For the sake of perspective, think about your current place of employment. Can you picture working there 10 years from now? What about 20 or 30 years from now? How about the number of years it would take for you to reach a total of 55 years for that organization? For most people it is probably difficult or impossible to imagine what that would be like. It certainly wasn’t something Janice White thought about as a 16-year-old working a part-time summer job that continued as an office education job when her senior year of high school started. For some people in Janice’s life, especially her advisor for the office education program at Lawrence High School, Mary Gauthier, it was hard to imagine that Janice would be able to work at Visiting Nurses for very long at all. Mary actually considered it to be a waste of Janice’s talents at the time. After all, they could only pay Janice for three hours of work per day, rather than the four hours the program required, which meant she had to complete additional projects to meet the course requirement. VNA was still a very new organization in only its second year of operation. It was a new concept in the community, as it was the first home health care organization in Douglas County. There were probably plenty of people that suspected Douglas County Visiting Nurses Association (VNA) wouldn’t be around long at all. As a new part of the healthcare continuum, VNA had to prove that it was an asset to physicians and the community, rather than an unwanted competitor. In addition to the external concerns, Janice had her own trepidations. The main responsibility of her initial role with VNA was answering the phone, something that wasn’t a natural fit for someone who was, in her own words, painfully shy at that time. Despite all of the concerns about VNA’s viability and whether it was a good fit for Janice, she decided to give it a chance.
Janice White (seated) in her early days at VNA.
As you are probably aware or can imagine, the world was very different when Janice started at VNA. Richard Nixon was the President of the United States. A gallon of gas was 36¢. Simon and Garfunkel, The Carpenters, and Edwin Starr were frequently on the radio. The Kansas City Chiefs were Super Bowl Champions (so not everything was all that different). VNA was also very different. The office space that Janice worked out of was in the unfinished basement of the house at 342 Missouri. The first and second floors of the house were occupied by Bert Nash, while VNA shared the basement with the American Cancer Society. There were no offices in the space, but large metal cabinets were used as makeshift room dividers. Janice worked in the office with VNA’s director and bookkeeper. Field staff would come into the office to complete documentation and pick up medical supplies. VNA had a total staff of less than 10 when Janice started. “It was a small group, small office, small patient caseload,” Janice said.
VNA was an exciting new challenge for Janice. Her only real job prior to VNA was babysitting. Now, she was answering the phone for VNA and trying to keep up with fast-speaking physicians who were often using medical terminology. It didn’t take long for Janice’s role at VNA to expand. She started out with answering the phones, then typed up summaries on patients and the services they received to send to physicians. It was a learning experience for Janice, who had to type up the summaries from medical shorthand used by clinical staff. Janice remembers a specific abbreviation she laughs about now, but it initially alarmed her before she understood what it stood for in a medical context. “When I would type up the physician reports and they would say ‘patient is SOB,’ I only knew one thing that stood for, and it wasn’t nice,” she said. “It came up fairly often on the patient records and I thought ‘oh my gosh, I can’t believe we’re saying this about our patients,’ until I figured out it stood for short of breath.” This comical misunderstanding prompted Janice to focus on learning more of the abbreviations.
When VNA’s bookkeeper left, Janice’s role grew to full-time and she started handling the bookkeeping. She was doing payroll, paying bills, and tracking VNA’s finances on spreadsheets. It was a process that looked very different in the early 1970s, a time of manual typewriters and mimeographs, compared to today. As the years went by, Janice’s role continued to grow and change along with VNA’s growth.
Janice was an important part of VNA from the beginning. She worked closely with all of VNA’s executive directors, except for Lyn Rothwell, VNA’s first Executive Director and founder who had left before Janice started. She contributed well beyond her usual job duties. This included involving her family with the agency. Janice’s parents assisted with VNA’s first office move to 701 New Hampshire in 1973. They lent their truck, time, and effort to the process. Luckily, it only took a couple of trips to move the small organization. At this time, VNA shared the space with the Health Department.
VNA’s survival as an organization wouldn’t have been possible without the commitment and sacrifice displayed by Janice and other staff. “Money is always an issue,” Janice said. “It was always a challenge trying to figure out where we were going to get money, how we were going to get money for the next payroll.” Despite financial challenges throughout the years, VNA always found a way to remain operational. Janice’s dedication to VNA once had her driving to Iowa to pick up a check from the Medicare intermediary in order to have it deposited in VNA’s account in time for payroll the next day. “We always seemed to find it somewhere,” Janice said. “Something would come through at the last minute. We took out loans a couple of times to make payroll. We had a couple of very generous donors over the years, that out of the blue, it was like somebody heard something from somebody and a check would mysteriously appear so that we could just keep doing what we were doing.” VNA’s struggles were indicative of life as both a not-for-profit and a healthcare organization that is primarily funded through Medicare payments. Luckily for VNA, Janice stayed committed to the organization and its mission through all of the challenges.
While it was always a challenge to ensure VNA had the funds to pay staff, Janice stressed that VNA always prioritized patient care. The complete commitment to patient care even meant that administrative and management staff took pay cuts and reduced hours on multiple occasions, allowing funds to go to the clinicians providing the hands-on care so they could keep seeing patients. “Over the years it was an adventure,” Janice said. “I guess you just did what you had to do. We just made it work. We were all here for the same reason and we just kept going.” That’s exactly what Janice and VNA have done, they just kept going.
Janice poses for a photo with long-time Executive Director Marceil Lauppe.
In the last 55 years, VNA has had many different Executive Directors/CEOs and has gone through several office moves. Janice has been through it all. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the length of her service at VNA, Janice’s personal life has been interwoven with VNA. Three generations of her family have been directly connected with VNA. Janice’s mother, Beverly Cates, volunteered for VNA for more than 30 years and was even briefly on the payroll at one point. Her father, Richard Cates, volunteered for VNA installing CareLink emergency alert systems. Both Beverly and Richard also received VNA’s services, giving Janice an even stronger appreciation of VNA’s care from the perspective of being the daughter of a patient. Janice’s daughters, Christina and Larissa, worked for Visiting Nurses at times. Her granddaughters have trick or treated at VNA and been to various VNA-related events. Janice’s husband, Robert, has volunteered and helped with various events and projects. Her brother, Rick, and nephew, Owen, have volunteered for several of VNA’s 3.d Casino Night Fundraisers. When it comes to Janice and VNA, it is certainly a family affair.
Janice poses for a picture with her parents, Richard and Beverly, on the VNA float for the Maple Leaf Parade.
In her time at VNA, Janice has witnessed many changes, but technology may be the biggest of those. Janice went from using a manual typewriter to an electric typewriter and then to computers. Of course, the computers and printers then evolved significantly overtime. Janice remembers the first computer system VNA had and dot matrix printers that were big, loud and would often misfeed. Field staff went from charting on paper to computers and later iPads. Janice also recalls using a Dictaphone to transcribe clinician’s notes before sending them along. Janice also experienced the changes technology had on communication. Janice was with VNA from the days when office staff had no way to reach field staff, to pagers, and eventually cell phones that allowed for easy communication anywhere at any time.
Janice’s role at VNA has evolved and grown along with the organization. From her early days of typing and answering the phone, a time when Janice doesn’t recall even having a title, to Bookkeeper, Administrative Assistant, Office Manager, and then HR Manager for almost 30 years. “Regardless of what my job has been, I have always done something that would be considered HR,” Janice said. Over the years, Janice took on many tasks for VNA that were beyond her job description, including a brief foray into IT when VNA first moved into the Community Health Facility. Janice gave it her best shot when no one else at VNA was willing or able to take on the task and even took classes on setting up and monitoring a network, but IT wasn’t a great fit for her. “I figured out really quickly that was not where my skill set was, so I very quickly told them we needed someone who knew that and understood it,” Janice said.
As a lifelong HR professional, Janice’s preference was to spend more time working with people than machines. For this very reason, Janice still enjoys answering the phones when needed. “I still love answering the phones,” Janice said. “I don’t mind that at all because everyone is unique, everything is different, and (you’re) talking to people and trying to solve their problems.” Janice’s time answering the phones also led to many interesting interactions and fun stories, including a memorable mistake caused by food and an unfortunately timed question that has provided many laughs for Janice, her coworkers, friends, and family.
“It was a busy day and I was on the phones,” Janice recalled. “Cup-a-Noodles was really popular at that time and it was cheap. You just add water to the Styrofoam container and you have chicken noodles. I was sitting at my desk and somebody asked me what I was eating at the exact moment that the phone rang. I meant to tell them noodles and when I picked up the phone I said ‘Visiting Noodles’ and I lost it. I totally lost it. I couldn’t even talk I was laughing so hard. Fortunately, I could put the phone on hold and whoever else was in the desk area with me (could answer). I couldn’t talk and I was worthless literally almost the whole rest of the day because every time I started to answer the phone that is all I could think about.”
Janice holds up a Visiting Noodles shirt that was given to her for her 49th anniversary at VNA.
In Janice’s time at VNA, she has seen many staff members come and go. Janice worked very closely with Marceil Lauppe, another VNA legend, for many years until she retired in March of 2002 after 33 years of service with VNA. Debbie Ahlert-Caffey – Hospice Manager, Lani Rothwell – Clinical Administrative Manager, Pat Deaver – Help at Home Manager, and Carolyn Milleret – CHHA have all worked with Janice at VNA for around 30 years. Any of these dedicated staff members could likely be the longest serving at other organizations, but at VNA they’re still about 20 years shy of Janice. Clearly, Janice has her reasons for staying at VNA for so long. “I think it’s just because I like it so much and I do believe so much in what VNA does,” Janice said. “What we do for the community is so important to me.”
Janice (right) poses for a photo with Marceil Lauppe (left) and Debbie Ahlert-Caffey (middle) at a Kansas Home Care and Hospice Association conference.
As they say, all good things must come to an end, including Janice’s time at VNA. After so many years of dedicated service, it will be a significant adjustment for both Janice and VNA, but she knows it is the right time. “I still love my job. I still like doing what I’m doing, but I figure it’s time,” Janice said. “I want to do some other things.” For the first time since she was 16 years old, Janice won’t be working at Visiting Nurses and will have more time to do other things. She has projects planned around the house, specifically going through a large collection of her and her mother’s photos that are currently sitting in her garage. Most importantly, Janice plans to spend more time with her grandchildren. Her grandchildren that live nearby have various sports and activities that will certainly help keep Janice busy. She will also have more time to visit her grandchildren and great-grandchild that live in Virginia. She looks forward to taking her time on trips and not worrying about being needed at work. Janice is also eager to not have so much responsibility and to have the opportunity to relax a little more. When she leaves work for the day, she is used to thinking about tomorrow’s schedule, impending deadlines, and other work responsibilities, but she won’t have to worry about those details anymore. Janice is ready to remove her “HR hat,” although her husband, Robert, doubts she’ll ever be able to fully do so. “That’ll be the fun part,” Janice said. “Seeing how easily that part of me goes away.”
Janice poses for a photo with some of her family members at her VNA retirement party.
Even with all that Janice has to be excited for in retirement, leaving VNA will undoubtedly be bittersweet. “I love VNA. I love what we do. I love my job,” Janice said. “VNA gave me the flexibility to raise my family.” Having time to be with her kids and to attend their sporting events and activities was an invaluable benefit Janice enjoyed at VNA. “If I had not worked some place that gave me that flexibility, I don’t know if I would have stayed as long,” she said. Janice has always made it clear that her family is her top priority, even when she once had to make that clear to a board member who was trying to schedule an after-hours meeting that conflicted with one of her daughter’s activities. The board member suggested Janice “get her priorities straight,” to which she replied “my priorities are exactly where they need to be, my family comes first. VNA is a very close second, but if I ever have to choose my job over my family, my family will win every time.” Janice thought that might be the end of her time at VNA, but her point hit home and future planning was made with much more consideration of her personal schedule. Soon, Janice will have even more time to spend with her family.
One thing is abundantly clear through this transition in Janice’s life. It is the people in her life that are most important. Janice has not only been passionate about what VNA does for its patients, but also about the well-being of staff. Now that she is leaving VNA and looking forward to spending more time with her family, she also knows that she’ll miss seeing her colleagues. “The people will be what I miss the most,” Janice said. Janice’s coworkers will certainly miss her as well, but luckily, Janice won’t be far away and has mentioned wanting to volunteer somewhere…
Congratulations to Janice on an incredible career at VNA and now a well-deserved retirement! She will be missed, but will forever be a part of the VNA family.