Coached Through the Challenges

SPRINGFIELD – Jeni Peterson escorts two visitors into the hospital elevator and pushes the button to the lowest level. She moves with the ease of someone who has been on the job for five years.

But a few years ago, that routine act was anything but easy.

“She was petrified of the elevator,” says Lori Pace, director of Employment Solutions, a subsidiary of The Arc of the Ozarks, which helped Jeni obtain the job at Cox Medical Center South.

Jeni was hired to work in the sterile processing department, a massive operation in the basement of the 11-story hospital, where supplies are thoroughly cleaned and redistributed to hospital departments around the clock.

“Part of her job was to deliver supplies on various floors,” Lori explains. A job coach helped Jeni, step by step, conquer her fear of becoming stuck in an elevator. First, the coach rode the elevator with her. Then, Jeni rode alone, knowing the coach would meet her when the elevator doors opened. Soon, Jeni was able to ride the elevator with ease.

During Jeni’s first month on the job, the coach also helped her overcome her shyness in order to interact with co-workers. “She was so nervous at first, meeting new people, that she would completely clam up,” recalls Lori. “We worked with her on how to get to know her co-workers and show that she has a nice personality and is fun and friendly.”

Quick with a smile and a giggle, Jeni says her favorite part of the job is talking with co-workers.

The department manager, Alona Bennett, says Jeni’s strengths include her “great attitude” and willingness to take on new tasks. “She has become more versatile. There are many things she can do.”

Jeni demonstrates how she washes carts and bins and sorts sterile pans into their proper places on the shelves.

Before she was offered a job at Cox, Jeni volunteered there for a year. “I like the atmosphere here,” she says. “You are moving constantly.”

She’s happy at work, but several years ago she had to get over her disappointment at not being able to follow her dream job as a child care provider. She was told she would not be able to become certified for daycare work.

“She regrouped,” says her mother, Judy Peterson. Several family members work in the health care field, so Jeni was drawn to that as a second choice.

“With Jeni, it’s a self-esteem factor. Working at a hospital has really been good for her,” explains Judy. “If she wasn’t working, she’d sit at home all day. The job gives her a chance to be with people. She’s always up and ready to go.”

Since Jeni does not drive, transportation from her home in Nixa is a challenge. Her parents, who live nearby, take her to and from work as it fits with their work schedules. A community integrated services aide also assists in transportation from work and to the grocery store.

Judy explains that Jeni was diagnosed with mixed cerebral palsy, which affects both her muscle and cognitive functions mildly. At school, she was integrated into regular classrooms, with accommodations, and her mother believes that helped Jeni adapt more easily to the workplace.

Despite her first-choice vocational setback, Jeni focuses on what she can do: She bought a house of her own and manages her own finances. She works out daily at a fitness center in the hospital complex. She organizes activities for her close-knit group of friends, including ballgames, movies and barbecues at her home. She sews. She takes care of her cat.

Jeni also provides leadership for a group known as the Ladies Job Club. Organized by Employment Solutions, the group brings together Springfield-area women with disabilities to have fun and to problem-solve work issues. The women have a variety of jobs, including food service, industrial laundry and office filing.

“Regardless of the job, there are always similar issues that come up, things that we might take for granted, but if you have never worked before, you have not experienced,” Lori says. The group has discussed issues such as time management, holiday stress and dealing with difficult customers or co-workers.

It was Jeni’s idea for the ladies to become involved in community volunteering, specifically with the local organization, Newborns in Need. Jeni supplied sewing tools, fabric and patterns, and the group made bibs, blankets and layettes for babies born into hardship circumstances.

“She helped some of the ladies who had never held a pair of scissors,” Lori notes.

Whether volunteering or working, Jeni is never far from her first love – babies. Recently, when her cousin gave birth at Cox Medical Center, Jeni was able to visit the nursery four times – just an easy elevator ride from her work station.