In this study of student nurses at Duke University, Professor Simpson challenges earlier research by demonstrating that a professional school does socialise its students. In addition, by constructing a model that brings together competing theories of socialisation, she finds that socialisation is not necessarily cumulative or unidirectional. Conceptualisations that focus on individual students, such as those emphasising role modelling, student values or peer relations, obscure the most significant conditions and processes. The program of a school is the fundamental structure of occupational socialisation and this structure, not its students, should be blamed for failures and praised for success.