Background: The education of preceptors, who support novice nurses in adapting to the workplace and developing their practical skills, is an important topic. Lack of preceptor preparation is an issue. Purpose: Investigate the specific content of preceptors’ metacognition in novice nurse instruction. Methods: A qualitative descriptive design involving semi-structured interviews with 15 preceptors at four hospitals in Japan. Preceptors were asked to explain their own behaviors, thoughts, and feelings in a typical instructional episode. A verbatim transcription was analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Results: Three categories were identified from the preceptors’ responses: Monitoring of Instruction, Regulation of Instruction, and Self-Assessment. All preceptors described using metacognition. Conclusions: Metacognition is useful for improving preceptors’ instructional approaches and for their own development. In order to ensure good instruction of novice nurses, preceptors should consider themselves and their instruction abilities objectively before, during, and after the instruction process, and adapt to the situation. These findings provide important insights for preceptor development programs internationally.
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