The proceedings of a 1978 conference on planning methodologies for predicting nursing manpower requirements are presented. The speakers were educators, computer analysts, nursing administrators, and health planners. Topics included identification of issues; the planning process under the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974 and understanding linkages; nurse manpower models on the State and national level, and economic modeling; nurse data sources, including cooperative health statistic systems and the National Health Planning Information Center; and the policy implications of the National Panel of Expert Consultants on Nursing report and of State planning efforts. It is concluded that the focus of Government nurse planning policies is shifting to geographic distribution inequities and quality educational preparation; that planning strategies must identify policies, procedures, and people concerned; that units of analysis and data sources are crucial considerations for models, whether demographic, regression, probability or professional standards models; and that nurses must be involved in the planning process. Two bibliographies, one of them annotated, lists of participants and faculty, an agenda, and six figures are provided.