Enhancing Metacognition Through the Reflective Use of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies

BACKGROUND: An important concern of nursing practice and education is the difficulty new graduates experience while making the transition from graduate nurse to practicing nurse. METHOD: Using a comparative descriptive design, self-regulated learning strategies were used to enhance metacognitive critical thinking abilities as 32 new graduate nurses reflected during 8-week preceptorship programs. RESULTS: Verbal protocol analysis revealed the majority of noun referents as metacognitive with thinking nouns increasing in rank from Week 1 to Week 8, present tense verbs were used most frequently with lower-level thinking phrases. Common themes in the narrative were knowledge observation, thinking strategies, judgments of self-improvement, judgments of competence, judgments of resources, self-reactions, and self-correction strategies. CONCLUSIONS: New graduate nurses have unique circumstances to overcome in making a transition to the workplace, and having self-regulatory skills would enable this process. The data suggest nursing education and practice consider self-regulated learning prompts with new graduates to promote thinking strategies.