Paper Title
Validation Study of Nursing Students� Satisfaction and Learning Outcomes in Microbiology Practicals

Abstract
Background: Nursing education involves the theoretical, practical and social training acquired by students in preparation for their role as nursing care professionals. At King Abdulaziz University in the college of nursing, four practicals were introduced to the microbiology course starting from the academic year 2012-2013.This paper describes the development of the questionnaire used for assessing the nursing students' satisfaction and outcomes after implementing each of the four practical sessions. Methods: A questionnaire was designed to include two factors. First factor (items 1-8) was constant in the four labs, to measure students' perception of laboratory teaching and learning environment. The second factor (items 9-13) was variable according to the intended learning outcomes for each lab with one open question (item 14). Several statistical tests were conducted including mean, S.D., Spearman�s correlation, Cronbach's alpha). Results: The Cronbach's Alpha for the 13 items was 0.772, suggesting that the items have relatively good internal consistency. A Spearman correlation coefficient shows that correlation was very highly significant at 0.001. The descriptive statistics of the factors and whole questionnaire showed that factor 2 had the smallest dispersion which indicated that students responses were not far from each other. Factor 1 had the highest mean (4.47 agree) which indicated students satisfaction. Conclusion: Satisfaction with curriculum cannot promise enhanced learning outcomes. It plays an important role in improving student learning outcomes, but it should be perceived as a factor of many other factors that affects student�s performance. Index Terms- Validity, Microbiology Practicals, Students� satisfaction, Nursing.