ABSTRACT
In the late 1980s some commentators believed that 'black' nurses in Britain were a 'dying species'. Young people of minority ethnic descent were allegedly being deterred from a nursing career by the discrimination, disadvantage and harassment experienced by their parents as health service workers. One pioneer of this view, Carole Baxter, argued that: 'the nursing profession is rapidly becoming a far less attractive career possibility for black and ethnic minority groups than it used to be. British-born black schoolleavers are reluctant to expose themselves to the humiliation and degradation endured by their parents, relatives and the community as a whole' (1988: 25). Baxter concluded that the 'number of black and ethnic minority nurses within the National Health Service is therefore seriously on the decline'. The disappearance of the 'black nurse' by the year 2000 was even predicted unless remedial recruitment initiatives were taken (Pearson, 1987: 26). There was some evidential basis for this prediction. Anecdotal evidence (Lee-Cunin, 1989: 29) and limited statistical evidence (CRE, 1987) suggested that the number of black applicants to pre-registration training in nursing and midwifery was lower than would be expected when compared with the representation of minority ethnic groups in the population as a whole.
