TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1

INTRODUCTION 2

HISTORY AND PROFESSION OF NURSING

The Role of Nursing in Jamaica ………………………………………. 3-5

The Early Origin………………………………………………………. 6-7

The Early Christian Era……………………………………………….. 8

The History of K.P.H…………………………………………………. 9-11

300 Years of Medicine in Jamaica……………………………………. 12

The Dawn of Professional Nursing

 Mary Jane Seacole…………………………………………….. 13-14

 Florence Nightingale………………………………………….. 15
 Edith Cavell……………………………………………………. 16-17
 The Notorious Mrs. Rayon…………………………………….. 18
 Couba Cornwallis……………………………………………… 19
 Edith Allwood - Anderson…………………………………….. 20

The Role of Nursing in the Past ……………………………………... 21

Nursing During the Middle Age……………………………………... 22

Synopsis of Historical Highlights in Jamaica………………………... 24-25

Reference ……………………………………………………………. 26

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I gratefully acknowledge with thanks the following for their wonderful support in doing this
project:

God, for giving me strength, patience and understanding to do this project.

Thanks to my tutor Ms. Gordon in guiding me through this course.

I will always be grateful to Ms. Clarke, a friend who has taken the time out in helping to gather
the information and using her computer.

Most of all, I appreciate and wish to acknowledge the support of my family, who encouraged and
inspired me.

And all others who, in one way or another, helped me to make this project possible.

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 INTRODUCTION

Nursing, science of providing continuous care for sick or infirm people. While nursing as an
occupation has always existed, it is only in fairly recent years that it has developed as a
specialized profession. As a profession, nursing focuses its energy on delivering health care to
people and their communities. Many nurses today serve in roles once reserved exclusively for
physicians.

Nursing has a long history that dates back to ancient times. In this project you will find the Early
Origin of Nursing, Nursing in the Early Christian Era, History of Kingston Public Hospital
(KPH), and also Three Hundred Years of Medicine in Jamaica. These topics will give you the
understanding of nursing and what it was or means to those who gives care to others.

On these pages you will also find pioneers in the dawn of Professional Nursing and the
contribution they made in nursing and what makes it what it is as a profession today, in Jamaica,
the Caribbean and worldwide. Some of these great pioneers in nursing are people like Florence
Nightingale known as “Lady of the lamp”, Mary Seacole among others like our own nurse Edith
Allwood-Anderson who advocate for the welfare of nurses in Jamaica. There is also the Role of
Nursing and Nursing During the Middle Age. This project highlights some introductory
highlights of nursing in Jamaica.

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 THE ROLE OF NURSING IN JAMAICA AND THE
CARIBBEAN

The role of professional nursing is an important one. Anecdotally, nurses have been said to have
more patient interaction and understanding about the patient's condition than the attending
physician. Along with doctors, nurses help improve patient care. Even if there was not a nursing
shortage, there would be a need for nurses to provide quality care and support to patients.

Under constraints of a restricted economy Jamaica strives to deliver health care at the standard of
developed countries. Nurses in Jamaica assume various roles as they provide perioperative
nursing care; they work as a team and act as patient advocates. Bonds of caring and love are
often established between patients, families, and the nursing staff. The quality of nursing care
often determines the client's perioperative outcome, and Jamaican nurses strive to meet the
challenges inherent in achieving positive patient outcomes.

Some of the roles in nursing include:

Patient Education

Nurses educate patients regarding medications, diseases or conditions, treatments and lifestyle
changes. This education can be informal, part of daily care, or given in a more formal teaching or
group environment.

Patient Advocacy

Because nurses are with patients for longer periods of time than doctors, they can help relay
patient concerns and changes in condition to other healthcare team members.

Medical Care

The heart of nursing is in providing medical care, which can include a variety of duties such as
administering medication and performing procedures, such as intubation and IV therapy.

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Assessment

Nurses are often the first to see a patient and triage, or assess, the seriousness and nature of a
patient's complaint. They are also responsible for providing ongoing assessment.

Office Work and Documentation

Depending on the type of health care setting, nurses may share in the work of running a medical
office. All nurses are responsible for carefully documenting the patient's condition and care
given.

Expanded role of the nurse:

1. Clinical Specialists- is a nurse who has completed a master’s degree in specialty and has
considerable clinical expertise in that specialty. She provides expert care to individuals,
participates in educating health care professionals and ancillary, acts as a clinical consultant and
participates in research.

2. Nurse Practitioner- is a nurse who has completed either as certificate program or a master’s
degree in a specialty and is also certified by the appropriate specialty organization. She is skilled
at making nursing assessments, performing P. E., counseling, teaching and treating minor and
self- limiting illness.

3. Nurse-midwife- a nurse who has completed a program in midwifery; provides prenatal and
postnatal care and delivers babies to woman with uncomplicated pregnancies.

4. Nurse anesthetist- a nurse who completed the course of study in an anesthesia school and
carries out pre-operative status of clients.

5. Nurse Educator- A nurse usually with advanced degree, who beaches in clinical or educational
settings, teaches theoretical knowledge, clinical skills and conduct research.

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6. Nurse Entrepreneur- a nurse who has an advanced degree, and manages health-related
business.

7. Nurse administrator- a nurse who functions at various levels of management in health settings;
responsible for the management and administration of resources and personnel involved in
giving patient care.

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 THE EARLY ORIGIN

Early history of nursing focuses on the Ancient Egyptians and Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans.
During this time, communities often had women who assisted with childbearing as a form of
nursing care, and some physicians had assistants. The Egyptians had physicians, and sick persons
looking for magical answers would go to them or to priests or sorcerers. Hebrew (Jewish)
physicians kept records and developed a hygiene code that examined issues such as personal and
community hygiene, contagion, disinfection, and preparation of food and water (Masters, 2005).
This occurred at a time when hygiene was very poor, a condition that continued for several
centuries. Disease and disability were viewed as curses and related to sins, which meant that
afflicted persons had to change or follow the religious statutes (Bullough & Bullough, 1978).
Greek mythology recognized health issues and physicians in its gods. Hippocrates, a Greek
physician, is known as the father of medicine. He contributed to health care by writing a medical
textbook that was used for centuries, and he developed an approach to disease that would later be
referred to as epidemiology. Hippocrates also developed the Hippocratic Oath (Bullough &
Bullough, 1978), which is still said by new physicians today and also influenced the writing of
the Nightingale Pledge. The Greeks viewed health as a balance between body and mind, which
was different from earlier views related to curses and sins.

Throughout this entire period, the wounded and ill in the armies required care. Generally, in this
period—which represents thousands of years and involved several major cultures that rose and
fell—nursing care was provided, but not nursing as it is thought of today. People took care of
those who were sick and during childbirth, representing an early nursing role.

Care of the sick is discussed in the bible, the Talmud and other ancient texts. Centers in India
and Babylonia provided care for the sick before the time of Christ. By 500 B.C, the advanced
Greek civilization had begun to acknowledge causes of diseases other than punishment by God
or demonic possession. Based on mythical figures, the caduceus and the staff of Aesculapius are
the modern symbols of medicine. The Greeks began to establish centers, sometimes called
hostels or hospitals, for care of the sick and injured. They used warm and mineral baths,

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massage and other forms of therapy that priestesses sometimes administered. Pregnant women
or people with an incurable illness were not admitted to these hostels.

There was a separate section for lepers. Some hospitals maintained libraries and training
programs, and doctors compiled their medical and pharmacological studies in manuscripts. Thus
in-patient medical care in the sense of what we today consider a hospital was an invention driven
by Christian mercy and Byzantine innovation. Byzantine hospital staff included the Chief
Physician (archiatroi), professional nurses (hypourgoi) and orderlies (hyperetai). By the twelfth
century, Constantinople had two well-organized hospitals, staffed by doctors who were both
male and female. Facilities included systematic treatment procedures and specialized wards for
various diseases

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 THE EARLY CHRISTIAN ERA

In ancient times, when medical lore was associated with good or evil spirits, the sick were
usually cared for in temples and houses of worship. In the early Christian era nursing duties were
undertaken by certain women in the church, their services being extended to patients in their
homes. These women had no real training by today's standards, but experience taught them
valuable skills, especially in the use of herbs and drugs, and some gained fame as the physicians
of their era. In later centuries, however, nursing duties fell mostly to relatively ignorant women.

Women began nursing as an expression of Christianity (acts of mercy). The first known Nurse,
Phoebe, was mentioned in Romans 16:1. During the early years of the Christian Church, St. Paul
sent a deaconess Phoebe to Rome as the first visiting nurse. She took care of both women and
men. Fabiola started the first public hospital in Rome.

The declaration of Christianity as accepted religion in the Roman Empire drove an expansion of
the provision of care. Following First Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. construction of a hospital in
every cathedral town was begun. Among the earliest were those built by the physician Saint
Sampson in Constantinople and by Basil, bishop of Caesarea in modern-day Turkey. Called the
"Basilias", the latter resembled a city and included housing for doctors and nurses and separate
buildings for various classes of patients.

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 THE HISTORY OF K.P.H

The Kingston Public Hospital was opened on December 14, 1776 where Public institutional
medicine was first established in Jamaica. The hospital was originally located at the corner of
East and North Streets where the land with a small hospital for slaves was converted into a male
hospital, and an old slave yard converted into a female ward. The property was purchased for
₤800 and another ₤1,000 was granted by the government for the maintenance of the institution.
The site of the Kingston Public Hospital was regarded as unfavourable from the time of its
establishment as it was intersected by streets and lanes. Maintenance soon became a burden to
the Government and by 1778 the annual provision of ₤1,000 was reduced by 50 per cent (50%)
to five hundred pounds and a special tax was levied on every ship entering Kingston Harbour to
provide for it’s financing. Another grant of One Thousand Four Hundred and Fifty Six pounds,
Eight Shillings and two-pence (₤1,456.82) was made to rebuild the hospital in 1784, after it was
destroyed by a hurricane.

KPH originally catered to Jamaica’s white population. The slaves were treated on the estate in
what was then referred to as a “hot houses” until 1838, after emancipation, when they were
accepted by the hospital. Initially, KPH was designed as an almshouse as well as a hospital, and
later became a mental asylum, however, the asylum was later relocated to Rae Town, St. Andrew
in 1850. Nine years later the hospital began offering 24- hour service seven days per week.
Following the 1907 earthquake, a number of tents were erected in the hospital to accommodate
the injured. A number of buildings were added in the 20th century, the original design of which
catered to the tropical climate in which the facility is located. In 1936, the then Senior Medical
Officer, Dr. Westmoreland separated surgical from medical cases for the first time.

Four (4) new operating theatres were built in 1962, in addition to the two (2) previously built in
1928. The current Accident and Emergency Block with four (4) floors including the ground floor
was completed in 1982. Accommodation at the hospital up to the latter part of 1974 was sixteen
wards, a bed capacity of four hundred and eighty (480). A spate of fires in the early 1980’s
destroyed a number of buildings, thus reducing the bed capacity from the original number. A

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major redevelopment exercise was completed in June 2000 which saw a number of buildings
being redesigned and or refurbished. The buildings that were destroyed by fire were demolished
and two (2) new ward blocks constructed. In addition to the improvement in the physical
facilities, a number of new state of the art equipment was provided.

From its humble beginnings KPH has evolved into the largest multidisciplinary hospital in the
Government Health Service as well as the largest trauma centre in the public hospital system.
Today the hospital has a bed capacity of five hundred (500) and offers a wide range of specialist
diagnostic and rehabilitative services, as well as curative services in medicine, surgery and
related sub-specialties. Kingston Public Hospital remains the main provider of critical services
such as Haemodialysis, kidney transplant and Radiotherapy in Jamaica and the English speaking
Caribbean. Over fifty thousand (50,000) patients are seen in the Accident and Emergency
Department each year, over twelve thousand (12,000) admissions and in excess of ninety-five
thousand (95,000) patients visiting the multidisciplinary outpatient department. The institution
continues to be regarded as one in which sophisticated surgery is practiced on several scales and
continues to contribute significantly to surgery in Jamaica.

Kingston Public Hospital in 1946

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THEN

NOW

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THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF MEDICINE IN JAMAICA
The “Holy Tree”, Indian Savin Tree and other cure alls
The Taíno contribution to folk medicine should not be overlooked nor underestimated (Payne-
Jackson & Alleyne, 2004, p. 126). A number of these medicinal plants were discovered and used
by the Taíno. Authors such as Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo (1851-1855) and Henry Barham
(1794) recorded Taíno uses of herbs which may have been incorporated in the enslaved African
medical practices. The flower of the Lignum vitae is our national flower, but to the Taíno,
guayacan, as they called it was “The Holy Tree”.
Trees on a whole were important as they believed that at night, trees received messages from the
gods, and this is probably why many Taíno zemís are made from wood. Guayacan was magical
and scared, not only as a source material for their religious paraphernalia, but due to its
medicinal properties. A lignum vitae decoction was used by the Taíno as a remedy for yaya
(syphilis), which was later adopted by Europeans. In Jamaican folk tradition it has been used to
treat bruises and pain (Lowe, 1972, p. 22). Arrowroot was also employed by the indigenous
people to draw out poisons from snakes, stings (Barham, 1794, p. 7 & 235) and poison arrows. 4
Taíno Influence of Jamaican Folk Traditions Lesley-Gail Atkinson May 2010.

Arrowroot is said to be good for “building up the stomach” and diarrhea (Payne-Jackson &
Alleyne, 2004, p. 154). The leaf of the cocoa or chocolate is used as an anti-inflammatory drug
in folk medicine (Payne-Jackson & Alleyne, 2004). Among the Taíno, the cocoa was very
important to the behique, medicine men. The juice of the cocoa plant was believed to have
resuscitation powers even in death.
The Indian Savin Tree was used by the Taíno to treat and soothe wounds. When parts of the tree
are bruised it produces a strong balsamic scent. Have you ever heard that soursop leaf tea will
settle your nerves? The soursop leaf is good for the treatment of nervous conditions. The
guanaboa (soursop) was a popular fruit of the Taíno, and can be used to treat high blood
pressure, wounds and as an antidote for poison (Payne-Jackson & Alleyne, 2004, pp. 149, 158,
165). Guava seems to be the ultimate cure all, as it is said to be able to treat insect bites, ulcers,
boils, colds, nausea, stomach ache, vomiting, haemorrhage, heart ailments and is also a good and
tonic (Payne-Jackson & Alleyne, 2004, pp. 149-167).

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 THE DAWN OF PROFESSIONAL NURSING

Early on, certain individuals within each society began providing care and nourishment for those
who were unable to care for themselves. As these individuals became ‘care experts,' they began
to share with others the practices that worked for them and to train others as apprentices who
would someday carry on their work. The evolution of modern nursing from a vocation, to the
discipline and profession of nursing, began in the late 1800s as Florence Nightingale articulated
her views about how nurses should be trained and educated and how patient care should be
provided.

MARY SEACOLE

Mary Seacole 1850

Seacole was a pioneering nurse and heroine of the

Crimean War, who as a woman of mixed race
overcame a double prejudice.

Mary Jane Grant was a Jamaican-born woman of

Scottish and Creole descent was born in Kingston,
Jamaica in 1805. Her father was a Scottish soldier,
and her mother a Jamaican. Mary learned her nursing
skills from her mother, who kept a boarding house
for invalid soldiers. Although technically 'free', being
of mixed race, Mary and her family had few civil
rights - they could not vote, hold public office or
enter the professions. In 1836, Mary married Edwin Seacole but the marriage was short-lived as
he died in 1844.

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Seacole was an inveterate traveller, and before her marriage visited other parts of the Caribbean,
including Cuba, Haiti and the Bahamas, as well as Central America and Britain. On these trips
she complemented her knowledge of traditional medicine with European medical ideas. In 1854,
Seacole travelled to England again, and approached the War Office, asking to be sent as an army
nurse to the Crimea where there was known to be poor medical facilities for wounded soldiers.
She was refused. Undaunted Seacole funded her own trip to the Crimea where she established
the British Hotel near Balaclava to provide 'a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and
convalescent officers'. She also visited the battlefield, sometimes under fire, to nurse the
wounded, and became known as 'Mother Seacole'. Her reputation rivalled that of Florence
Nightingale.

After the war she returned to England destitute and in ill health. The press highlighted her plight
and in July 1857 a benefit festival was organised to raise money for her, attracting thousands of
people. Later that year, Seacole published her memoirs, 'The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs
Seacole in Many Lands'.

Seacole died on 14 May 1881.

Mary Seacole, 1869

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FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

Famous for her work in the military hospitals of the Crimea,

Nightingale established nursing as a respectable profession
for women.

Florence Nightingale was born on 12 May 1820, and named

after the Italian city of her birth. Her wealthy parents were
in Florence as part of a tour of Europe. In 1837, Nightingale
felt that God was calling her to do some work but wasn't
sure what that work should be. She began to develop an
interest in nursing, but her parents considered it to be a
profession inappropriate to a woman of her class and
background, and would not allow her to train as a nurse.
They expected her to make a good marriage and live a conventional upper class woman's life.

Nightingale's parents eventually relented and in 1851, she went to Kaiserwerth in Germany for
three months nursing training. This enabled her to become superintendent of a hospital for
gentlewomen in Harley Street, in 1853. The following year, the Crimean War began and soon
reports in the newspapers were describing the desperate lack of proper medical facilities for
wounded British soldiers at the front. Sidney Herbert, the war minister, already knew
Nightingale, and asked her to oversee a team of nurses in the military hospitals in Turkey. In
November 1854, she arrived in Scutari in Turkey. With her nurses, she greatly improved the
conditions and substantially reduced the mortality rate

She returned to England in 1856. In 1860, she established the Nightingale Training School for
nurses at St Thomas' Hospital in London. Once the nurses were trained, they were sent to
hospitals all over Britain, where they introduced the ideas they had learned, and established
nursing training on the Nightingale model. Nightingale's theories, published in 'Notes on
Nursing' (1860), were hugely influential and her concerns for sanitation, military health and

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hospital planning established practices which are still in existence today. She died on 13 August
1910.

EDITH CAVELL

Born: Edith Louisa Cavell on 4 December 1865

in Swardeston in Norfolk (GB).
 
Edith and her two younger sisters, Florence and
Lilian, had their early education not at the
recently opened village school but at home. Later
in 1881, Edith is thought to have spent a few
months at Norwich High School, when it was
housed at the Assembly House in Theatre Street,
Norwich.
1895 saw Edith's return to Swardeston to nurse
her father through a brief illness. He remained Vicar until his retirement in 1909. Helping to
restore her father to health made Edith resolve to take up nursing as a career. After testing her
vocation for a few months at the Fountains Fever Hospital, Tooting, Edith (Aged 30) was

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accepted for training at the London Hospital under Eva Lückes in April 1896.

In 1907 she became the matron of the Berkendael Institute in Brussels. From the commencement
of WW1 Cavell sheltered at the Institute British, French and Belgian soldiers, from where they
were helped to escape to Holland, which was neutral.
On August 5 1915, Otto Mayer of the German Secret Police arrived in the Rue de la Culture.
Cavell was driven to police headquarters and questioned. The only document incriminating the
nurse was a tattered postcard sent, rather unwisely, by an English soldier  thanking her for
helping him to reach home. Cavell was sentenced to death, along with four Belgians. Two firing
squads, each of eight men, carried out the execution at dawn on October 12, 1915, at the national
rifle range in Brussels. Cavell was still wearing her nurse's uniform.

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THE NOTORIOUS MRS. RYAN ( MRS. JUDITH RYAN)

Mrs. Judith Ryan an Irish Nurse became the superintendent (matron) for the female section of the
Lunatic Asylum in Kingston in 1844. Her husband Mr. Ryan was the superintendent for the
male section. Mr. and Mrs. Ryan implemented heinously cruel techniques in their patients
“care”, for which she gained the name of the “Notorious Mrs. Ryan”. She was dismissed in April
1860 after 16 years of cruel service.

Mrs. Judith Ryan enforced an almost daily regimen of tanking as punishment of female inmates
in particular. A female worker at the Asylum, Mary Bell underscored the punitive purpose of
tanking when she testified before the Commission of Inquiry that when anyone vex Mrs. Ryan,
she say to Parola [a nurse] ‘you give this woman good tanking tomorrow…in such cases they
keep the patient till all the others done bathe, when the tank is full of filth, then they hold them
down [in the tank].”

Testimony before the Commission indicated that tanking was applied to a wide cross-section of
female inmates including very old women and women in advanced stages of pregnancy,

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contributing in many cases to the deaths of these women. Tanking and dysentery were found to
be the greatest contributors to the high death rate among female inmates of the Kingston Asylum
before 1860. As the Commissioners reported in 1861, they had “come to the painful conclusion
that death has been accelerated, if not actually caused by this cruel practice.”

COUBA CORNWALLIS

Cubah Cornwallis (died 1848) (often spelled Coubah, Couba, Cooba or Cuba) was a nurse or
"doctoress" and Obeah woman who lived in Jamaica during the late 18th and 19th Century.
Cubah Cornwallis was a former slave to Captain William Cornwallis, brother of Charles, Earl
Cornwallis and became well known in the Caribbean as an accomplished nurse.

When freed she was appointed by Cornwallis as his housekeeper whilst he remained in Jamaica.
On his departure, she settled permanently in Port Royal and began her career treating sailors for
the many and varied diseases and injuries they sustained. She purchased a small house which she
converted into a combination of rest home, hotel and hospital.

With its international ports, widespread diseases such as dysentery, yellow fever, malaria and
scurvy were commonplace in the West Indies of the 18th century. Death rates among the
military, civilian and enslaved populations often reached more than 50%. There were few official
hospitals, and methods of curing diseases were often experimental.

Cubah Cornwallis became so well known for her treatment of the sick that in 1780 when Captain

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Horatio Nelson fell ill with dysentery during an expedition to Nicaragua, he was taken to her by
Admiral Sir Peter Parker, the commander-in-chief of the Royal Naval forces in Jamaica. Later
she was entrusted with the treatment of Prince William Henry, later William IV, when he was
stationed in the West Indies. The Prince was so grateful to Cubah that many years later he told
the story to his wife Queen Adelaide, who in turn sent Cubah a gown that she wore only once in
1848 as her funerary gown. Nelson too remarked in his correspondence to friends and family
how indebted he was to Cubah Cornwallis. Whenever a friend or colleague was despatched to
Jamaica he requested that they pass his good wishes to her.

Although it is not known when she was born, Cubah Cornwallis must have lived a long life. It is
documented that she assisted in Nelson’s recovery in 1780 and was, by then, already an
established and respected figure on the island. Her date of death, sixty eight years later, is a
testament to her longevity.

EDITH ALLWOOD - ANDERSON

Edith Allwood-Anderson patriot, realist, idealist, visionary

Mrs Edith Allwood-Anderson is a patriot of Jamaica. She understands the dynamics of

leadership. For five years she championed the cause of the nurses and was victorious. It is not
often in our country that we have leaders on any level who are people of action and not of
promises. The Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) has set the bar on what leadership and
representation should entail.

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Mrs Allwood-Anderson recognises that leadership is the understanding of who will be affected
by it; she is a practical person and a realist who speaks as a visionary and an idealist. Due to her
tenacity and the unity of the nurses, they received their compensation for impeccable and
invaluable service to our country.

NO one can deny that Nurse Edith Allwood Anderson has been anything but a most passionate
advocate for the welfare of nurses in Jamaica. She has taken on successive administrations from
prime minister right down, in her tireless effort to secure better working conditions and wages
for the members of her profession.

THE ROLE OF NURSING IN THE PAST

In the past nurses were considered the “handmaid” of the doctor. The roles of nurses were to do
what the doctor ordered, to look after patients, make beds, clean bedpans, wash laundry give
patients food, help with bandages, help get them out of bed, etc.

The early Caribbean nursing care providers were dedicated, but mostly untrained, females who
offered mostly a small measure of personal comfort and emotional support for patients. Nursing
care was provided in homes, in privately operated sick houses, and later in modest hospitals
provided by slave owners and colonial governments.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the nursing profession in the Caribbean benefited from
the introduction of effective diagnoses and treatments of tropical and other diseases. During the
1950s, nursing care in the Caribbean made significant strides, and it emerged as one of the most
progressive and innovative health-care and clinical-care systems in the nonindustrial areas of the

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world. These nursing advancements came as the result of introducing a series of carefully
planned long- and short-term health-care measures and procedures.

NURSING DURING THE MIDDLE AGE

During this time, monasticism and other religious groups offered the only opportunities for men
and women to pursue careers in nursing. It was the Christian value of "love thy neighbor as the
self" that had a significant impact on the development of western nursing. The principle of caring
was established with Christ’s parable of Good Samaritan providing care for a tired and injured
stranger.
In the third and fourth centuries several wealthy matrons of Roman empire, including Marcella,
Fabiola and Paula, converted to Christianity and used their wealth to provide house of care and
healing (the fore runner of hospital) for the poor, the sick and homeless.
Women were not the sole providers of nursing service in the third century in Rome. There was
an organization of men called the parabloani Brotherhood. This group of men provided care to
the sick
Early Middle Ages (AD 476 – 1000)
“Dark Ages”

 Learning stopped and Christianity retreated behind the walls of monasteries due to the
wars occurring in the land (The Roman Empire collapsed).

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  Focus was on care and comfort (foundation of nursing), science declined.
 Nursing care was controlled by the Catholic Church.
High Middle Ages (1000 – 1475)

 Small states emerged after wars

 Catholic Church became dominant
 Medicine declined
 Monastatic orders began with strict discipline, obedience and devotion
 Monasteries became the place for education of medicine and nursing. But too strict
>Diminished interest in work > decline of monasteries between 9th and 10th century.
 12th – 16t century – Ruled by religious order.
 Nursing done by dedicated women who took vows, but could not leave or get married.
 Also nursing brothers.
 Age – between 16 – 24 years.

SYNOPSIS OF HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS IN

JAMAICA

Mary Seacole (1801-1885) was called the first Nurse Practitioner

Independent Practitioner or Advanced Practice Nurse because she performed a number of
nursing and medical functions. She developed a medicine for Cholera that produced remarkable
results. She made diagnosis, wrote prescriptions, preparation of herbal and pharmaceutical
medicine, minor surgeries, and did a post-mortem on a cholera victim to learn more about the
effects of cholera.

1974:  The NAJ established a working party “to develop a proposal for establishment of a Nurse
Practitioner Programme”. The completed proposal was presented to the Minister of Health in
September, 1974 who indicated his acceptance, in principle, of the document and subsequently
made a formal request to the faculty of Medicine that the training of Nurse Practitioners be
undertaken by the Advanced Nursing Unit in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, UWI.

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1977: July 1st, 25 experienced Registered Nurses entered the first Nurse Practitioner Programme
in Jamaica. Seventeen nurses began the Family Nurse Practitioner course and eight Paediatric
Nurse Practitioner course. The programme was a cooperative effort which involves personnel
from the Ministry of Health, the UWI and PROJECT Hope. Profiles of the students revealed that
they were all Registered nurses and Midwives who have completed at least one continuing
education course. Among them were those trained specifically in public, mental, school and
occupational health as well as nursing service administration. All had functioned at the first level
of management in the nursing service and some at higher levels. The Formal opening of the
programme took place on July 26th, 1977. The function was attended by Dr. Douglas Manley,
Minister of Health and Dr. Winston Davidson, Senator and Parliamentary Secretary. It was
presided over by Dr. Mary Seivwright of the Advanced Nursing Education Unit, UWI.*

 1978: First group of Nurse Practitioners in Jamaica entered the health care system.
 1995: The Mental Health/ Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Specialty added.

 2002: The programme became fully university based at the University of The West Indies and
was upgraded to the Master’s degree level.

 2004: First group of Masters prepared Nurse Practitioners graduated.

NEWSMAKER: EDITH ALLWOOD-ANDERSON - Nurse with strong medicine

published: Tuesday | July 18, 2006

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

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A militant Edith Allwood-Anderson, president of the Nurses Association of Jamaica, spurs on her colleagues during a protest in
front of the Ministry of Finance, Heroes Circle, Kingston, last Wednesday. The nurses are calling on Finance Minister Dr. Omar
Davies to address their protracted salary negotiations. - NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

Gov't signs off on nurses' reclassification

Published: Monday | May 14, 2012

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Director of nursing services at Kingston Public Hospital, Edith Allwood Anderson (right), makes a presentation to Lascelles Chin,
chairman and CEO of LASCO Affiliated Companies, while Anthonette Patterson-Bartley, president of the Nurses' Association of Jamaica
(NAJ), looks on at the NAJ Lasco International Nurses Day press briefing and launch of Nurses Week on Saturday. - Photos by Rudolph
Brown/Photographer.

Photographic Highlights of NCU's Nurses' Pinning Service 2013

Published: Wednesday, August 07, 2013 6:06:01 PM

On Wednesday August 7, 2013, the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) Department of

Nursing hosted its annual Nurses’ Pinning and Consecration Service under the theme “Equipped
and Committed for Excellence in Service” at Northern Caribbean University’s Gymnatorium at
11:30 am. The more than 100 all-female batch shared in the thrills and spills of reaching another
milestone of their preferred career path.

REFERENCE

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Thresyamma, CP, (2002), Fundamental of Nursing Procedure Manual for General Nursing and
MidwiferyCourse. Jitender P Vij Jaypee Brothers Medical Publshers (P) Ltd, New Delhi India.

Hewitt, Hermi Hyacinth, (2002), Trailblazers in Nursing Education: A Caribbean Perspective

1946 – 1986. Canoe Press, Barbados.

Colin White, Nelson, The New Letters (London: Boydell Press, 2005); Richard Hill, A Week at
Port Royal (London: Cornwall Chronicle Office, 1855); Olive Senior, Encyclopaedia of
Jamaican Heritage (London: Twin Guinep Publishers Ltd, 2003).

Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History | 2006 | Phillips, Glenn

Role of Professional Nursinng. Retrieved August 23, 2013 at 2:24 pm from

http://www.ehow.com/about_5084844_role-professional-nursing.html#ixzz2d61CWTgK

Mary Seacole,. Retrieved Aug. 26, 2013 at 1:19 p.m from

www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/seacole_mary.shtml

Florence Nightingale, Retrieved Aug. 26, 2013 at 1:30 p.m from

www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/nightingale_florence.shtml

Atkinson, Lesley-Gail. Taíno Influence on Jamaican Folk Traditions

Edith Cavell, The Oxford Companion to British History | 2002 | JOHN CANNON |

Edith Allwood-Anderson. Retrieved August 26, 2013 at 6:14 pm from http://jamaica-

gleaner.com/

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