Jacqueline Jennings-Arnold has the gift of keeping patients relaxed while she’s sticking them in the arm to draw blood. As a medical lab technician and phlebotomist at Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center, she’s likely the person you’ll see when those pesky lab tests need doing.
“I love my patients,” she said when asked what she likes best about her job.
Jennings-Arnold, who is certified by the American Healthcare Professionals, also has the gift of gab, and said she talks to her patients to keep their minds off what else is happening.
Others also think highly of her. In 2010 she was named the Myrah Keating Smith employee of the year, and in 2011 she was honored as the territorial government’s employee of the year for Schneider Regional Medical Center.
She said she likes working at Myrah Keating Smith because it’s quiet, and she’s able to have one-on-one interactions with her patients.
A St. Thomas resident, she makes the most of her commute. She gets some exercise by parking a good distance away and she spends the time on the ferry reading.
“It’s my relaxing time,” she said.
Jennings-Arnold, 49, has worked in the territory’s health care system for a good part of 30 years. She went to work as a typist at Knud Hansen Hospital right after she graduated from Charlotte Amalie High School, but got interested in laboratory technology under the guidance of her supervisor, Donald Turnbull.
She later moved to New York. While working as clerk typist at J.P. Morgan, she studied laboratory technology at the Mandl School.
After returning briefly to her native St. Thomas, she moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked in a psychiatric institution in nearby Takoma Park, Md., while studying laboratory technology at Montgomery College.
She got married, but the birth of a son with sickle cell anemia forced her to drop out of school and return to a job in the medical laboratory at what was then called St. Thomas Hospital.
That son, Akil Petersen, 25, now lives in Tennessee, but Jennings-Arnold is still active in sickle cell activities and keeps busy as a member of the Methodist Church’s health outreach program. She’s a member of the church’s Graduates and Promotees Program and goes camping through the Ultimate Campers Inc. program.
“I love kids and my family,” she said.
Jennings-Arnold is all about family. When’s she’s not catching up on her reading during her commute from her home on St. Thomas, she’s busy with family activities.
She’s married to Rejelio Arnold, who works in the hemodialysis unit at Roy L. Schneider Regional Medical Center. She keeps tabs on her mother, Mariel Jennings, and her one son still at home. Ajelio Arnold, 14, attends Eudora Kean High School.
In addition to Akil, her other three children, Aliya, 32, Akesha, 24, and Akejah, 21, also live in Tennessee. Another son died. She also has three grandchildren, Ashi, 10, and Ashinique, 7, in Tennessee, and Alinik, 10, on St. Thomas.
Jennings-Arnold plans to retire in two and a half years, and she’ll spend her time in her volunteers pursuits and looking after her grandchildren.
“Just like my mother did for me,” she said.
