The 3 Wishes Project was pioneered in an academic medical center's intensive care unit (ICU) to promote compassionate end-of-life care by eliciting and fulfilling the wishes of dying patients or their families. This study evaluates the implementation and value of this project in various ICUs and medical centers.
Use this study to:
- Ask yourself whether you ask dying patients or their families about their wishes and hopes. What sort of answers have you heard?
- Review what the 3 Wishes Project entailed. Look at Table 1 to see examples of the wishes involved in this study. Use the visual abstract to help you understand the study.
- Watch the 7-minute author insight video.
- Do you think an initiative to elicit and fulfill wishes like this one could be implemented at your center? Would you like to try? Does it have to be in the ICU only?
- How could you start? Is an organized project required, or could you try this one patient at a time?
- With whom could you speak with to discuss implementing 3 Wishes at your center? What other team members should be involved in planning? Read the paper to be sure you know how much (or how little) was required in terms of commitment and investment by the centers involved in this study.
Annals of Internal Medicine is the premier internal medicine academic journal published by the American College of Physicians (ACP). It is one of the most widely cited and influential specialty medical journals in the world.
Back to the February 2020 issue of ACP IMpact