Any of you people work in health care?

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I am Bob and I work as a medical transcriptionist which I type medical records. I like the job but only some - of the offices when I worked in hospitals were noisy, stressful hellholes (oh, I have been told that if I was not on the spectrum, I would not have called that place a "hellhole"). Its a bit better working from my own apartment now, when I worked from my mother's house it was awful (she knows I have a problem, but does she turn down the too-loud TV? NO. She just rolls her eyes). I have also worked as a building maintaince worker, which I do when I "burn out" of transcription about every 2-3 years.

Anyway, does anyone here work as a health care worker, like a nurse? My mother being a nurse thought I should have a degree in nursing but could I handle the chaos? I have also find it hard to deal with health care places even when I am the patient because everybody plays a noisy radio or TV. This week I had a colonoscopy and there was a radio blaring a Phil Collins song in the procedure room! Thank goodness I was soon put under.

Should people on the spectrum even consider health care careers? Discuss.

i was an MD. my lack of social skills eventually got me in trouble with other docs who saw to it i couldn't practice any more. i'd say any profession requiring a lot of contact with people is iffy for those of us on the spectrum.

Yes, I used to work in the nursing field. It's been quite a long time since I quit (10+ years), but I still have nightmares about it. It really messed with my mental health at the time. Nursing is full-on, sensory overload - people (and depending on where you work, new people every day!), problems, situations, smells, gross stuff, stress, hospital hierarchies and all that crap, it's just never-ending.

I'm sure there are people on the spectrum who can handle it, but I'd recommend treading carefully!

I am a psychologist. It has not been my client's that have been the problem, but my co-workers. Some places are better than others. I have found that the less socially sophisticated people are the better I do. I do better in innercity neighborhoods and in rural areas rather than in snooty suburban work places where there are social rules that no one tells you but expect you to know. I don't have problems with loud noises though. As I have quite bad ADHD also, I need some background noise to concentrate.

I used to work with wheelchairs. I got into trouble when I suggested that the patients should be turned into cyborgs.

I worked with developmentally disabled adults in individualized supported living, and after moved to working in a nursing home. I do not know how valuable my experience is, because I do not feel that I have succeeded in any job I have attempted, since the longest I have kept a single position was eight months when I was a teenager and working evenings in a deserted public library children's department. However, I would never work in health care again. The intense interpersonal interaction, both with coworkers and with patients, was unbearable to me. Working with elderly people is very difficult because they often have exacting standards for "polite" behavior. I also found very stressful the pressure to complete tasks quickly rather than correctly, which is something I cannot abide. I spent every non-working hour dreading the moment when I would have to walk back through the doors. It believe that the worst part, however, was feeling that due to my own traits and lack of support network, I could easily have crossed the line from caregiver to patient, and experienced the same dehumanizing, abhorrent treatment that I witnessed on every shift. I say in all sincerity that I will end my life before I will enter the doors of a nursing home as a patient. Therefore, my conscience, in addition to my other limitations, prevents me from ever considering health care work again.

Kinda funny that Minotaur Head Cheese would rather end their life than ever step foot again in a nursing home. Guess what? I did that (attempted suicide) in 1992. It was a good attempt - I was practically comatose for two days - but I obviously failed. I ended up spending two months in a psych hospital after that. The reason? I'd been an LPN since 1985. It'd been torturous HELL for me. (I'm actually still an LPN but I quit my nursing home job about 2 months ago). I'm 49 now. I live alone so I'm not in a position to go back to college for a career change.

Nursing is absolutely NOT the career choice for aspies. (I didn't become a nurse by choice. I was 24. My mother gave me a choice back then - be a nurse or be homeless. Some choices!) Nursing forces you to interact with people (HATE IT!), delegate responsibility & tasks to CNA's (HATE IT!), appear at meetings (HATE IT!), feel empathy for other people (Can't do it!) But the rent has to be paid so I'm stuck.

I'm buying time right now. I know I'll be going back to this despicable job in a month or two and the torture, misery & pain will begin all over again. Yeah, I know, this precarious perch always places me on the tip of suicide - a most dangerous place to be - but it seems like right now I don't have a choice. I'm stuck with nursing. Isn't that horrible?

There's got to be a light at the end of this tunnel, though. But hell, with my luck, I won't see that light till I'm gasping my last breath.

It is really hard to explain when your family is in medical professions about the sensory issues like I have. My mother was a nurse and I always heard "Bob are you interested in nursing". I have asked EMTs how they deal with the gross things and they tell me "you get used to it". I have looked at gross things on purpose to try to get used to it and it does not work for me. Maybe that is the problem aspies cannot get "used to it". I am even finding it hard to deal with a hospital as a patient. I hope I never end up in an ICU the beeping and alarms would be a nightmare.

Temple Grandin had a list of not recommended jobs but she forgot about nursing.