The nurse's role and nursing education have changed remarkably. Nursing education has moved from a hospital based apprenticeship structure to the introduction of academic ventures. There has been a transition in building up nursing as a scholastic profession. It is supported by an exclusive collection of information. The nursing profession has experienced more prominent changes, with nurses expected to be self-governing professionals and nursingoriented nursing led administration (Taylor et al., 2015). The job is demanding, complex, dynamic, unusual and receptive. It requires commitment from their part to provide human services.

Inquiry (Francis, 2013) highlights the 'compassion' and 'caring' parts of nursing and the attitude towards nursing jobs. But the third 'C', 'competence', recognizes the ability and specialized learning required to convey compelling consideration and treatment (NHS England, 2012). The lack of support for rationale based learning, in any case, supports the reservations set forward (Wynne et al., 1997) almost two decades back. These authors struggled to make it known that negligence of the biological and physical sciences has stimulated an imbalance in nursing knowledge which hinders nurses' capacity to practice effectively. The increased need in competence for the nursing job in the 21st century strengthens the idea of preregistration instruction to be based on firm logical science to accomplish the degrees of expected ability (Woodward, 1997). There is usually no prerequisite for the nursing students to prove their past competency in the biological sciences to meet the enrollment criteria (Taylor et al., 2015). Therefore, deficiency in the basic knowledge is observed to be an issue for the students who are introduced to basic scientific terminology and ideas for the first time. Even though numerous analysis have demonstrated that students' knowledge of biosciences is a major part of nursing but its significance to nursing may not be adequately disclosed to them (Jordan et al., 1999; Thornton, 1997).

In an investigation by Craft et al. (2013), 82% (n=22) of the enlisted nurses agreed that if bioscience teachers had related the content more to clinical practice, it would have helped them to have sound knowledge of the subject. The bioscience substance of the undergraduate instructive program ought to be consolidated with nursing practice. (Christensen et al., 2015). Bioscience teachers in nursing courses are typically not selected for their knowledge of the content application to nursing, rather they are hired for their science abilities (Clifton & McKillup, 2016; Craft et al., 2013).

Biosciences are the foundation of nursing education since insight and basic reasoning practiced in such courses like organic chemistry, microbiology, pathophysiology, life structures and physiology promote capable nursing practice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore specifically the contribution of a microbiology course taught to the nurses in the baccalaureate program. Besides other science courses, this course is taught in a Bsc (N) degree program because it is one of the most important basic science course in nursing. The accomplishment of basic microbiology course is a solid indicator of how students would perform in further nursing courses and in the clinical area. Microbiology is a highly significant course for nurses to study because it helps a nurse to prevent transmission of microorganisms from one patient to another. Nurses can prevent germ transfer to oneself, and also check germ transfer from inanimate objects. A nurse should learn to appreciate the differences between pathogenic microorganisms and nonpathogenic microorganisms that play important roles in the environment. The nursing student should even learn how the immune system could resist less pathogenic microbes and the importance of vaccines to resist more pathogenic varieties.

Students should give special attention to microbiology classes in the nursing school. The main focus of the microbiology course in nursing is of great importance.

In the nursing curriculum, bioscience in undergraduate nursing programs typically includes biochemistry, anatomy, physiology, microbiology, chemistry, physics and pharmacology. The literature review explains that nursing education must contain sufficient content for nurses to understand the importance of microbiology in order to be able to perform certain roles within clinical nursing practice. The literature explains this curriculum content could be applied to such practices as blood transfusion, administering antibiotics, helping in transporting and delivering the specimens, understanding the patient's immunological status and developing health care plans. According to the literature on microbiology education in nursing practice (Durrant et al., 2017), there is clear evidence that nursing professionals view a broad range of medical microbiology topics as strongly relevant to nursing practice. Several studies have attempted to identify learning deficits and assess their potential impact on patient care (Buffer et al., 2012; Cox et al., 2014; Wu et al., 2009) These studies suggest that a particular concern among nurses and nurse educators is the nurses' lack of comfort in correlating patient's symptoms with the underlying pathophysiology and on deciding appropriate care interventions based on that information. Such discomfort can lead to inaction or incorrect actions, either of which may be detrimental to patient care. At least some of the nurses' discomfort may result from inadequate coverage of certain topics or knowledge applications in a foundational microbiology course (or from nurses not taking such a course in the first place). Without a solid foundation in microbiology, nurses may have knowledge shortfalls in related areas such as infection control, pathophysiology, antimicrobial resistance, critical values and patient management. Over the last few years, the nurse educators have realized the need for having a strong science background so that their students can function safely and to improve the quality of nursing for patient's better health status. In particular, having a strong hold on human anatomy and physiology in preparatory nursing education ensures a foundation in the sciences that facilitate safe and effective nursing assessment at the point-of-care (McVicar et al., 2014) Nurses are the ones who are involved with the patients most of the time to provide nursing care. Nurses must have adequate knowledge and training in microbiology to perform numerous jobs inside clinical nursing practice, for example, administering antibiotics, collecting clinical samples from patients, preparing samples for transport and delivery, instructing patients and families, imparting results to the health care team and making care to plan subject outcomes of microbiology studies and patient immunological status (Durrant et al., 2017). The study of microbiology is believed to be relevant by most of the clinical nurses (Smales, 2010). Researches have been conducted which explored that the nurses are utilizing the microbiology knowledge in their clinical practices such as in the area of infection control, hospital-acquired infections, disease transmission and control for microorganisms. In the community settings, nurses utilize microbiology knowledge in the collection and handling of specimens, identifying medically important microorganisms, and in fighting infection in the immune-compromised host.

The high relevance of microbiology has been assigned by nurses who work in infection control, hospital-acquired infections, and disease transmission inpatient care (Durrant et al., 2017).

The hands of healthcare workers are an important factor in transmitting pathogens to patients or surfaces of the environment. However, one systematic review of the practice of hand hygiene observed that health care employees continue to have difficulty in compliance with hand hygiene processes. (Akanji et al., 2017) Comprehending the role, kinds and suitable use of PPE is crucial for nurses. Effective use of PPE prevents the spread of transmissible pathogens by nurses, patients and health care facilities (Brown, 2019).

A good nurse must have a sound knowledge of basic microbiology in order to integrate this knowledge in clinical practice. The nurse must use infection control practices in the clinical area, especially in the emergency and critical care areas (Benner & Sutphen, 2007; Tanner, 2006) Another important point for microbiology course is that it provides information regarding prevention of transmission of infectious agents in healthcare facilities (Siegel et al., 2007). In the case of new nursing students, the situation is different. A study conducted in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania suggests that before the clinical exposure, microbiology course should be offered to the nursing students' so that it could help the students prevent exposure to various infections. One of the studies speaks about the knowledge and practice gap in the clinical area of new graduates. The outcomes of the study shows that new nursing alumni's infection control and microbiology learning is ordinarily observed to be lower and their capacity to apply microbiological understanding into their nursing practice is limited. (Scully, 2011) Another study conducted by Scully defined the theory and practice gap as 'the isolating of theoretical information from the practical component in nursing' (Cooper, 2007; Scully, 2011, p.97).

Most available studies indicate that the word antibiotic resistance is familiar to health science students (Sakeena et al., 2018).

Nurses are the primary communication connection for healthcare education to the hospitalized patients, and they play a key role in stopping the development and spreading antibiotic-resistant bacteria through antibiotic stewardship programs and infection control. One research study points out that the term antibiotic resistance revealed that information was not accurately understood even though it had been heard by a large percentage of participant nurses (Jayaweerasingham et al., 2019).

Aseptic technique is the use of techniques and procedures such as hand hygiene, non-touch techniques, appropriate aseptic areas, sterilized machinery and cleaning of significant areas to minimize the disease-causing pathogens. Yet researches show that nurses fail to apply these aseptic techniques, and there is an absence of understanding of the basic principles by nurses (Tambe et al., 2019).

Researches show that during clinical training, students may have been contaminated with bacteria. Therefore, some education should be provided to prevent nosocomial infections and to protect the students from associated risks, such as using gloves and hand washing with distinctive options when necessary (Akpınar et al., 2009).

One study concluded that nursing students lack the knowledge about the infection control which may lead them to exposure to infectious organisms. There should be some educational strategies to enrich their ability to control this exposure effectively (Wu et al., 2009).

One study suggested that the technique of how to maintain disinfection of hands is present in the nursing curriculum but less consideration is paid to hand cleanliness, one of the huge sources of nosocomial infection. The study emphasized that more attention is required for hand hygiene in nursing education program to prevent hospital acquired infection (Kelcíkova et al., 2012). Therefore, before the clinical experience/practicum, a microbiology course should be promoted (Goetz et al., 1992).

For a secure and efficient nursing practice, a powerful foundation in the biological sciences (biosciences) is crucial. Such understanding is critical to the development of students’ clinical skills in undergraduate nursing programs. Successfully building of a solid base for science is essential to make the connection between theory and practice.

Ensuring that nursing students are taught the correct depth and scope of science material, as well as incorporating it with educationally efficient approaches throughout nursing curricula, is essential. In this review of literature, we discovered a powerful connection between clinical nursing practice and the courses of microbiology in the nursing curriculum. In order to protect patients, peers and the general public from infection through transmission, a thorough understanding of infection prevention and control is crucial for the nurses. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is a significant element of the prevention and control of infections for all health care workers and nurses. The choice of suitable PPE before any clinical intervention is based on the nature of the interaction, the probable mode or modes of transmission, as well as the knowledge of recognized or potentially infectious agents. A risk assessment of the level of expected exposure to body fluids should be undertaken by the nurse to determine which PPE products are needed. This relies on the job or condition to which the nurse may be subjected to, and the type of body fluids and pathogens.

Nurses should be conscious of the demands of the PPE and should be prepared to carry out suitable risk assessments and use their clinical reasoning while choosing whether to use PPE or not. It is well documented that nursing learners are struggling with biosciences and microbiology.

Typically, at the beginning of nursing education, the emphasis is placed on the growth of psychomotor abilities, which is believed essential to the clinical demands of nursing practice. Nursing learners value the time invested in skill growth prior to clinical exercise.

It is also essential for nurses to be conscious of the danger of exposure to direct or indirect contact with blood or body fluids, the environment and machinery to transmissible pathogens.

Therefore, there should be a powerful alignment between bioscience and nursing curriculum.

The findings in this literature review contributes to the understanding that bioscience in nursing has a beneficial effect on students' learning experience by enhancing their learning motivation and learning capacity.

These results also suggest that the academic nurse is the ideal educator to bridge the gap between the biosciences and nursing practices; therefore the academic nurse needs to have a thorough knowledge of biosciences as well. Ideally there should be a collaboration between the academic nurse and the bio-scientist to enhance student preparation and confidence in the clinical arena. This could be an opportunity to study this collaboration in a future research study.

Lastly, another future study could concentrate on evaluating the competency of newly licensed nurses who were taught extensive bioscience courses compared to those who were traditionally taught bioscience material.