86-year-old retiring nurse recalls stretcher races, animal crackers and keeping it light for the team

Kathy Skinner, a nurse for 65 years who has worked in both Canada and the U.S., says she’s discovered a way to put fearful kids at ease — animal crackers. 

Skinner, 86, is still working as a full-time nurse, most recently with the Chatham-Kent Family Health Team in southwestern Ontario. She says her favourite part of the job over the years is getting to know patients, and has devised ways to calm children who are nervous about needles. 

“I have bribes,” she said. 

“In the emergency room, I had my stickers. Now I have a big bottle of animal crackers in my office here and I give them a little cup full of animal crackers … They come to the door now and look for the bottle. They know where it is.”

Skinner, who lives in Wallaceburg, started her nursing training in 1956. She graduated from the Chatham Public General Hospital School of Nursing in 1959. In August, she will finally retire. 

She said that when she started nursing, there were few career options for women — whether it be a nurse, teacher or secretary.

“I didn’t think I could be the other two,” she told CBC’s Windsor Morning. “So I went to be a nurse.”

At the start of nursing school, she wore the standard uniform of a first-year student — a bib and apron over a blue-and-white pinstriped dress, black nylons and black shoes. 

The second-year students wore a similar uniform, she said, except their nylons and shoes were white. In her third year, Skinner gained a cap with a narrow black band on it. When she graduated, she got a cap with a wider band. 

“I don’t even know where my cap is now,” she said.

Over the years, Skinner was a prankster, adding some fun to the stressful profession. She said she and the other nurses had “wheelchair races, stretcher races.” When police officers were in the emergency room, she says, sometimes she’d put stickers on them. They wouldn’t notice until they got back to the police station. 

Skinner retired from the emergency room at age 65. She said that was hospital policy at the time, but “I didn’t know what to do with myself.

“I found out they needed a nurse here at the doctor’s office, so I came here.”

During more than 6½ decades in nursing, Skinner has worked in almost all departments: operating rooms, delivery rooms, emergency intensive-care units. She’s worked in Ontario, Michigan, Mississippi, Georgia and Iowa.

She said a lot has changed since she started.

Students stayed in a residence for nurses and “you were watched over by the nursing supervisors very closely. It was completely different than it is now.”

She said her favourite part of being a nurse is “just people saying thank you for help that I gave them, a big thank you. And I’ve had a lot of hugs.”

Jason Bartell, executive director of the Chatham-Kent Family Health Team, Skinner brings positivity and a great sense of humour.

“Kathy has always been an active participant in the team, even if it means being part of a group costume that has her dressed as a domino, a Golden Girl, or a participant on The Price is Right,” he said. 

“Kathy has always prioritized patient care. She is a kind and caring co-worker and nurse. Both her patients and her co-workers have an abundance of respect and appreciation for her.”

Robin Filip, Skinner’s niece, said her aunt is a “hard-working, fun-loving person, and her age has never affected either one.

‘Infectious giggle’

“When she isn’t caring for her community, she’s deeply connected to her family,” which includes 10 great-grandchildren, Filip said. 

“Kathy is never without her fancy nails, blingy handbag and her infectious giggle, but under all of that, including her wild scrubs, she’s a highly experienced care provider and advocate for her patients.”

Skinner said during retirement, “I’d like to go visit my great-grandkids and be able to travel more to see them.

Retirement “is just something that you do, I guess.”

She’s also not giving up her loves of helping people, planning to become a hospital volunteer.