JOYCE TRAVELBEE

(1926–1973)
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 the suffering whether physical, mental
or spiritual is the proper concern of the nurse.” 
- Joyce Travelbee 

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

 1956, she completed her BSN degree at Louisiana State University

 1959, she completed her Master of Science Degree in Nursing at Yale University 

Working Experiences: 

 1952, Psychiatric Nursing Instructor at Depaul Hospital Affilliate School, New

Orleans.
 Also she taught at Charity Hospital School of Nursing in Louisiana State
University, New York University and University of Mississippi.
 1970, the Project Director of Graduate Education at Louisiana State University
School of Nursing until her death.

Publications: 

 1963, started to publish articles and journals in nursing.

 1966 and 1971, publication of her first book entitled Interpersonal Aspects of
Nursing.
 1969, when she published her second book Intervention in Psychiatric Nursing:
Process in the One-to-One Relationship. 

She started Doctoral program in Florida in 1973. Unfortunately, she was not able to
finish it because she died later that year. She passed away at the prime age of 47 after
a brief sickness.

Theoretical Sources 

 Catholic charity institutions

 Ida Jean Orlando, her instructor—“The nurse is responsible for helping the
patient avoid and alleviate the distress of unmet needs.” The nurse and patient
interrelate with each other.
 Viktor Frankl, a survivor of Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps—
proposed the theory of logo therapy in which a patient is actually confronted with and
reoriented toward the meaning of his life. 

Nursing Metaparadigm 
Person 
- Person is defined as a human being. 
- Both the nurse and the patient are human beings. 
- A human being is a unique, irreplaceable individual who is in continuous process of
becoming, evolving and changing. 

Health 
- Health is subjective and objective. 
- Subjective health—is an individually defined state of well-being in accord with self-
appraisal of physical-emotional-spiritual status. 
- Objective health—is an absence of discernible disease, disability of defect as
measured by physical examination, laboratory tests and assessment by spiritual director
or psychological counselor. 

Environment 
- Environment is not clearly defined. 
- She defined human conditions and life experiences encountered by all men as
sufferings, hope, pain and illness. 

Illness – being unhealthy, but rather explored the human experience of illness 

Suffering – is a feeling of displeasure which ranges from simple transitory mental,

physical or spiritual discomfort to extreme anguish and to those phases beyond anguish
—the malignant phase of dispairful “not caring” and apathetic indifference 

Pain – is not observable. A unique experience. Pain is a lonely experience that is

difficult to communicate fully to another individual. 

Hope – the desire to gain an end or accomplish a goal combined with some degree of
expectation that what is desired or sought is attainable 

Hopelessness – being devoid of hope

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

Human-to-Human Relationship Model 

- humanistic revolution 

Interactional Phases of Human-to-Human Relationship Model: 

1. Original Encounter 
- First impression by the nurse of the sick person and vice-versa. 
- Stereotyped or traditional roles 
2. Emerging Identities 
- the time when relationship begins 
- the nurse and patient perceives each others uniqueness 
3. Empathy 
- the ability to share in the person’s experience 
4. Sympathy 
- when the nurse wants to lessen the cause of patient’s suffering. 
- it goes beyond empathy—“When one sympathizes, one is involved but not
incapacitated by the involvement.” 
- therapeutic use of self 
5. Rapport 
- Rapport is described as nursing interventions that lessens the patient’s suffering. 
- Relation as human being to human being 
- “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.” 
*phases are in consecutive and developmental process. 

Logical Form 
- An inductive theory that uses specific nursing situations to create general ideas. 

Application 
Practice: 
Hospice – self-actualizing life experience. Assumption of the sick role. Meaning of life
and sickness and death. 

Education: 
Teaches nurses to understand the meaning of illness and suffering. 

Research: 
Applied in the theory of caring cancer patients. 

Analysis 
Clarity – is not consistent in clarity and origin. 
1. Definition of terms came from dictionaries and books etc. 
2. Used different terms for the same definition. 
3. Focus more on adult individuals who are sick and the nurse’s role in helping them to
find meaning in their sickness and suffering. 
4. Deals in families and their needs but not in the community 

Simplicity – not simple. 

1. Contains different variables. 

Generality – has wide scope of application but applicable only to those patients in
distress and life changing events. 

Empirical Precision – low measures of empirical soundness. 

1. Result of lack of simplicity. 
2. Defines concepts theoretically but does not define them operationally. 
3. The model has not been tested. 

Derivable Consequences – development of quality of caring. 

1. It is useful because of its ability to describe, explain, predict and control a
phenomena. 
2. Explains the variables that affect the establishment of a therapeutic relationship
between nurses and patients. 
3. Lack of empirical precision also creates lack of usefulness.