When examined at a one-day institute on their attitudes toward innovative changes in nursing practice, specifically in intensive coronary care units, practicing nurses and nursing students responded differently according to their job status. The 118 subjects were classified into five hierarchical gourps: nursing directors, instructors, head nurses, staff nurses, nursing students. Higher ranking nurses tended to believe nurses expected negative results from technologic change, while staff nurses and nursing students, on the other hand, considered nurses were receptive to change.