Only about 50 cents more a day per patient for registered nurse care on the daytime shift! To the nurse responsible for nursing service administration at Marshalltown Area Community Hospital that figure meant that her dream could become a reality-her dream of staffing at least one unit on days completely with professional nurses. Only a few more nurses would have to be recruited. She and the nurses responsible for clinical service and for inservice began to plan in the spring. Staffing change began on an experimental unit in July 1970 and since then, the new staffing pattern has existed with no major problems. This hospital is a 150-bed, urban, general hospital, which provides a