Nurses' self-regulated learning in clinical wards: Important insights for nurse educators from a multi-method...

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Workplace Learning
• Professional Development

Background:

• Nurses require self-regulation of learning (SRL) for dynamic clinical environments.
• Research on self-regulated workplace learning (SRwpL) for nurses is limited.
• SRL is crucial for initial nurse education and continuous professional development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conceptually understand SRwpL strategies in clinical nursing wards.
• To identify effective educational interventions for SRwpL.
• To support the development of SRwpL in future and current nurses.

Main Methods:

• A multi-actor, multi-method qualitative approach was used.
• Nurses were observed and interviewed.
• Head nurses and learning counselors were interviewed.

Main Results:

• Identified strategies for initiating, progressing, and evaluating SRwpL.
• Revealed a lack of conditional SRwpL strategies among nurses.
• Head nurses and learning counselors reported limited engagement in SRwpL strategies.

Conclusions:

• Clinical supervisors can enhance SRwpL by training head nurses and counselors.
• Fostering professional development of supervisors is key to scaffolding SRwpL.
• Targeted interventions are needed to improve nurses' SRwpL in clinical settings.