A dedicated nurse whose service to the community was recognised in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honours started out as a trailblazer in a highly racially segregated field.

Juanita Guishard-Packwood, who for many years specialised in mental health, started in the health department, then embarked as a nurse at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Her career included the Prospect geriatric hospital and St Brendan's Hospital, which became the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute, where she worked as a psychiatric nurse.

Dr Guishard-Packwood retired in 2007 for her 80th birthday but continued nursing at a Devonshire seniors home.

An author and teacher at schools including The Berkeley Institute as well as a nurse, she got her start in 1947 with a four-year government scholarship to get her diploma in nursing in Britain.

Along with Edna Pearman Jones, she was the first recipient.

The scholarship, established by the British Government and a first for Bermuda, was intended as annual, but only two were handed out.

The pair qualified as state-registered nurses and studied midwifery.

Later qualifications, while working, included a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology through a university extension programme and a Master of Science degree in counselling through Indiana University.

Dr Guishard-Packwood obtained a doctoral degree in mental health counselling administration from Columbia Pacific University in California

Her book, The Legend of St Brendan’s, chronicled the development of mental health treatment on the island, including the advent of drug abuse.

In addition, she served on the Bermuda Mental Health Tribunal and worked in private practice.

Dr Guishard-Packwood also co-authored Getting Back to Christian Basics.

She credited Henry Wilkinson, the island’s senior medical officer of the day, with encouraging her to join KEMH in 1958 after she worked with him at the health department.

Dr Guishard-Packwood was one of the first Black nurses at the hospital, recalling for The Royal Gazette: “I did not mingle with any of the staff as I didn't believe we were allowed to.

“I just didn't see coloured nurses there, and I guess I was looked at as a stranger. But I believe my presence there was an indicator that barriers were being broken down.”

Juanita Esther Guishard-Packwood, a nurse, mental health specialist and teacher, was born on September 16, 1927. She died in 2025, aged 97