she had no idea what path in life she should take, nor yet what career she wanted, so she became a secretary in the insurance world.

The work was not unpleasant, and there were regular paycheques to give her financial independence, but deep down she knew this was not her calling.

What was would emerge from a job change, which found her working at St.

Brendan's Hospital as a nursing assistant.

"I had worked there as a Candy Striper as well as at the King Edward Hospital,'' Dr. Richardson Gibson (as she now is) relates. "I was thinking about my autistic brother, and when I went back to St. Brendan's I started to really love nursing and decided to go away to school. I was 19 or 20 at the time, and I didn't know where the money was going to come from because I didn't want to burden my parents, but I prayed and I always had a lot of faith.'' Both were soon rewarded when the Bermuda Hospitals Board granted her a scholarship.

"It covered my tuition and board, and I worked for my spending money -- including at St. Brendan's during my summer holidays, which was an excellent experience,'' she remembers. "I lived off $10 a week and banked the rest.'' Enrolled in the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, the young Bermudian studied hard for four years, during which she describes her internship at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland as "one of the most fabulous experiences I have ever had''.

One of only two students awarded a ten-week internship at the prestigious Institute, Dr. Gibson says that is where major research into the causes of cancer takes places. For a young, ambitious nurse it was the chance of a lifetime not only to work in the surgical unit, but also have access to the nearby National Library of Medicine, which she says is the world's largest.

"I don't think I will ever forget that experience,'' she enthuses. "Just to be there in that cutting edge learning environment was a privilege.'' When Dr. Gibson graduated in 1982, it was with Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Nursing. At the same time, she was inducted into Signa Theta Tau International Honour Society of Nursing.

Asked why she chose to pursue the more difficult B.S.N. degree instead of a Registered Nurse qualification, Dr. Gibson explained that, due to its broader range of subjects, the degree gave her greater flexibility in accepting future roles within her profession.

"I always like challenges,'' she smiles, "and since I also don't like to be bored I like to be flexible in positions.'' Certainly, Dr. Gibson's career from graduation to date has been anything but boring -- and she has a ten-page curriculum vitae to prove it.

Remaining in Charleston, the newly-qualified nurse's first position was as a staff nurse in the oncology unit of Roper Hospital -- an experience she remembers with great fondness, not least because she "just loves taking care of patients''.

The post was challenging, and Dr. Gibson used the opportunity to develop chemotherapy teaching materials for patients. She was also one of ten nurses who incepted primary nursing -- a new form of patient care at the time, whereby nurses and doctors worked as a team and not hierarchially.

"We were the pioneers,'' Dr. Gibson notes. "We Bermudians are very assertive.'' In fact, the new scheme worked so successfully that when she left the hospital, it was an oncologist who baked and decorated a cake for her.

Nursing: For the love of it From 1984 Dr. Gibson has worked in nursing education, teaching various levels of nurses, from practical to associate degree candidates. As a nurse-educator, she has taught clinical-level nursing and also been in charge of the education, training and orientation in three departments of a 700-bed hospital in South Carolina.

Small wonder, then, that Dr. Gibson decided to go to post-graduate school and gain her Master's degree in gerontological nursing -- a move she says truly hooked her on learning again. Through a minor in Nursing Education, she also began an in-depth study of cancer -- a path which later led to a much deeper focus on the psycho-social aspects of the disease on black women.

"I wanted to find out who the people were that they felt were helpful to them, and what types of support those people gave them,'' she explains. "I compared those results to literature on Caucasian women, who preferred friends as their primary support. Their black counterparts preferred older family members, so there was a difference.'' Later, watching how her own mother, the late Mrs. Olive Richardson, coped with her diagnosis of breast cancer until her death piqued Dr. Gibson's interest in pursuing a serious study of black women in particular.

"My mother never moaned, complained or grumbled, and I have taken care of others who were like that, many of whom were black, and I felt there was something there that I wanted to find out,'' she explains. "I wanted to look at black women only because there is no literature out there on them.'' To that end, she has recruited almost 200 women breast cancer survivors, 15 of them Bermudian, for her study, which is on-going, and has the blessing of the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital's cancer care committee.

"I have finished the dissertation research, which tested The Gibson Model of Inner Resources, and scientifically it held,'' she says. "What I proposed happened in most cases. The difference was that I thought spirituality would lead directly to psychological well-being, but instead I discovered that spirituality plus hope leads to psychological well-being.'' It would take a book to record all of Mrs. Gibson's achievements in nursing, but they are wide-ranging and broadly based, and include a host of publications, funded research and projects, speaking engagements, conference participation, certifications and presentations.

How she came to gain her Ph.D. in Nursing Science goes back to a realisation that clinical nursing positions do not give tenure, so she decided to return to the classroom in 1996, and was awarded two Fellowships which allowed her to study full time.

By then married to Ronald, a pharmacist, and with a two-year-old son, Sterling, Dr. Gibson commuted between her home in Greenville and the University of South Carolina for four years in pursuit of her newest goal.

Throughout her absences, her devoted husband took care of their son.

"He is my rock,'' she says proudly. "He's a good man who has always been supportive of education, and has no problem with women having education.'' Dr. Gibson has recently accepted an assistant professorship in the School of Nursing, College of Health, Education and Human Development, at Clemson University, South Carolina. "Primarily, I will be teaching gerontological nursing, and the College also plans for me to develop the new curriculum for the Master's programme in Nursing Education.

Looking back over her career, Dr. Gibson says she especially enjoys working with the very ill, and in particularly cancer patients and the elderly.

"I just love patients and taking care of them,'' she assures.

Asked how she copes with the inevitable emotional strain associated with caring for the terminally ill, she says: "We learn to be holistic, and that is why I think I enjoy chronic care patients. The sicker the better.

"It is very hard to pull yourself back and not become too emotionally involved because I am a very empathetic person, but in order to think clearly and help people you have to back off inwardly, and yet still feel sufficiently with them so that you can help them.'' While Dr. Gibson misses Bermuda, she says the US offers more professional flexibility. She does, however, return home every year to visit her widowed father, Mr. E.R. (Tubby) Richardson, and four brothers: Leroy, Calvin, Randy and Tracey.

Back home in South Carolina, one could be forgiven for assuming that Dr.

Gibson has no spare time between work and family commitments, but such is not the case.

An active member of the Allen Temple AME Church, where she is the co-ordinator of the health and wellness screening programme, she also does a great deal of volunteer work, is in Chi Eta Phi nursing sorority, and also helps out at a camp for diabetic children.

"My husband says I do too much,'' she smiles.

Somehow, you get the feeling that, for Dr. Gibson, that is simply a spur to do more.