We compared the nursing and medical activities and the opinions of nurses employed by area health authorities and nurses employed by general practitioners by interviewing a random sample of 153 nurses in 113 practices, situated in four rural and five urban area health authorities in England. The availability of a treatment room profoundly affected the work of both kinds of nurse and there were differences between them in the balance between ;caring' and ;technical' activities which may be largely attributed to the circumstances of their employment. However, their occupational histories and choices of employer appear to reflect both differences in their training and differences in their values about career and marriage.