The development of nursing education in the English-speaking Caribbean Islands

During the past several hundred years, historians have elaborated on nursing care practices and the teaching modalities that were implemented to meet the exigencies of the times. These writings have described primitive eras, scientific trends, technological developments and research discoveries, and they have concentrated on the nursing developments in Europe, Asia, and North America. In the case of the Caribbean area, there is very little literature regarding the developments of nursing and the teaching of nurses; the fragmented information that is available, however, seems to convey a long adaptive process from Arawak existence to the current modern nursing educational system.

The primary objective of this study was to identify the various factors, processes and people that influenced the adaptive growth and the progressive change from Arawak spiritualistic rites and rituals in the care of the sick and in the education of nurses, to the modern scientific approach currently used in the Caribbean area, which is comparable to more developed countries. Besides the adaptation over time, the study looked for new trends in nursing education in the Caribbean area and identified the projections of nursing educators for the future and the contributions that Caribbean trained nurses are currently making to the international arena.