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Hildegard Peplau

Discussion and Practical Application of Interpersonal Relations in Nursing Theory
Hildegard Peplau’s Interpersonal Relations in Nursing, published in 1952, emerged before the thrust of nursing theory development. Educationally, nursing students were discouraged from theoretical learning. Nursing was not considered a profession in 1952. Rather, nurses were viewed as physician helpers, being called upon based on the physician’s assessment of the patient’s condition and the assistance deemed appropriate. Publication of Peplau’s book was delayed for four years due to concern that it was unacceptable for a nurse publish a book without a physician co-author (Vandemark, 2006).
Conversely, modern nursing practice includes specific goals, consumer advocacy and independent function. Is a theory, developed half a century ago, valid and practical in modern nursing? Does Peplau’s theory, developed with a psychiatric setting in mind, transcend to other specialties of nursing or to nursing as a whole? Can this theory be applied to the nursing metaparadigm and nursing process? To answer these questions, an examination of the Interpersonal Relations in Nursing theory is required.
Theory Overview
The Interpersonal Relations in Nursing theory stressed the importance of the nurse’s ability to understand his or her own behavior to help others identify their own perceived difficulties (Tomey, 2005). Peplau (1952) describes nursing as:
“a significant, therapeutic, interpersonal process. It functions co-operatively with other human processes that make health possible for individuals in communities. In specific situations in which a professional health team offers health services, nurses participate in the organization of conditions that facilitate natural on going tendencies in human organisms. Nursing is an educative instrument, a maturing force, which aims to promote forward movement of personality in the direction of creative, constructive, productive, personal, and...