Until 1986, there was a two-tier system of nursing training: staff and pupil. The 'Staff' or State Registered Nurse (SRN) qualification included training in ward management, while the 'Pupil' or State Enrolled Nurse (SEN) qualification concentrated on the clinical side of nursing.

Most Caribbeans, like other Black nurses, were placed on the two-year SEN course. Due to racial discrimination few were accepted on the SRN course despite possessing the requisite qualifications. One recruit recalls: 'This (difference) wasn't explained to us. I was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Cheshire, when I really wanted to do general nursing'. Like most others, her ambition was to work in general hospitals.

After their two year basic training, most of the women found they could not get onto the higher level course, and certainly 'couldn't get promoted at all'. Yet many accepted night duties, to enable them to fit in with family commitments, and found they were 'wholly in charge'. As one nurse remembers: 'We had to get on with all the drugs, the drips, whatever treatment...but our pay remained the same.'

Once they arrived in Britain, young recruits were dispersed to their appointed hospitals all over the United Kingdom. Some were met at the train station, but many had to find their own way, dressed more for the sunshine they had left behind than the cold and gray weather and bracing winds they now encountered.

The new trainees lived in the Nurses' Homes attached to the hospitals, and worked alongside other Colonial trainees. They provided an important support network for each other, as many felt isolated and far away from home. 'When anyone new came and brought food, the girls got together, sitting on the floor, [or] anywhere like a big family. We would eat whatever, dividing it up between all of us'.

At that time, there were few Black people in Britain, particularly in smaller towns. As a result, many nurses moved to large centers like London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol, with existing African, Asian and Caribbean populations.

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