Program goals, designs, and accomplishments in the area of second-step nursing education is the topic of this report of a conference attended by over 125 nursing educators, administrators, and graduate students. (Second-step nursing education encompasses postlicensure upper-division baccalaureate programs expressly designed for registered nurses.) The texts of two guest presentations (on curricular implications of the second-step concept and the uses of research) as well as fourteen reports in five areas are provided. An overview of the National Second Step Project (NSSP) is given in a series of four reports on NSSP development, program goals, concepts for nursing research, and program graduates and careers. Establishment reaction to the second-step model is discussed in reports on the integration of a professional nursing program into a liberal arts college and on four-year program administrator views on articulated curricula. Three program evaluation designs are outlined. Research perspectives on student entry and placement are examined in two reports on tests for incoming student assessment and assessing clinical competence. In the final section on utilizing research on program development, two reports consider individualized instruction and the effect of prior nursing experience on first-term performance in a second-step program. (MN)