The individuals involved in the IPCP replication project described
feeling both highly energized by their ideals and very much overwhelmed
by the administrative realities of the organization. They noted
that replicating this model forced them to acquire new non-clinical
skills, such as an understanding of the administrative perspective and
the importance of social capital in an undertaking like this one and that
this context of growth has furthered their appreciation of what these
types of innovations require from all players. Further, all IPCP participants
appear to have gradually developed the recognition that dissemination
of this type of innovation requires changing not only their
thoughts and behaviors but those of others as well.
Replication site staff describe providing care through the IPCP program
as demanding but rewarding, involving both extreme frustration
and deep satisfaction. They discuss the process of changing practice itself
as a challenging one and describe many of their struggles and solutions
in relation to their personal evolution and growth around that
process. Both replication teams believe that participation in the palliative
care program has been valuable to them as practitioners and professionals
as well as to the patients for whom they have provided care. One
care team member comments on this by saying “what we’re doing is
amazing. You can hear it in the patients’ voices, you can see it in the individual
outcomes, and we could do it even better. It’s some of the most
wonderful and the most painful work all of us have ever done.”