The development of nursing education: Barbados, with a recommendation for an inter-Caribbean curriculum

• Main Author: Ward-Murray, Eudeen Monica
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.1990
• Subjects: Curricula; Curriculum development; Education history; Nursing; Teaching
• ISBN: 9798207382579

The study aimed at documenting the historical development of nursing education in Barbados. Emphasis was placed on the many influences that have impacted on its inception and development. The purpose of the study was to make available resources for the continuing study of nursing education. The methods used were selected interviews as well as data elicited from archives in Barbados, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the Barbados Advocate, the Daily Nation and other weekly newspapers in Barbados. Additionally, in the United States, the Research Institute for the Study of Man, Schomburg Center for the Study of Black Culture, the Mission of Barbados to the United Nations, and the public libraries in Brooklyn and Manhattan were perused. The study began with a brief description of Barbados and a summary of its discovery, as well as the impact of slavery on the system of general and nursing education. Since the Barbados Registered Nurses Association has been influential in all aspects of basic nursing, as well as graduate education; a chapter has been devoted entirely to this organization with reference to the founder of the Association, Miss Eunice Gibson. Highlights of nursing education include the District Nursing Service, Public Health Nursing, as well as the system of reciprocity; and how it affects the Barbadian nurse when she attempts to work in a country other than Barbados. The study digressed with its inclusion of a case study of a nurse in training in 1966. It summarized the typical student nurse's journal from Preliminary Training School (P.T.S.) through graduation and later experiences. The study concludes with recommendations for a change in curriculum that would enable the Caribbean nations to work more closely together. The recommendations proposed that the inter-Caribbean curriculum be constructed around some of the major islands of the Caribbean area; and be a four year program with liberal arts and general nursing courses. Since prior recommendations were made for projects that would involve the Caribbean islands; it is a hope of the researcher that this study will do more than pique the interest of leaders of the Caribbean community.