text: A nursing theory by Peplau (1952) which says that people develop through interpersonal relationships, including the nurse-patient relationship, and that this relationship has a therapeutic value apart from any nursing or medical treatment being undertaken.  \n\nA pretty good detailed outline comes from: http://members.tripod.com/~psychnursing/peplauneuman.html although there are other papers which may make it clearer for you.\n\nTry using Google Scholar for questions like this - it searches academic papers using the Google search format which a lot of people are familiar with.  Some papers are available online, some you may have to get in hard copy from an academic library.\n\nOne more thing: Is this for a nursing school essay?  I wouldn't copy the answers you get too closely if I were you.  You probably realise that most lecturers are cluey enough to do a Google search of sections of an essay to be sure you're not plagiarising if they think your answer sounds too 'professional'...