Determination of nursing students' self-regulated learning conditions and affecting factors in clinical nursing practice

This study was conducted to determine the self-regulated learning status of nursing students towards clinical nursing practice and the affecting factors. The study, which was conducted as descriptive and correlational, was completed with 764 students in 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades studying in 135 nursing undergraduate programs in Turkey between March and May in the 2019-2020 academic year. "Survey Form" and "Self-Regulated Learning Scale in Clinical Nursing Practice" were used as data collection tools. In the analysis of the data, descriptive analysis, Independent t test and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Tukey's test, Pearson Correlation test, and Multiple Linear Regression analysis were used. The mean score of the Self-Regulated Learning Scale in Clinical Nursing Practice of the students was 63.69±8.33, the mean score of the Motivation subscale was 27.44±4.54, and the mean score of the Learning Strategies subscales was 36.25±4.73. The independent factors that increased the students' total scores on the Self-Regulated Learning Scale in Clinical Nursing Practice were female gender status (β=2.49; t=3.37; p=0.001), academic grade point average (β=1.55; t=2.44; p=0.015), whether or not choosing nursing as a profession willingly (β=2.37; t=3.64; p<0.001), their sense of comfort in clinical practice (β=2.40; t=3.64; p<0.001), ability to transfer theoretical knowledge to practice (β=4.35; t=4.17; p<0.001) and making enough effort to learn in clinical practice (β=4.13; t=6.19; p<0.001). In addition, it was determined that age, type of university, the person from whom information was obtained in clinical practice, ability to work adequately with the educator in clinical practice, and access to the educator in clinical practice did not affect the self-regulated learning scale scores of the students (p>0.05). As a result, it has been found that nursing students use self-regulated learning approaches at a high level in clinical practice environments. Positive learning and practice environments should be created to support students to use self-regulated learning approaches more. In addition, it is recommended that students get supported to increase their academic success and to transfer their theoretical knowledge to clinical practice. Keywords: Clinical education in nursing, nursing students, learning, self-regulated learning