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

Abstract

Central in nurse education curricula stands the preparation of future nurses to work in quickly evolving, dynamic, clinical wards. Learning in the flow of work plays a pivotal role in initial nurse education, but also during continuous professional development. To drive their ongoing development, nurses need competency in self-regulation of learning (SRL). Despite the importance of SRL in the clinical workplace for all (future) healthcare professionals, research on self-regulated workplace learning (SRwpL) of nurses and future nurses in clinical wards is underdeveloped. This study aims to enhance the conceptual understanding of SRwpL strategies and practices in clinical nursing wards and to offer insights for designing effective educational interventions supporting the facilitation and development of (future) nurses' SRwpL in the clinical ward. A multi-actor, multi-method perspective was adopted to qualitatively investigate SRwpL strategies nurses engaged in. Nurses were observed and interviewed, but also professionals responsible for ongoing development in clinical wards (the ward's head nurses and learning counselors) were interviewed. The data collection took place before the COVID pandemic. Results reveal self-regulatory strategies conditional for SRwpL in addition to strategies initiating, progressing, and evaluating the learning process. Head nurses and learning counselors report a lack of these conditional strategies and little variation, and sporadic engagement in all other self-regulatory strategies. To enhance (future) nurses' SRwpL, we suggest that clinical supervisors from educational institutions could exert a lasting influence by not only educating student nurses, but also fostering further professional development of counselors and head nurses to scaffold the SRwpL processes of future nurses in clinical wards.