Patricia Kinnard sat back in a chair in her office in the Warren County Jail and though for a moment, “It seems like I’ve been a nurse all my life,” she said.
Since graduating from nursing school in 1975, she has worked at several hospitals, starting with the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where she was a pediatric nurse.
“I worked on oncology floor — Pediatric 2C. I stayed there a couple of years, but my heart wasn’t too strong to accept the death of young children. You end up falling in love with them, and you know the outcome is bad, but you can’t help yourself, because they’re children.”
She also worked in a nursing home, “And I found out that wasn’t any easier, because you get in love with them, too.”
She later worked Kuhn Memorial Hospital, Vicksburg Hospital and River Region, serving as an emergency room nurse.
“I liked the emergency room,” Kinnard said. “Working in the ER, kept my adrenalin flowing. It’s exciting, and when someone comes in and you can take care of them and when they walk out and go home, that’s the most exciting part; I think my heart was believing nobody was to die. With the emergency room, we only had them a short period of time.”
She also worked in the intensive care unit at Vicksburg Hospital at night taking care of some of the people she saw in the emergency room.
“My joy was the ER the adrenaline rush for someone to come in hurt, and we could take car of them, The times that we couldn’t, it was sad, but I had to keep up this strong face, because you’ve got to stay focused on whatever you do, You must stay focused, because when you let your guard drop, you lose focus and forget what you’re doing. And your main focus is the patient and the family. You’ve got to stay strong for the patient and the family.
“I loved Kuhn; Kuhn hospital was great,” she said. “You had to use your knowledge. Back in those days, you had to stand in line to get the linen for your patient, and when the linen ran out, you had to make do with what you had.
We saw approximately 50 to 60 patients a day, because it was a charity hospital,” she said. “They delivered 125 babies a week; it was nothing for them to have 30 babies a day. Most of the people I knew were going to Kuhn back then. Very few had insurance to go to Mercy and Vicksburg.”
After working at Merit Health River Region Medical Center for several years, Kinnard went to the jail as its nurse.
“The jail is my cup of tea,” she said. “ I should have been at this jail years ago. Working here, they know my name, they call me by name; they give me respect. I am the liaison between the inmates and the doctor and the sheriff, I work under Dr. (John) Ford, who is the jail doctor. I notify him of everything going on, if any patient needs any thing, I notify Dr. Ford, Dr. Ford checks them, we don’t have a problem, if I feel someone has to go to the hospital, I call the doctor.
“The employees and employer are more friendly than at the hospital. At the hospital, I worked in the ER each night, and they weren’t as friendly. When I walk in here, everybody I pass says good morning and they call your name. It’s pleasure to work in the jail. Even the inmates call you by name. They give me respect. It’s a different world.
“Working for the sheriff has been a pleasure,” she said. “The sheriff knows my name. Linda Pugh, the jail administrator, she knows my name. When I see them on the outside, they still know who I am. It’s a godsend.
She said two influences pointed her toward nursing.
“When I was 8 years old, my grandmother went into a coma, and back in those days, they stayed at home, because we were in the country, she was in the bed and she never would move,” she said.
When her grandmother was healthy, she said, “I would come home from school, would go to my grandmother’s home and she would make me some black-eyed peas and rice.
“For two years in a row, every evening from the first grade to the second grade to the third grade until she got sick, I ran home from school, drop my books and go straight to my grandmother’s house, and she had the black-eyed peas and rice, and that’s my favorite dish. When she got sick, I guess being 8 years, old, I really didn’t know what was going on, but I just had an idea.”
Living in the country, she also had pets, “and I just loved them, and when they got injured I put a little stick on their leg, so I guess back then in those days, I learned I wanted to be a nurse.”
Family influence led her to another career, serving as an usher at her church, Pleasant Valley M.B. Church.
“I’ve been an usher since I was 13 years old,” she said. “I think ushering and nursing are almost alike. As an usher, you’re the doorkeeper, nursing, the patient keeper; they go hand in hand.
“My aunt was an usher, and she was so pretty in that white uniform; the white stockings and shoes, she looked just like an angel,” she said. “She would go to church and help the people, and I just wanted to be like that. When I was baptized, the pastor asked me what I wanted to do, and I said, ‘be an usher’ they let me start at that age.
“You learn from watching the older people; you learn from books,” she said. “You learn from each other, because everybody’s got input and everybody can tell you how to make your job easier, and working together, is the best thing.
She is a member of the Citywide Ushers, a group that assists at funerals and events at other churches at the invitation of that church or its pastor. Once there, the group works under the guidance of the church’s pastor.
Besides her duties as an usher, she is also a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, serving as Worthy Matron of ADAH Chapter 43, Grand Queen Bathsheba of the state of Mississippi, and grand district nurse for Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas at conferences.
She is also vice president of the Mississippi Baptists Ladies Auxiliary
“It just keeps me busy,” she said. “An idle mind is the devil’s work shop, so I try and keep my mind busy.”
She said she’s not sure how long she’ll practice nursing, adding, “I hope I can work until I’m 72. By them they’ll probably want to get rid of me, anyway. I’ll usher until I can’t.”