Hildegard E.

Peplau
Interpersonal Relations

Tammie Bloxton and Precious Tembo

James Madison University
NSG 463
OVERVIEW:
LIFE AND WORK
Nursinglab.com

Peplau was born in Reading, Pennsylvania

Masters in psych. nursing from Columbia
[1909]. Worked at Bellevue Psych. Facility.
University in 1947
Diploma from Pottstown Hospital School of Served as president and executive director
Developed and chaired the graduate Psych.
Nursing in 1931. of the ANA.
nursing at Rutgers University.
Baccalaureate degree (BA) in interpersonal Peplau died March 17, 1999 (Current
Served in the WW II Army Nurse Corp,
psychology from Bennington College in Nursing, 2013)
W.H.O. and NIMH.
1943.
OVERVIEW: LIFE AND WORK
 Published in 1952.

Nursinglab.com
 EARLY INFLUENCES

 As a child, Peplau witnessed the devastating flu epidemic of 1918,

which greatly impacted her understanding of illness and death
(Current Nursing, 2013).

 Her work with psychiatric patients at Bellevue psychiatric Facility

greatly influenced her career. Peplau helped pass the Mental Health
Act of 1946(Nursinglab, 2013)
PROFESSIONAL INFLUENCES AND
THEORETICAL SOURCES
Theory of interpersonal
Relations Hildegard E. Peplau

General Systems Theory Interpersonal Theory

(Ludwig Von Bertalanffy) (Harry Stack Sullivan)

Personality Theory
(Neal Edgar Miller) Analytic Psychiatry
(Erich Fromm) & (Sigmund Freud)

Theory of Human Motivation

(Current Nursing, 2013
(Abraham Maslow) &
Microsoft word design)
 MAJOR CONCEPTS
• Peplau’s theory is a middle range, descriptive, classification theory (Wayne, 2014).
• Peplau’s theory is defined as, “An interpersonal process of therapeutic interactions between an individual who
is sick or in need of health services and a nurse especially educated to recognize, respond to the need for help”
(Wayne, 2014).

• Person: A developing organism that tries to reduce anxiety caused by needs.

• Environment: Existing forces outside the organism and in the context of culture.

• Health: A word symbol that implies forward movement of personality and other ongoing human processes in
the direction of creative, constructive, productive, 
• personal and community living.

• Nursing: A significant therapeutic interpersonal process. It functions cooperatively with other human process
that make health possible for individuals in communities (Wayne, 2014)
MAJOR CONCEPTS
 SIX NURSING ROLES
 Stranger- receives the client in the same way one meets a stranger,
while providing an accepting climate that allows trust building.

 Teacher-helping the client learn formally and informally in reference

to a need or interest.

 Resource Person-provides specific answers to questions within a

larger context.
 SIX NURSING ROLES
 Counselor- helps to understand and integrate the meaning of
current life situations while providing encouragement to make
changes(current nursing, 2013).

 Surrogate-helps to clarify domains of dependence,

interdependence and independence and acts on clients behalf as an
advocate.

 Leader- helps client assume maximum responsibility for meeting

treatment goals in a mutually satisfying way.
(Current Nursing, 2013).
 SEQUENTIAL PHASES OF NURSE-
CLIENT RELATIONSHIP
 Orientation phase- is directed by the nurse and involves engaging
the client in treatment, providing explanations information and
answering questions.

 Identification phase- begins when the client works

interdependently with the nurse, expresses feelings, and begins to
feel stronger.

 Exploitation phase- client initiates and makes full use of the

services offered.

 Resolution phase- the client no longer needs professional services

and gives up dependent behavior, professional relationship
terminates(Gonzalo, 2011).
 CONNECTION BETWEEN PHASES
AND NURSING PROCESS
Assessment Orientation
•Data collection and analysis [continuous] •Non continuous data collection

•May not be a felt need •Felt need

•Define needs

Nursing diagnosis Identification

Planning •Interdependent goal setting
•Mutually set goals 
Implementation Exploitation
•Plans initiated towards achievement of mutually set •Patient actively seeking and drawing help
goals
•Patient initiated
•May be accomplished by patient , nurse or family

Evaluation Resolution
•Based on mutually expected behaviors •Occurs after other phases are completed successfully
•May led to termination and initiation of new plans   •Leads to termination

(Current Nursing, 2013)

 OUR RELATION TO PEPLAU’S
THEORY
 Understanding that nursing is a process and not an outcome we
relate to Peplau’s phases that help guide nurses through a
complex relationship between the client and the nurse.

 Peplau’s stated roles of a nurse help us to better understand our

responsibility in the patient treatment process and to better
facilitate treatment outcomes.

 According to Peplau, the professional nurse who becomes ever

more mature recognizes the contribution of great nurses of the
past without being intimidated or dominated by their
contribution to the exclusion of consideration of all the new
possibilities in the light of a changing social situation (D'Antonio,
Beeber, Sills, & Naegle, 2014).
 REFERENCES
 Current Nursing, (2013). Nursing Theories. Retrieved from
http://currentnursing.com/nursing_theory/ nursing_theorists.html

 Wayne, G., (2014). Hildegard E. Peplau-Psychiatric Nurse of the

Century. Nurse labs. Retrieved from http://nurseslabs.com/

 About Hildegard Peplau, (2015). American Nurses Association.

Retrieved from: http://
www.nursingworld.org/FunctionalMenuCategories/Abo
utANA/HonoringNurses/NationalAwardsProgram/HildegardP eplau
 REFERENCES
 Gonzalo, A., (2011). Hildegard E. Peplau: Theory of Interpersonal
Relations: Factors Influencing the Blending of the Nurse-Patient
Relationship. Retrieved from
http://nursingtheories.weebly.com/hildegard-e- peplau.html.

 D'Antonio, P. Beeber, L., Sills, G & Naegle, M., (2014). The future in
the past: Hildegard Peplau and interpersonal relations in nursing.
Nursing Inquiry; 21(4), 311-317 DOI: 10.1111/nin.12056.