The first of a two-volume report on the findings of the Longitudinal Career Pattern Study of Graduates of the University of Tennessee College of Nursing (UTCN) 1954-1974 is presented. Volume I includes a description of the study, the characteristics of the target population and participants, the identification of the geographic regions from which participants came to attend the program, and those aspects of the participants' activities after graduation that relate to post-baccalaureate education and employment, as well as the participants' evaluation of their preparation for practice. After an introductory overview of the curriculum, characteristics of participants and a summary of findings, separate chapters are presented on: post-baccalaureate education, examining degrees earned; employment, focusing on rate of employment; employees, describing the type of work participants were hired to do; non-employment, examining the reasons for non-employment; respondents' evaluation of the UTCN program, reporting on achievement of educational goals; and continuous nursing careers, reporting on professional continuing education. One general impression from the findings was that hospitals could reasonably count on UTCN graduates as staff nurses in the traditional medical, surgical, general and pediatric fields of care for four years out of the employee's work span. For the remaining years of the work span of the respondents who stayed in nursing employment, hospitals could count on (1) a small number remaining in the traditional clinical fields and the traditional positions in the nursing service hierarchy, and (2) a small number remaining in their employ but moving into more specialized fields of practice and into positions with more specific functionally and clinically oriented titles. There was little evidence of respondents moving up in the administrative hierarchy in nursing service positions. Charts, tables, and the form letters and questionnaires used in the survey are appended. (LC)