The authorities embarked on a two-pronged plan to relieve the shortfall. One scheme was an aggressive national campaign, with central government funded exhibitions, lectures and gimmicks to attract recruits in the regions from London to Liverpool. The campaign was not especially successful. The Tottenham Hospital Management Board reported that 'such energetic campaigning deserves better results', when, for example, there were just 17 enquiries for 737 vacancies. Out of this number, only two potential students and one qualified nurse came forward.

The other scheme was devised by the Ministries of Health and Labour in conjunction with the Colonial Office, the General Nursing Council(GNC) and the Royal College of Nursing. From 1949, advertisements were placed in the Nursing Press encouraging candidates from the colonies to come to Britain to apply for work as auxiliaries and trainee nurses. The advertisements featured interviews with nurses, who confirmed that across the length and breath of the United Kingdom 'jobs could be found easily'.

Recruitment campaigns were extensively and energetically pursued with senior British nurses visiting commonwealth countries for this purpose. Local selection committees were set up in 16 British colonies. Trainee nurses were drawn from all over the world, including Ireland, Malaysia and Mauritius, but at this time, the majority were recruited from the Caribbean Islands.

Colonial women interested in training as nurses came from diverse educational and economic backgrounds. From 1955, the British government had devised various schemes to assist with fares to Britain, but many recruits ended up funding their own journey in whatever way they could. One said: 'My mother borrowed the money and sent me up here. I had to pay it back when I began to work'. Another said: 'A friend sponsored me, the bank paid my fares...it wasn't free.'

The great majority, however, had high expectations from their period of training in Britain. They imagined they would train for three years and, after a further two years gaining vital work experience, they would then return to help the Nursing corp in their various islands. At the same time they felt they would be relieving Britain's staffing problems.

These expectations mirrored the plans negotiated between the GNC, Colonial Office and Colonial Governors, that Caribbean women, trained to the highest level in Britain, would return to take up responsible nursing posts. In the 1950s and 1960s, such posts were almost exclusively held by expatriate staff (British women).

General hospitals and teaching hospitals were already relatively well staffed, but there were major shortages in hospitals caring for the chronically sick, disabled and the elderly. Post-war trauma had also greatly increased the numbers of people admitted to psychiatric hospitals. It was in these hospitals that the great majority of young Caribbean women found themselves placed as resident trainees.

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