Families’ and Nurses’ Responses to the “One Question Question”: Reflections for Clinical Practice, Education, and Research in Family Nursing

Abstract

The “One Question Question,” first coined by Dr. Lorraine M. Wright in 1989, is an interventive question designed to elicit family members’ most pressing needs or concerns within the context of a therapeutic conversation. In this article, two clinical projects analyzed the responses to this unique interventive question. The first project analyzed the responses of 192 family members experiencing illness who were asked the question in the context of a therapeutic conversation; families focused on their need to deal with the impact of the illness on the family. The second project examined responses of 297 nurses who were asked the question prior to a 1-week Family Systems Nursing training program; nurses wanted to know how to deal with conflictual relationships between families and health care professionals and how to offer families time-efficient interventions. The responses from both groups, which were markedly different, triggered reflections about teaching, research, and practice in family nursing.