Hildegard E. Peplau Memorial Lectureship - Beyond Talking Therapy: The Work and Wisdom of Hildegard Peplau

In 1956, Hildegard Elizabeth Peplau was awarded NIH funding to establish the Master’s program in psychiatric nursing at Rutgers University. This was the first program established on the idea that nurses could and should be therapists, that the greatest tool in the provision of mental health care was the nurse themself. It was also a program built on the painstaking work that Peplau had done to establish psychiatric nursing as its own clinical specialty, led for and by nurses, with education based in the university.

In this presentation, I draw on the research I undertook for the book “Talking Therapy: Knowledge and Power in American Psychiatric Nursing” to examine Peplau’s ideas about what was required to develop therapeutic practice not just in psychiatric but in all nursing. Her impact on the profession is almost impossible to quantify, but it goes beyond the work she did at Rutgers. Her ability to see the potential of nursing as a force for social change, and her commitment to ethical nursing practice are ideas that nursing needs today more than ever.

This lecture is the inaugural Hildegard E. Peplau Lecture, marking the 70th anniversary of the Rutgers program Peplau founded and the beginning of an annual tradition for the field she helped create.

1. Understand the historical context of the development of psychiatric mental health nursing.
2. Appreciate the impact of Peplau’s clinical model for therapeutic practice with patients.
3. Analyze the significance of nursing leaders on for current problems in health care.

In support of improving patient care, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

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