Abstract
Clinical nurses develop learning behaviors daily to improve their nursing practice ability. This study clarified key
learning behaviors that contribute to improving practical nursing competence. Anonymous paper-based openended questionnaires were distributed to 522 nurses. Of the 253 respondents, 227 nurses with more than 5 years
of clinical experience provided valid responses, which were extracted and analyzed using text mining. The most
frequently cited nouns were “oneself,” “training,” “senior nurses,” “practice,” “study session,” “experience,” and
“conference.” Further, the most frequently cited verbs were “act,” “reflect,” “know,” “ask,” and “check.” Using
principal component analysis and cluster analysis, these data were classified into the following categories: “learning
through patient-centered nursing care practice,” “learning through acts of examining and asking,” “learning through
utilizing knowledge, techniques, and communication skills,” “actively advancing one’s knowledge,” “learning in
the workplace environment created by the nurse manager and senior nurses,” and “learning through failure.” Active
behaviors exhibited during practice contributed to improving practical nursing competence. Particularly, “learning
through acts of examining and asking” emerged as the most important category contributing to such improvement.
