Communication for Health Profession: A Critique of Williams & Irurita's Article

This article critiques William AM and Irurita VF's article on therapeutic and non-therapeutic interpersonal interactions in nursing from the patient's perspective. It evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the research and its usefulness to nursing students and professionals.

Running Head: COMMUNICATION FOR HEALTH PROFESSION 1
Communication For Health Profession
Author’s Name
Institution
Date

COMMUNICATION FOR HEALTH PROFESSION 2
Summary
This is a critique of an article written by both William AM and Irurita VF in the year
2004 on clinical issues in nursing specifically therapeutic and non-therapeutic interpersonal
interactions from the perspective of the patient. According to the article, the research in this
article was due to the concerns raised by the recovery of the patient which was hindered by the
lack of an understanding between the patient and the physician during hospitalization. The main
purpose of the article is to describe the results gained from the study and describes the
perspective of these patients in the Western Region of Australia and the expected therapeutic
effects of the interpersonal interactions during hospitalization (Williams & Irurita, 2004).
Evaluation
The main strength is that the research on the interpersonal interaction has a great impact
on the interaction between the physician and the patient on a personal level (Williams & Irurita,
(2006). The weakness of this article is that it does not provide enough support to the methods of
identification of the characteristics and desirable traits of interpersonal interaction that are
involved in the facilitation of emotional comfort that is needed to enhance therapeutically
penitential of the interpersonal communication (Williams & Irurita, 2005). The design that was
applied was the grouped theory method. This involved interviewing of forty patients who had
just been hospitalized. Both patients and the nurses were interviewed and relevant information
obtained and documented such as the nursing care plans and notes from the patients. The results
when evaluated showed that emotional comfort from effective interpersonal interaction was one
of the importance of therapeutic state which the patient perceived as a very enhancing step in
their recovery process hence improving the overall outcome of the patient. The various good
characteristics of both therapeutic and non-therapeutic interpersonal interactions enhance the

COMMUNICATION FOR HEALTH PROFESSION 2
development of an effective and efficient communication between the physician and the patient
(San Miguel, Rogan, Kilstoff & Brown, 2006).
Conclusion/Usefulness
In conclusion, the overall the article is useful to all the nursing students. This is because
the nursing students need to increase the skill level through the mastery of interpersonal
interaction hence increasing service delivery to the patients. The article may also be of great
importance to all the other people who decide to undertake any nursing program to help them
develop the communication skill that is needed to be an effective nurse. The research in this
article has helped nurse training institutions to make future training opportunities so as to
produce health professionals who have a wide range of knowledge about the patients through
effective communication.

COMMUNICATION FOR HEALTH PROFESSION 2
References
San Miguel, C., Rogan, F., Kilstoff, K., & Brown, D. (2006). Clinically speaking: A
communication skills program for students from non-English speaking
backgrounds. Nurse Education in Practice, 6(5), 268-274.
Williams, A. M., & Irurita, V. F. (2004). Therapeutic and non‐therapeutic interpersonal
interactions: the patient's perspective. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 13(7), 806-815.
Williams, A. M., & Irurita, V. F. (2005). Enhancing the therapeutic potential of hospital
environments by increasing the personal control and emotional comfort of hospitalized
patients. Applied Nursing Research, 18(1), 22-28.
Williams, A. M., & Irurita, V. F. (2006). Emotional comfort: the patient's perspective of a
therapeutic context. International journal of nursing studies, 43(4), 405-415.