Having lived between 1926 and 1937, the life experiences of Joyce Travelbee led to the formulation of the human to human relationship model. This theory explicates how people in the nursing profession relate to each other. The objective of the model is to explain the human to human relationship and how it helps to meet nursing goals. Joyce was a psychiatric nurse who later on became an educator. She held a bachelors and masters of Science degrees in the field of nursing. During her career, Travelbee worked as a psychiatric nurse instructor at DePaul Hospital Affiliate School in New Orleans. This paper looks at how she developed the human to human relationship model and how the theory is being currently applied in the nursing profession.
Theorizing
The theory studies how persons interact in the field of nursing. More specifically, it narrows down how healthy nursing it to one’s mental health. Joyce argues that the basis of the objectives of nursing is fully centered on the human to human relationship model. This theory was developed after a study done on the concepts of logotherapy and existentialism which were developed by Frankl and Kierkegaard (Stasková, &Tóthová, 2015). Existentialism suggests that humans are in a constant battle to pick between choices and conflicts and that every choice made has a consequence. On the other hand, logotherapy is also a theory that is based on the assumption that living a fulfilled life is the only way an individual can avoid being emotionally unstable (Novian, et al., 2016).
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The two sub-theories above helped TravelBee to conclude that the nursing model was meant to support a few fundamental concepts that are unique to the nursing profession and practice. To begin with, every individual goes through different suffering experiences with the difference coming in as a result of dissimilarities in intensity, depth, and duration of the experiences. The feeling leads to physical, emotional, and mental discomfort. Moreover, every person has a specific reason for developing meaning when building a relationship. The human to human model was conceptualized due to the need for patients and nurses to bond at a personal level for the patient to be therapeutically helped in terms of physical, mental, and emotional pain.
Syntax Development
Joyce offers crucial definitions of the term health. Two definitions are offered with one being from a subjective perspective and the other being from the objective perspective. Subjectively, the theory states that individuals see their health as how well their state is depending on their appraisal on their spiritual, emotional, and physical being. Objectively, individuals see being healthy as the absence of a noticeable disease as determined through a physical examination in the laboratory, by a spiritual director, or by a psychological counsellor. This means that the individuals’ judgment of themselves is among the factors that they use to determine their well-being. The relationship between nurses and patients is crucial to this.
The theory defines nursing as an interpersonal idea that lets professional nurse practitioners involve themselves in the lives of patients, family members, and members of a community. As such, nursing is crucial in determining how patients and the community cope with the illness of an individual. The nurse can establish a relationship that is proper to the extent that the experience between families and patients becomes possible (Haugan, 2014).
Theory Testing
The human to human model views nursing as the act of building a deep relationship between two normal people. Nurses and patients have to develop sympathetic and empathetic feelings and also get to know each other well during the first encounter. From this theory, we understand that suffering is a human experience that patients go through and that the relationships the patients have with their families and healthcare providers help to motivate them both internally and externally. Feelings of unease mentally, physically, and emotionally, can all be alleviated by forming meaningful relationships (Butack, et al., 2012).
A deep advance into the human to human model positions the nurse not only as a healthcare provider but also a hope giver to patients. With regard to this, a nurse occupies the central role of avoiding hopelessness. The theory believes that there is a positive psychological impact caused on patients when they witness people around them being hopeful and this helps them to outlay from the world of suffering or pain and gives them the belief that people are there for them. The positivity of a patient, and hence his/her health, is highly dependent on the people that surround him/her (Haugan, 2013).
Evaluation
Very minimal tests have been carried out to verify this theory. However, the evidence collected from these tests indicate that the theory amicably applies to nursing practice. Nurses in hospitals apply this theory when interacting with patients and their families too as the help practitioners help them to come to terms with sickness, death, and life. Nurses are taught how they can communicate illnesses to patients and the families in a way that can minimize the pain physically or emotionally. The theory is also widely applied in researching patients such as cancer patients who need long-term care (Burack, et al., 2012).
In conclusion, this theory aims at delivering quality care by offering a description of how the relationship between patients and those surrounding them affect the patients. Consequently, since the nurses are around the patients most of the times, it is their role to relate with the patients at a personal level so as to be able to influence the positivity of the patients.
References
Burack, O.R. , Weiner, A.S. , Reinhardt, J.P. , & Annunziato, R.A . (2012). What matters most to nursing home elders: Quality of life in the nursing home . J Am Med Dir Assoc. 13 ( 1 ), 48 – 53 .
Haugan, G. (2013). Nurse–patient interaction is a resource for hope, meaning in life and self-transcendence in nursing home patients. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 28 (1), 1–211
Haugan, G. (2014). Relationship between nurse–patient interaction and meaning-in-life in cognitively intact nursing home patients. Journal of American Nursing, 70 (1), 107–120. DOI: 10.1111/jan.12173
Noviana, U. et al. (2016). Meaning in life: A conceptual model for disaster nursing practice. The Journal of Nursing & Human Sciences (JNHS) , 22 (S1), 65–75.
Stasková, V., &Tóthová, V. (December 2015). Conception of the human-to-human relationship in nursing. Kontakt , 17 (4), e184-e189
