The Wish Project
What is “The Wish Project”?
Despite many advancements in medicine, all patients and their care teams must face death as an eventual reality. This is an aspect of medicine that is tough for all those involved, including family, friends, providers, staff, and the patient. The Wish Project seeks to provide care even after accepting that death is imminent. We grant wishes to celebrate our patient's lives and passions. This can ease grief for families by providing a means for them to support their loved ones, and can allow staff to provide something for their patients even when they are unable to do so medically. We hope that by granting wishes to those who have little time left with us, it will leave a lasting and memorable impact on all those involved.
Our History
A project called the “3 Wishes” started in January 2013 at the St. Joseph Healthcare facility in Ontario, Canada. An intensive care unit (ICU) physician, Dr. Deborah Cook, designed a project to carry out three final wishes for patients at the end of their life. Dr. Cook and her team found that small, low cost, low risk acts were able to ease the grieving process for patients, families, and hospital staff.
We were inspired by her work and with the support of the Stanford ValleyCare hospitalist group, ValleyCare hospital staff, dedicated volunteers, and a gift from the ValleyCare Charitable Foundation, we launched our program in June 2018.
Minh-Chi Tran, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Wish Project Director
Photo credit: Steve Fisch
Betts Cravotto
Lead Patient Interaction Volunteer
Jeanette Conley
Program Coordinator
Below is a gallery of some of our wishes. Due to privacy issues we are unable to post many of our services.
A delicious steak cooked rare and baked potato dinner was provided by Valley Catering services, thank you Joseph and Donna Rodrigues for this beautiful meal
Romelia Solis and her family were able to enjoy a live Mariachi band performance outside Stanford Health Care - ValleyCare
Personalized Christmas ornaments were mailed to a patient's children as a surprise gift
A "framed heartbeat" decorated in a way that reflects what a person cared about as a memento for family and friends
When all you want is some root beer, we make sure you get to try all the best ones
A family arranges a get together to receive copies of their father's "framed heartbeat"
Have You Been Affected By Our Project?
Please tell us about your experience with our surveys below. We read every survey evaluation and use your thoughts to improve our program on a regular basis. Your survey answers may help us obtain and secure future funding through grants and donations.
Click me: The Wish Project Survey for Family and Friends
Click me: The Wish Project Survey for ValleyCare Staff
Please contact us with your thoughts and comments, we would love to hear from you
Interested in becoming a volunteer? Please send us a message and we will be in touch!
Please note that persons who are not current staff of Stanford Health Care - ValleyCare will need to go through the process of becoming a general volunteer of the hospital which includes an application and orientation. You will not be required to fulfill the minimum hours of a general volunteer. Learn more about that process here.
The cost of our average wish is $30, so even small donations can help us make strong impacts on our patients at the end of life. Our program is completely volunteer based; no staff or volunteer financially benefits from any donation we receive. We proudly promise all donations are used to directly benefit our patients.