HILDEGARD PEPLAU  She develops the model by describing the

“To understand people, you must try to hear what they
are not saying.”
BACKGROUND- BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD
 Hildegard E. Peplau- born on September 1, 1909
in Pennsylvania.
 Raised in a paternalistic family and a paternalistic
society
 Regarded as “mother of psychiatric nursing”
EDUCATION
 Graduate Pottstown. PA Hospital School of
Nursing in 1931
 BA Psychology: Bennignton College, VT 1943
 WWII: Army Nurse Corps- worked in a
neuropsychiatric hospital in London, England
 MA Psychiatric Nursing: 1947; Ed.D. Nursing
Education: 1953, both graduate degrees from
Teacher’s College, Columbia University
 Certification in Psychoanalysis for Teachers:
William Alanson White Institute, New York City,
1954
WHY NURSING?
o Nursing was one of few career choices for women
in her day. As a child, she witnessed the
devastating flu epidemic of 1918, a personal
experience that greatly influenced her
understanding of the impact of illness and death on
families.
PSYCHODYNAMIC NURSING
Influenced by:
1. MASLOW- self-actualization
2. MILLER- personality theory, adjustment
mechanisms, psychotherapy and principles of
social learning.
3. PAVLOV’S- stimulus-response model
influenced the principles of Miller’s social
learning
4. SULLIVAN- the pioneer of modern psychiatry
and includes cultural and social determiners to
Freud’s interpersonal relationship model.
*Peplau challenged psychiatric nursing to thrive in the
new millennium in four central areas:
1. The nurse-patient relationship
2. Engagement in evidence-based practice
3. Competence in information technology
4. Leadership in shifting the health care
paradigm to community-based delivery.
CONCEPTS USED BY PEPLAU
 Peplau’s model evolves through the
“Psychodynamics of Nursing”.
 Psychodynamic Nursing: being able to
understand one’s own behaviour to help others
identify felt difficulties and to apply principles
of human relations to the problems that arise at
all levels of experiences.
structural concepts of the interpersonal process.
FOUR PHASES OF INTERPERSONAL
RELATIONS
1. Orientation Phase: in which the person/ client
and the nurse mutually identify the person’s
problem.
2. Identification Phase: in which the person/
client identifies with the nurse, thereby
accepting help.
3. Exploitation Phase: in which the person makes
use of the nurse’s help.
4. Resolution Phase/ Termination Phase: in
which the person accepts new goals and frees
herself or himself from the relationship.
MAJOR ASSUMPTIONS (2 Explicit)
1) The kind of person the nurse becomes makes a
substantial difference in what each patient will
learn as he receives nursing care.
2) Fostering personality development toward
maturity is a function of nursing and nursing
education. Nursing uses principles and methods
that guide the process toward resolution of
interpersonal problems.
 Interpersonal Relations in nursing:
1) Patient-nurse relationship
2) Awareness of feelings
3) Use of experimental learning method
Application and Importance Of The Theory
A. PRACTICE
 Integration of scientific disciplines in
formulating paradigm of psychiatric
nursing.
 Strengthen nurse-patient relationship.
 The start of psychiatric nursing.
 Used for counselling women undergoing
depression.
B. EDUCATION
 Interpersonal Relations in nursing- used as a
manual of instruction to nursing students.
 Foundation of psychiatric nursing education
C. RESEARCH
 Different studies on the nursing phenomena.
 Improvement of the social system.
 Stress management program.
 Formation of behaviour scale.
 Therapeutic behaviour of the nurses.
CONCLUSION
 Peplau’s theory conceptualized clear sets of
nurses’ role that could be used by each and
every nurse in their practice. The phase of the
therapeutic nurse-client is highly comparable to
the nursing process
 Peplau warns: danger of social talk with
patients- Nurses should not speak the same way
to patients as to family or friends. It should lead
to therapeutic events- promoting long term well-
being.