Relation Between Career Development and Metacognition Among New Graduate Nurses: A Cross-Sectional Study

The turnover problem is a serious issue closely related to the shortage of nursing personnel. Therefore, investigating the factors that contribute to nurse turnover is critical.

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that organizational commitment is a variable that predicts nurse turnover and is influenced by three factors: metacognition, career maturity, and identity in the nursing profession.

This study employed a cross-sectional design. The participants were 324 new nurses working at hospitals with more than 120 beds and multiple departments in the Kyushu region of Japan. Participants completed self-report questionnaires including their personal characteristics, metacognition, nursing professional identity, career maturity, and organizational commitment. Path analysis was used to test a mediating model of nurses' organizational commitment to professional identity, career maturation, and metacognition.

A total of 102 valid responses were obtained for the final analysis. Overall, the hypothesized model in this study explained 45% of the variance in career maturation and 8% of the variance in organizational commitment. Metacognition had a direct impact on occupational identity (β = .38, p < .05) and career maturity (β = .27, p < .05) in nurses. Metacognition was also found to influence career maturity (β = .087, p < .001) via occupational identity and indirectly to organizational commitment.

To prevent nurses from leaving the profession, career maturation should be promoted in basic nursing education through education that enhances metacognition and supports the ongoing formation of professional identity. Supporting flexible work choices based on personal, social, and professional values and beliefs, and in accordance with life stages is necessary. The results of this study can be used as basic data for the construction of career support education programs for nursing students.