Joyce Travelbee’s Theory

Human to Human
Relationship Model
•Born in 1926 and Died in 1973

•Travel Bee earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Louisiana State
University (1956)

•She completed her Master of Science Degree in Nursing at Yale University

(1959)
•She worked as a psychiatric nursing instructor at the DePaul Hospital Affiliate
School in New Orleans, Louisiana, and worked late at Charity Hospital School
of Nursing at Louisiana State University, New York University, and the
University of Mississippi (1952)
TRAVELBEE’S PUBLISHED BOOK
• Interpersonal
Aspects of Nursing
(1961)
-Nursing is an interpersonal
process aimed at assisting
individuals, families,
or communities to prevent or
cope with the processes of
illness and suffering and, if
necessary, to find meaning in
the experiences.
• Intervention in Psychiatric
Nursing: Process in the One-to-
One Relationship
- The primary role of a mental health
nurse is to provide care to patients
with psychiatric disorders, mental
health issues, or behavioral problems.
Many of the tasks performed by a
mental health nurse are similar to that
of a psychiatrist and include
diagnosis, psychotherapy, and
prescription of medications.
Theoretical Sources based on:

-Soren Kierkegaard’s philosophy of existentialism.

-Existentialism places the accountability for people’s choices in life on the people who make these choices.

-Victor Frankl’s logotherapy proposed in Frankl’s Man’s

Searching for Meaning (1963) is a form of psychotherapy
that makes the assumption that fulfillment is the best
protection against emotional instability.
●A human being is defined as a unique irreplaceable individual. Patient

●A stereotype useful for communicative economy. "Actually

there are no patients. There are only individual human beings
in need of the care, services, and assistance of other human
beings, whom, it is believed, can render the assistance that is
needed.
NURSE

●The nurse is also a human being. "The nurse possesses

a body of specialized knowledge and the ability to use it
for the purpose of assisting other human beings to
prevent illness, regain health, find meaning in illness, or
to maintain the highest maximal degree of health.
Suffering -A sensation of unease that ranges in severity,
depth, and length from slight, passing mental, bodily, or
emotional discomfort to unbearable pain and terrible
torment...

Pain -Only the symptoms of pain are observed; pain

itself is not visible. The sensation of pain is unique to
each person.

Hope -The nurse’s job is to help the patient to maintain

hope and avoid hopelessness. Hope is a faith that can
and will change that would bring something better with
.
it.
• Communications-a process that can enable the nurse
to establish a human-to-human relationships Interaction

●"The term interaction refers to any contact during

which two individuals have reciprocal influence on
each other and communicate verbally and/or
nonverbally" Nurse - Patient interaction
●"The term nurse-patient interaction refers to any
contract between a nurse and an ill person and is
characterized by the fact that both individuals perceive
the other in a stereotyped manner"
.
Theoretical Evidence:

• Travelbee’s Theory is based on her cumulative nursing

experiences and her readings rather than the evidence
of a particular research study
PERSON-Person identify as a human being. The patient
and the nurse are both human beings

NURSING-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.
.
HEALTH
●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, or defect as measured by physical
examination, laboratory tests, and assessment by a
spiritual director or psychological counselor.
.
ENVIRONMENT

●It was not clearly defined, but she defined human

conditions and life experience which is associated to the
environment the suffering, pain, hope, and illness. Illness
a category and classification, both objective and
subjective criteria. Objective criteria are determined by
the outward effects of illness on the individual.
Subjective criteria refer to the way in which a human
being perceives himself or herself as ill.
.
5 Interaction Phase of Travel bee's
1. The phase of the Original Encounter
2. The phase of Emerging identities
3.Empathy
4.Sympathy
5. The phase of Rapport
1.The phase of the Original Encounter
-First impression by the nurse of the patient and vice
versa

2. The phase of the Emerging Identities

-it describe by nurse and patient perceiving each other
as unique individuals. As this time the link of
relationship begins to form
3.Empathy
-According to Travelbee having similar life experiences and
wanting to comprehend other people are two traits that
improve empathy. Being able to relate to another person’s
experience

4. Sympathy
-Response to a human’s desire to relieve or lessen another
human suffering
-it goes beyond empathy “When one sympathized, one is
involved but not incapacitated by the involvement.
 5. The Phase of Raptor

-Described as nursing interventions that lessen 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.”
Acceptance by the nursing community

-Travel bee's model teaches nurses to understand or at

least explore the meaning of illness and suffering in
themselves. It is through this existential identification
that one human being can relate to another human
being. The AP should promote self-reflection as humans
to help other humans connect.