This study examined the impact of federal assistance on the number of students entering, continuing in, and graduating from basic nurses training programs. The effects of the Nurse Training Act (NTA) of 1964 were examined through measuring the differences (in admissions, attritions, and graduations) between school years in which NTA funding was received and school years in which funding was not received. Statistical techniques were used to control for differences across schools and years in the size of the available pool of high school graduates and other external factors that might affect admissions, attritions, and graduations. NTA funding was found to have had a significant impact. At least 47,000 additional students entered basic nurses training programs between 1969 and 1979 as a result of federal assistance, and 70 percent or more of these additional students were expected to join the professional nursing work force. (KC)