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When Janet Harris was growing up on the banks of Lake Tiak-O'Khata, she often fished with her dad, who taught her that "you can't just do the fun part. If you're going to fish, you have to learn to do it all," she recalled.

At an early age, Harris learned to catch, scale and clean fish completely, and to even fry them and make hush puppies. But she also learned how to have some mischievous fun afterward.

"I became notorious for 'grossing out' the other girls in elementary and junior high school by taking salvaged fish hearts to the movies in small, clear plastic boxes," she recalled, with a chuckle. "The boys loved it when the girls squealed. And so did I."

Those early experiences led Harris to a career in nursing, as did an experience that occurred in her family before she was born.

"My older sister, Patricia, was 11 when I was born," explained Harris. "She had suffered from polio as a child and had been told that she would never walk again. The doctors in Memphis were amazed a couple of years later when she did, in fact, walk unassisted back into the clinic. My mother always declared that my sister walked again because of the warm baths and leg massages that she gave her every night."

Harris' parents, V.B. and Lena Young, had lost two children while trying to have a second child, and were fearful of losing their third. Hospitalized for several weeks before the baby's due date, Lena gave birth to Janet Elizabeth Young on Oct. 3, 1952 in Tupelo.

Before she started the first grade, Harris' parents moved the family to Louisville, Miss. — everything they owned was packed in one car — so her father could work as a Prudential Insurance Company salesperson and her mother could stay at home working as a seamstress. For a dozen years, the family rented "half" a house — two bedrooms — from the Smythe family, who owned "the lake."

While a student at Louisville High School, Harris held leadership positions in chorus, math, science, Beta, Spanish, and Latin clubs, and attended Girls State. She toured with the youth choir at First Methodist Church in Louisville.

"I'd long known that I wanted to be a nurse, so I began to look at the information from the University (of Mississippi) Medical Center," she said. "My application to the BSN program was accepted and … so off to Jackson I went at the age of 17."

After college, Harris began her nursing career as a graduate nurse in the cardiovascular recovery area at Baptist Hospital in Jackson. She married her high school sweetheart, Danny Harris — they were voted Mr. And Miss LHS Danny in 1974 — and had a son, Wes, in 1978. They divorced in 1981.

Two years later, Harris married Joe Mac Hudspeth Jr., an outdoorsman best known as the photographer who produces the Mississippi Sportsman License Prints.

"Being a single mom was not an easy task," she confided. "He accepted the challenge and became a father to my son. Over the years, he taught Wes to tie his shoes, how to catch a baseball and to field dress a deer. We've all maintained a great relationship with Wes' dad, who is now a very successful periodontist in the Nashville area."

When Harris was serving as the associate hospital director of nursing at University Medical Center, the school became the first of its kind managed by HCA, a for-profit management company. She was told early on that, according to the contract, HCA's role was to move the bottom line from red to black. "I vividly remember the day, in an administrative staff meeting, when the CEO stated directly to me: 'Janet, you need to eliminate 250 nursing positions, and don't give me the lowest salaried ones.'"

"I was devastated," she said, adding that she was given a two-week time frame. "After many sleepless nights, I decided that I couldn't eliminate any of the nurses who provided direct patient care. That meant that many of the supporting positions such as educational ones would have to be on the list. I worked with directors of departments and developed the 'downsizing' list and pink slip notices were given. As my heart broke, I made a decision. I couldn't share in the 'slash' philosophy going forward. I resigned my 'plum' position … that move turned out as a very positive one for me."

In 1996, Harris left Baptist Health Systems, where she had been a nursing director for 11 years, and accepted a "too good to be true" position with a staffing business.

"I'd been on board for a few weeks and was attempting to run some financial reports when I realized the reports were locked, and I didn't have access to them," she said. "After countless hours on the phone with the accountant and software vendor, I was finally able to print the summaries. And … my predecessor had taken a quarter of a million dollars from this very small company. The most painful part of this situation was that the person who took the money had been a friend of mine (who) had developed a serious cocaine problem and used company money to feed his habit."

Even though Harris spent several months attempting to grow the business and rebuild cash on hand, the company was crippled.

"After a great deal of analysis, I decided it was best to cut my losses," she said. "Despite this failure, I probably learned some of the most valuable lessons of my life with this experience, not the least of which was that my family was, once again, there to support me. I was readily hired by Pyxis Corporation, which led to the wonderful position that I have today."

Today, Harris is Cardinal Health's director of clinic improvement for the Center for Medication Safety and Clinical Improvement.

"Although I'm no longer directly caring for patients, I have a broader role with more impact," she said. "I focus on educating healthcare providers about the need to decrease the variability in practice to drive clinical improvements and to increase patient outcomes throughout the United States What a great way for me to continue to serve others!"



ie.
November 2006

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