Baptist Health Floyd's 'Three Wishes' project provides comfort during end-of-life process

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Baptist Health Floyd patients and families facing end-of-life decisions now have extra support through the hospital's "Three Wishes" project.

Baptist Health Floyd launched the Three Wishes Project a few months ago as a way to ease the burden faced by patients and their families who are nearing the end of their life. The program grants small, meaningful wishes to patients and their families, according to a news release.

Baptist Health Floyd ICU RN Makenzie Stiffler, who leads the program, said "it is a way to humanize the death and dying process in ICU (Intensive Care Unit)."

Stiffler said patients hooked up to ventilators and other medical equipment "go through a lot," but every patient is different.

"The Three Wishes Project "is a way to help families heal," Stiffler said in a news release Monday. "Prior to this we did not have any standardized process. It is not only healing for the families, but also the nurses."

Baptist Health Floyd Three Wishes project — Pictured: Phil Love, ICU Nurse Practitioner, Makenzie Stiffler, RN, and Dr. Troy Rivera, who recently launched the Three Wishes Program at Baptist Health Floyd in New Albany, Ind. (Baptist Health Floyd)

In addition to trying to grant a final wish for a dying patient, the staff keeps a cart stocked with refreshments parked outside the room of the patient. There's also a blue butterfly placed outside the door to let staff the patient is in comfort care, and the family may need more quiet time.

Staff members also decorate the room with family pictures and encourage prayers or special poems to be read — anything that can help the family through the process. Additionally, a keepsake vial with the patient's EKG and heart rhythm strip is also given to the family, along with finger and handprints.

"A lot of times you really get to know the families," Stiffler said. "This project helps nurses ... we may not have been able to save that patient, but we helped the family heal just a little. It has been very powerful. I have had nurses come up to me since we started this and say, 'I was able to find my why again.'"

The nursing staff also send sympathy cards to family members after a patient's death.

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