Granting terminally-ill intensive care patients and their families simple wishes, such as tasting a favorite meal or using a blanket from home, helps families cope with the end-of-life situation, a small US study suggests.

The findings come from research into a scheme called the ‘3 Wishes Project’ that aims to create meaningful patient and family-centered memories as part of compassionate end-of-life care.

The study looked at how feasible it would be to implement the program at multiple facilities, how much families and clinicians appreciated the experiences, and how much it might cost to grant wishes to dying patients and their families on a regular basis.

The researchers interviewed families and caregivers of 730 terminally ill patients about their experiences of the project at four hospital ICUs.