Observations on nursing education in Latin America

Abstract

Sub-divisions 2 and 3 are known as Latin America, a term applied because of the cultural background of twenty of the twenty-two nations that make up that area. Eighteen of those twenty nations have Spanish as a national language, one, the largest, Brazil, has Portuguese, and the last one, Haiti, has French. In spite of that closeness in language no one can say that Latins are alike, for, although similarities may exist on the surface, the area is made up of several ethnic groups. As an example let us take Haiti and the Dominican Republic, two nations occupying the same small island in the Caribbean. Haiti is a Negro nation. The Dominican Republic is a nation of mixed bloods, including Spanish whites and Negroes, as the main ethnic group. Another good example of the diversity of ethnic groups in Latin America can be seen in Argentina and Brazil, the two big South American neighbors. Argentina is composed primarily of Whites while Brazil seems to have almost every race under the sun. In terms of populations, Latin America is the second fastest growing area in the world, surpassed only by Asia. At this moment, for example, the growth ratio of Latin America is about 3% per year, while ours is about I.SO,/, per year and the rest of the world is 1.6% per year. Latin America is also a continent of young people, with the age group between 15 and 45 being the most predominant of all age groups. Keeping that fact in mind demographers maintain that, by the year 2,000’A.D., the population of Latin America will be approximately 400,000,000 or double what it is today. Although we’ve all seen and met Latin Americans, and, although we’ve all danced the Samba and the Rhumba at sometime or other, it seems that everyone