The Australian Women's Register

1 hour Vera Gibbs was born at Port Adelaide, South Australia. For twelve years after leaving Unley High School she had an administrative role in her father’s bakery. She began training as a ‘Mental Nurse’ at the Parkside Mental Hospital in 1936. Training in general nursing followed at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, then she had an appointment as a charge nurse at Parkside. After infectious diseases training at Northfield and midwifery at the Queen Victoria Hospital Vera had country hospital appointments. In 1946 she was nominated by the Australian Nursing Federation for an appointment with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, which took her to Germany and Poland in the immediate post-war period. In 1947 she studied at the Royal College of Nursing in London and gained the Sister Tutor Diploma awarded by the University of London.