Nursing is faced with a serious problem of declining membership in the professional association, the American Nurses' Association. The intent of this study was to explore relationships among models of influence, association experiences, attitudes toward the American Nurses' Association, attitudes toward professionalism, and first-year baccalaureate nurse graduates joining the American Nurses' Association. Social evaluation theories provided a framework for this study.

The subjects were 163 baccalaureate nurses from programs in three northeastern states. A mailed questionnaire consisted of four sections: perceptions of models of influence; opinions concerning the American Nurses' Association; a measure of professionalism (Hall's Professional Inventory Scale); and demographic data, including membership status and curriculum content.

Descriptive statistics summarized demographic data and responses from the perception scale. Factor analysis was applied to data from the ANA and Hall's scales. Correlations among factors in both scales described relations among sets of scale scores. T-tests determined significant differences between the scales and curriculum content and membership status.

Analysis of the data showed that graduates identified deans and faculty as more favorably disposed toward the ANA as compared to supervisors, head nurses, and peers. Faculty were identified more often as influencing subjects to join the ANA. Respondents saw the ANA as valuable for the profession, representing nurses, and promoting standards but they generally did not hold membership. Professonalism content in the curriculum had no relationship to scores on either of the two scales or to ANA membership. Having had ANA content was positively related to seeing the ANA as promoter of human rights and as a voice for nursing. There were significant differences between ANA members and non-members and use of the professional organization as a major referent and seeing the ANA as an accreditor.

It was concluded that faculty and deans were positive models of influence for new graduates regarding the association but did not affect membership for those graduates. Further study of curriculum content and professional role model behavior in the work setting is urgently needed.