Factors influencing nursing students’ satisfaction with their learning journey: Empirical research

• What is currently known about this topic. • Information about nursing students’ satisfaction is lacking. • What the paper adds to the existing knowledge. • We identify five factors that contribute to students’ satisfaction. • How the information in your manuscript can be applied to practice. • Addressing factors will add to students’ and teachers’ awareness. This study aimed to identify elements of pre-registration nursing degree students’ education experience that contribute to satisfaction with their overall learning journey. N = 353 undergraduate students in four Australian states completed a cross-sectional survey using a validated tool. Descriptive statistics revealed a significant reduction in total scale scores with course advancement. A principal component analysis identified five factors that contribute to students’ satisfaction: “Service Delivery”; “Behavioral Intention”; “Perceived Value”; “University Image” and “Administrative Support.” Together, these factors account for 70.4% of the variance among survey items, thus capturing students’ satisfaction with their higher education learning experience. A student’s behavioral intention to voice positive word of mouth comments about the university provides the strongest explanation (54.1%) of total variance within the data. Understanding and addressing these factors is crucial to optimize nursing students’ learning experience. The Higher Education Service Quality (HESQUAL) for Nursing is a validated survey tool with the potential to deepen understanding of nursing student satisfaction with the learning journey.