The Human to Human Relationship Model of Nursing was developed by Joyce Travelbee and deals with the interpersonal aspects of nursing, focusing especially on mental health. According to Travelbee, human-to-human relationship is the means through which the purpose of nursing is fulfilled. One of the basis for Travelbee’s model is existentialism, which believes that humans constantly face choices and conflicts and are accountable to the choices they make in life. It is also based on logotherapy, which is based on the assumption that meaning fulfillment in life is the best protection against emotional instability.

Human to Human Relationship Model
Human to Human Relationship Model

The Human to Human Relationship Model of Nursing is based on concepts such as Suffering, Meaning, Hope, Communication, and Self-therapy. According to her, suffering is an experience that varies in intensity, duration and depth. It is also a feeling of unease, ranging from mild, transient mental, physical or mental discomfort to extreme pain. Meaning according to this model is the reason attributed to a person. Travelbee defined Hope as faith that can and will be a change that would bring something better with it. Communication is a strict necessity for good nursing care. Self-therapy is the ability to use one’s own personality consciously and in full awareness in an attempt to establish relatedness and to structure nursing interventions.

According to Travelbee’s theory, health can be broadly categorized into two subjective and objective. Subjective health is an individually defined state of well being in accord with self-appraisal of the 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. APA

Nursing is seen as a process in which a professional nurse practitioner assists an individual, family or community to  cope with illness and suffering. Nursing is accomplished through relationships between humans beginning with an original encounter and then progressing through stages of emerging identities, developing feelings of empathy and sympathy. This process has five phases: the initial meeting or original encounter, the visibility of personal and emerging identities, empathy, sympathy, and establishing mutual understanding and rapport.

The Nursing Need Theory
Parent-child interaction model

Leave A Comment