Supporting paper on how to apply Normalisation Process Theory (NPT). Collaborating for Better Care Partnership Master Class 23rd October 2014

1. Collaborating for Better Care Partnership
How to use the NPT toolkit
The NPT toolkit is here to help you think through implementation and integration problems in health care.
Whether you're involved in technological innovations, testing complex interventions, or implementing and
evaluating any new way of thinking, working, or organising change in healthcare.
You can use it at any stage: from initially thinking through an idea, to understanding outcomes.
There are 3 steps to using the NPT toolkit:
Working the bars
We've simplified the constructs of Normalisation Process Theory and created sixteen items. These
represent the core variables of the theory. You can use these items to think through your implementation
problem. Each item has three distinct features:
 A statement that defines the NPT variable.
 A sliding bar that allows you to input information about that variable.
 An explanation, that gives more detail about what the statement means.
The default position for each bar is at the centre. This is not neutral. With your cursor move the bar to the
right, for a positive response to the Item, and to the left for a negative response. This does not give you a
numerical score - instead it gives a subjective assessment.
Creating a summary
When you have reached Item 16, you will see a label telling you to 'view results'. These are presented to
you as a set of graphs. You can save them to your own computer (press the 'download pdf' button) and
then print them out. The summary is a private document, only you will see it.
Interpreting the report
The graphs show the strength that you have assigned to each variable. Positive responses extend further
out from the centre than negative ones. Look for areas where the responses are closer to the centre. These
may tell you that participants cannot make sense, or have not signed up to the innovation. Perhaps they
cannot enact it in a way that works for them, or cannot assess its effects and their value. If the responses
are positive, the opposite may be true - but read our health warning below!
Each report consists of a primary graph that represents all 16 Items, and four graphs that describe your
responses to statements, or items that relate to each of the theory's four constructs. These give a clearer
picture of each specific area of work that leads to the embedding of an innovation or complex intervention.
To properly interpret this information you need to read the sections of this website that tell you what NPT
is and how it works - and where NPT constructs are explained and examples are provided for each variable.
Health Warning
This is not a scientific instrument. The bars do not provide objective scores for each variable. Use them as
heuristic tools to think through an implementation or integration process. Instruments to measure these
variables need to be constructed using a different set of techniques - see section on Survey Research.
We do not collect the data you input to this tool. Only you have access to it
http://www.normalizationprocess.org/npt-toolkit/how-to-use-the-npt-toolkit.aspx
Taken from www.normalizationprocess.org