Postcolonial nursing education in Trinidad and Tobago

In this article the impact of the developed nations on basic nursing education in Trinidad and Tobago in the postcolonial period is discussed and analyzed. Subsequent to self-government in 1956, the national government, in its efforts to become independent of its reliance on Great Britain, turned to the United States and Canada for technical and financial aid. Consequently, sources such as the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization, and the Canadian International Development Agency were major avenues for the provision of ideas, concepts, and values in health planning and policy making with primary health care endorsed by the government. Nursing education was thus influenced by these industrialized concepts and values. The impact of socioeconomic and nursing events in the Caribbean region coupled with local initiatives taken by the indigenous leadership to improve nursing education resulted in a program that was an amalgamation of British, North American, and indigenous features.