A study examined institutional influences on the instructional planning decisions of nurse-academics presenting basic nursing curricula in colleges of advanced education (CAEs) in New South Wales. Data were collected from the following sources: survey of 86 selected nurse-academics from 12 of New South Wales' 15 tertiary institutions running basic nursing courses; interviews with 14 nurse academics lecturing at 4 colleges that were selected as being representative of New South Wales' CAEs; and observations of 54 hours of classroom instruction delivered by the lecturers interviewed. Of the 86 nurses surveyed, 66 (77%) completed questionnaires. Cross-tabulations and t-tests were used to determine the results' significance and identify trends in the data. Factors related to time, money, and workload and physical characteristics of the teaching environment proved the most constraining influences on nurse-academics' instructional planning decisions. The following factors were determined to be the strongest facilitators: department head's philosophies of education and nursing and management style; lecturers' areas of special expertise; and philosophy of the college. It was recommended that nursing education department heads develop mechanisms for nurse-academics to maintain their clinical experience and find ways to reduce nurse-academics' workloads. Contains 15 tables, 4 figures, and 34 references. The questionnaire is appended. (MN)