Just over 20 years ago, an attempt was made to determine to what extent schools of nursing provide recruitment information for potential candidates to nursing. The recruitment literature and application forms of 40 general hospitals and 20 psychiatric hospitals were analysed. A follow-up investigation was carried out 10 years later, in 1980, which sought to establish to what extent the recruitment process, in terms of information-provision and requisition, for potential nursing candidates had changed. The study was also expanded to include an analysis of the recruitment literature and application forms of 20 mental handicap hospitals. The conclusions from the initial study and the 1980 follow-up, together with a second follow-up study completed in 1990, are outlined here and in Part 2 next month, looking at the extent to which schools of nursing have changed their initial recruitment processes over the past 20 years.