This article presents an examination of 17 empirical studies of the in-service training of psychiatric and mental handicap nurses in behaviour therapy. Particular attention is given to subject characteristics, training methods, course content and evaluation. It is concluded that the integrity of both independent and dependent variables in this literature is suspect, and that it may therefore be premature to consider abandoning nurse training as a vehicle of institutional change. In contrast, what is needed are more systematic investigations, especially those which relate training interventions to institutional constraints, since both variables appear to be necessary conditions for successful innovations in patient care.