The development of health care policies in Trinidad and Tobago: autonomy or domination?

This article is part of a study that described and analyzed the development of nursing education in Trinidad and Tobago from self-government in 1956 to 1986, with special emphasis on the forces that helped to shape the society from colonial times, and consequently, nursing education. Adaptation and application of major concepts from theories of underdevelopment and development and colonialism formed the basis of the study's theoretical framework. The article focuses on the impact of the metropolitan countries on the development of health care policies. Because of the nation's historical legacy of colonialism and its current linkages with the United States and Canada, a major area fundamental to the analysis was to determine whether those two countries had superseded traditional British influences in determining health care policies. This raised the issue of whether or not health care policies could be autonomously developed to meet the needs of the people.