University of the West Indies System

Impact of Hurricane Melissa on neurosurgery care in Jamaica: implications for disaster preparedness

BACKGROUND: Natural disasters, including hurricanes, are becoming increasingly severe as a result of climate change, and can have a devastating impact on healthcare systems. In October 2025, a category five hurricane struck Jamaica and caused extensive damage throughout the islan...

Niche occupancy of Jamaican bat caves: Diversity increases isotopic niche packing

There are over 1000 documented caves across Jamaica, many of them used by diverse communities of bats. Species across these communities fit within the same trophic guilds and families and can be found at the same sites, raising the question of how these species can coexist. We ca...

The Risk of COVID-19 Death in Jamaica by Wave Period: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic caused significant healthcare, economic and social impacts. This study described characteristics of COVID-19 mortality and determined risk of COVID-19 death by wave period in Jamaica. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using data on confirmed...

Research neglect of root system architecture in root and tuber crops important for Sub-Saharan African Food Security

Background Root and tuber crops (RTCs) provide 354 kcal/capita/day across sub-Saharan Africa (17.7% of dietary energy from major crop categories), and several countries derive over 40% of crop calories from cassava, yam, sweet potato, taro, and cocoyam. Despite this, research on...

Role transition from registered nurse to nurse practitioner in Jamaica

ABSTRACT Background: A nurse practitioner (NP) is defined as having comprehensive knowledge to diagnose and treat health conditions. When a registered nurse (RN) transitions to the NP role, several challenges may arise. Purpose: This study aimed to determine the role transition p...

An update on the non operative reduction of intussusception at two Major Caribbean paediatric referral hospitals

A retrospective observational study was conducted to determine the success rate of non-operative management of intussusception at the two major paediatric surgical referral hospitals in Kingston, Jamaica, and to compare it to previously reported regional and international benchma...