” Their interpretation of these situations influence
their social acts toward each other. This concept allows the nurse to assess
and respond more appropriately to a patient’s behaviour.

Interlinkages – “The complex interlinkages of acts that comprise

organizations, institutions, division of labour, and networks of
interdependency are moving and not static affairs.” From this concept Riehl
derives that patient assessment is a dynamic process that often necessitates
the use of several resources in meeting patient’s needs, particularly in long
term care.