NURSING?
Hi I just registered.
My full assessment is in January.
I took a lot of tests and came out high.
I want to ask if nursing is an OK field to go into, for a 'loner' type Aspie (Like me)?
I have 2 kids. Both very little.
one is SEVERE AUTISTIC with lots of health issues.
He has had nurses throughout. They encouraged me to pursue nursing (I HAVE NO DEGREE YET, just high school).
They also inspired me to go for it. I have a lot of respect for nurses.
My brother (ALL MY SIBLINGS ARE YOUNGER THAN ME but smarter)
told me nursing is not a good job for me, with all the stress I already have.
I have always been loner type. I am nice with people but I cannot handle it too long.
However I am very caring,
very compassionate,
very nurturing.
I am also intelligent just not street-smart or a big talker.
if I am told what to do I will do it. I just need to know what to do, and I can do well.
I am 27 yrs old my parents married me to someone I didn't know,
before I could get educated.
So that's why I have kids before education.
I feel a lot of passion for this field, but I want to know if there are ASPIE NURSES here who actually like their job??
RECENTLY AN ARTICLE CAME OUT IN CANADA
about an abusive doctor (in parry sound)
who abused and kicked and harrassed nurses.
This has put me off a bit. Is it like this everywhere? I asked on a makeup forum, and many nurses said ABUSE IS PART OF THE JOB. is that true?
i KNOW i am resilient and strong. but i want to hear from real professionals who are aspie?
_________________
Take defeat as an urge to greater effort.
-Napoleon Hill
I shall preface this by saying I'm not a nurse but I have worked in both the US and UK healthcare systems in a clinical role, so can comment a bit on this. Nursing is a tough profession, but one that is also extremely rewarding. In both countries, the hours you work will be long, although part time working is possible to some degree. Currently, within the UK at least, nursing schools are really focusing on resilience of their students. Will you be able to deal with the rotas (working odd hours, nights, weekends, etc), the short staffing, the bed crisis, patients demands, relatives demands, and a huge number conflicting, ever changing priorities in addition to the actual nursing care of the job?
The personal care/medical side of nursing is wonderful and extremely rewarding. But, you do need to take into consideration that while this may be the primary purpose of your role as a nurse there will be a lot of other things attached to the job that also need to be managed and dealt with.
Unfortunately, abuse is part of the job. It shouldn't be and the culture and environment is getting much better but it does still happen and will continue to happen. We operate a zero tolerance policy in the UK to abuse of NHS staff, but, it still happens. Most of what I've seen is patients abusing the staff rather than other staff dong the abuse. I've been kicked, I've been bitten, I've been sworn at and hit - and all this from a patient with severe dementia. He was ill, in a new environment, couldn't understand anything going on around him and terrified. As far as he knew we were torturing him by jabbing him with needles for a blood test. As a response he reacted with violence.
The difference is between intentional abuse, where the person understands what they are doing, and unintentional/fear reactions is key. I will put up with being harassed by patients with dementia, confusion, learning disabilities, brain injury, etc. because I know they don't always have the capacity to understand why we are doing what we are doing. If I can correct their behaviour or make the experience easier on them, I will, but sometimes regardless of what we do, they will lash out.
I will say the job and the camaraderie of the staff is amazing. Being able to help someone though a crisis in their lives is such a rewarding privilege.
I would suggest, if you can, working a bit as a healthcare assistant in a nursing home or hospital. It will give you contact with nurses and give you some understanding of the environment you will be working in.
Thank you for the enormously detailed explanation. I am in contact with nurses because of my son and I really respect them. I don’t know whether it’s smart of me to go into it as you mention odd hours.
That I can’t do, because of my kids
Perhaps if I get in I will do one year and see if the Credits may be transferred to another profession within the field, if it proves oo much for me.
_________________
Take defeat as an urge to greater effort.
-Napoleon Hill
I would say if it's something you are interested in doing, then it might be worth having conversation with someone from the nursing department at the universities you were thinking of applying to. I know quite a few parents who are nurses, so it can be done.
Something else to consider: Sometimes, regardless of when your shift is supposed to end, you won't get actually leave until 2-3 hours after it was supposed to end (particularly if you have to deal with an emergency close to the end of your shift). So, finding good childcare is going to be key (friends & family are brilliant and cheep ways to do this, although you may need a professional sitter/child minder at times). They need to be flexible enough that they can deal with you not necessarily getting home at the time you said you would.
What attracts you to nursing as a profession?
If you need something that has slightly more regular hours what about occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, or any of the other allied health professions?
That I can’t do, because of my kids
In some countries their is the option of Agency.
You specify your available days and hours, and then if they have a shift, they give you a call.
You are essentially on a list of people who fill in for sick nurses.
That I can’t do, because of my kids
In some countries their is the option of Agency.
You specify your available days and hours, and then if they have a shift, they give you a call.
You are essentially on a list of people who fill in for sick nurses.
Yeah but i don’t think that would make me self-sufficient. Because I need to be financially independent
_________________
Take defeat as an urge to greater effort.
-Napoleon Hill
There are old threads on WP about nursing, try searching the archives.
What I saw a lot of aspie nurses say is that they get along fine with patients, but other nurses can be hellish to deal with. It depends a lot on your situation.
_________________
I sometimes leave conversations and return after a long time. I am sorry about it, but I need a lot of time to think about it when I am not sure how I feel.
I've been a registered nurse for eight years, mostly working in emergency and now undergoing postgraduate education. Like with anything I can't say that it's good or bad for certain types of people, because everyone has different traits and ways of dealing with their weaker areas. It's fine to be a loner, but you will have to meet and learn to work well with other staff and patients. The degree to which this is required will depend on the field you choose to work in.
I can only speak of my own experience but I haven't had any major issues between other disciplines. However, emergency tends to work much more closely with other disciplines compared to other areas. I feel like any staff member who was abusive wouldn't last long and would probably just get told to pull their head in.
As for patients, you can expect to see the worst of human behaviour. This is true with any job that deals with the public, but you need to be someone who doesn't get affected easily by such behaviour. In my time I have seen racial slurs, assumptions about my sexual orientation, spitting, and physical violence including homicidal intent. Personally I just ignore it until it passes the line, and then I just deal with it. I don't think I've ever been affected by it on a personal level, but other people are. If you think you'd be affected by this then that's also OK but you need to know your limits. Knowing when to walk away from a situation and let someone else handle it is also useful.
I'm autistic, and I'm currently doing clinicals to become a physical therapist assistant. It's similar in the sense that I'm dealing with patients directly. I'd say a PTA requires far more social interaction with patients because he/she works with a patient (and sometimes a patient's family) for sometimes as long as 60 to 70 minutes at a time. I'm early in my clinicals but I already got the feedback, "You are very good at an important part of being an effective therapist, working well with patients and meeting their emotional needs". I didn't want to say that I actually was copying the behaviors of the other PTAs around me in order to successfully deal with patients, so yeah it can be taught and even copied.....
Anyway, with your profession you spend less time with each patient usually. However, you will interact more with coworkers like physicians and other nurses more frequently. I work cloyingly with OTs, PTs etc. at the rehab unit I'm working at, but only a 10 to 12 times per day because I have large chunks of time where I'm focusing directly on the patient.
In either case, you need to be able to get along with other people. If you are good at copying people's behaviors, find a nurse who works effectively with patients, and basically just figure out their formula for success and copy it and make it your own.
So, is it possible for an autistic to be an effective healthcare worker and even effectively support their patients emotionally and socially? Yeah, it's possible, but it takes a lot of work. So far I've found it very rewarding though.
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