Running head: JOYCE TRAVELBEE: HUMAN-TO-HUMAN RELATIONSHIP MODEL
Joyce Travelbee: Human-to-Human Relationship Model
Christopher B. Delph
East Tennessee State University
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JOYCE TRAVELBEE: HUMAN-TO-HUMAN RELATIONSHIP MODEL
Joyce Travelbee: Human-to-Human Relationship Model
Joyce Travelbee was a psychiatric nurse that was born in 1926. She completed her BSN
degree at Louisiana State University in 1956 and her Master of Science Degree in Nursing at
Yale University in 1959. During her BSN degree in 1952, she started to be an instructor at
Depaul Hospital Affiliate School in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her instruction focused on
psychiatric nursing. Travelbee also taught Psychiatric Nursing at Charity Hospital School of
Nursing at Louisiana State University, New York University and the University of Mississippi
(currentnursing.com).
In 1963, Joyce Travelbee began to publish several articles in the nursing journals.
Afterwards, she would develop the Human-to-Human Relationship Model presented in her first
book entitled Interpersonal Aspects of Nursing (1966, 1971). Travelbee’s experience working as
a psychiatric nurse at a Catholic charity hospital led her to believe “these type of institutions
lacked compassion” (nurses.info). She believed nursing needed a “humanistic revolution” and a
renewed focus on compassion that must be central to nursing. Travelbee believed nursing
evolved through human-to-human relationships that involve empathy and sympathy. Achieving
a genuine nurse to patient contact was a prerequisite in meeting the goals of being a nurse. “It is
believed that getting to know patients is as valid and necessary a nursing activity as is
performing procedures or rendering physical care” (Travelbee, 1966, p. 99).
Joyce Travelbee had her second book published in 1969 entitled Intervention in
Psychiatric Nursing. Afterwards, she became Project Director at Hotel Dieu School of Nursing
in New Orleans in 1970. She started a doctoral program in Florida in 1973. Unfortunately,
Travelbee was unable to finish the program due to a brief illness that resulted in her tragic death.
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JOYCE TRAVELBEE: HUMAN-TO-HUMAN RELATIONSHIP MODEL
She concurrently was the director of Graduate Education at Louisiana State University School of
Nursing until her death (nursingtheories.info). Travelbee’s theory has lived on since her
premature death, influencing nursing and the hospice movement.
My personal reasons to go into nursing go back to being a teenager. I had experienced
both parents hospitalized due to unfortunate accidents during my youth. I had plenty of exposure
to being at a hospital over a matter of several years. The daily interaction of the nurses with my
family intrigued me, and I enjoyed the caring aspect of nursing. When I initially went to college,
I focused on psychology. Later, I realized that I wanted a more personalized way to interact with
sick people through compassion. Joyce Travelbee’s theory is very interesting in that it focuses
on more than just the patient’s physical condition. It focuses on compassion and building rapport
with the patient that I feel is extremely important. I found that Travelbee’s psychiatric nursing
background and subsequent theory resonated with me. Psychiatric nursing is a specialty that I
am very interested in pursuing, because I feel nursing goes beyond the physical to a more holistic
sense of being.
Travelbee believed the human-to-human relationship began with the initial encounter and
progressed through five phases. The progress through these stages was “original encounter,
emerging identities, empathy, sympathy and rapport” (currentnursing.com). The ideas of her
theory are applicable to a hospital, nursing home or hospice setting. Rapport being the last stage
is very important overall. The idea of her theory is fully functional when rapport is involved.
Rapport is more than communication with patients. It is something continually built on a
daily basis. Rapport is “empathy, compassion, and sympathy; a nonjudgmental attitude, and
respect for each individual as a unique human being” (Travelbee, 1963, p. 70). This is extremely
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JOYCE TRAVELBEE: HUMAN-TO-HUMAN RELATIONSHIP MODEL
important in all settings where people need care due to sickness. When patients are provided
only minimum attention to allow the nurse to get his or her job done, the patient can suffer
consequences. Treating the patient holistically via communication and attention can help in the
healing process. An example of minimum involvement shows in the nursing home. A study
showed “depression to be underrecognized and screenings were to be implemented to discuss
with residents feelings of powerlessness, disability and losses” (Snowdon, 2010, p. 22). An
active interest in the patients can build upon the human-to-human relationship.
The caregiver should express a desire to know the patient and realize each person is a
unique individual in dealing with his or her sickness. “The amount of time spent with a patient is
not as important as what the nurse does with that time” (Travelbee, 1963, p. 71). Emotional
involvement is very important with the process of healing and recovery. A patient will feel
connected in a relationship with the nurse when there is emotional involvement. This type of
involvement does require insight and self-discipline, but it also requires the nurse to possess the
“openness and freedom to expose self as human being to another human being, namely the
patient” (Travelbee, 1969, p. 49).
Detachment when being involved with sickness and suffering is a common defense
mechanism. No person continually is involved with sickness, disease and death without getting
emotionally involved to some degree. Travelbee emphasized that the professional nurse must be
able to “assist patients to find meaning in the experience of illness, suffering and pain”
(Travelbee, 1966, p.165). Again, this would form the human-to-human relationship needed
during illness. Providing knowledge and meaning can help an already vulnerable patient to have
a sense of control and purpose.
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JOYCE TRAVELBEE: HUMAN-TO-HUMAN RELATIONSHIP MODEL
I believe the human-to-human relationship model shows promise in providing improved
patient care for the future. It transcends the idea of the physical and helps focus on the mental,
emotional and spiritual aspects of the patient. This type of treatment for sick people allows a
holistic approach and greets them with genuine interest. When other methods fail, alternatives
are considered in hopes to give a patient the best possible care. “We must continually question
the value of our achievement, continue learning, and actively seek to improve our ability to gain
an increased understanding of the human condition” (Travelbee, 1963, p. 72). Travelbee
recognized this need in establishing nursing to patient relationships. I believe the human-tohuman relationship model will provide the unique personalized care needed for today and the
future.
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JOYCE TRAVELBEE: HUMAN-TO-HUMAN RELATIONSHIP MODEL
References
Nurses. (2010, May). Joyce Travelbee. Retrieved June 23, 2011, from
http://www.nurses.info/nursing_theory_person_travelbee_joyce.htm
Nursing Theories. (2010, December). Human-To-Human Relationship Model. Retrieved June
23, 2011, from http://currentnursing.com/nursing_theory/Joyce_Travelbee.html
Nursing Theories. (2011, June). Joyce Travelbee: Biography. Retrieved June 23, 2011, from
http://nursingtheories.info/joyce-travelbee-biography/
Snowden, J. (2010). Depression in nursing homes. (Abstract). International Psychogeriatrics,
22, 1143-1148. doi: 10.1017/S1041610210001602
Travelbee, J. (1963). What do we mean by rapport? The American Journal of Nursing, 63, 7072.
Travelbee, J. (1966). Interpersonal Aspects of Nursing. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis
Company.
Travelbee, J. (1969). Intervention in Psychiatric Nursing: Process in the One-To-One
Relationship. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.
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