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Thinking of going into Nursing, with Asperger's worried I won't be able to manage the social side

Munchkin

Hi, 

I think I have Asperger's, (self diagnosed, but backed up by a fair amount of evidence) I am looking to change careers into nursing (from lab based) 

I know that I do care about people and I do want to help, and I love the idea of a career doing something actually helpful, I am fairly confident of my technical abilities. 

But I am worried that nursing may be a terrible choice for me given the Asperger's. My worries:

-this will be a lot of social interaction I am worried about burn out

-concern that I may miss ques from a patient and lead them to harm

-concern that I will not be able to get along with co workers

-Concern that social problems could make me a liability

-concern that the constant changing nature of the work would be difficult

I do not struggle with environmental stimulus and I am told I am good at people, though it doesn't feel that way, I feel like it would be less of a problem with patients and more with co workers, I struggle to build relationships in the work environment with coworkers before, largely very "normal" people, I have little common ground. Maybe I am worried for nothing but I would appreciate feedback. I know that I think differently to most, I know that generally I like rules and knowing where I stand. 

I don't know, I am trying to get experience volunteering and in some care work seems like the best way. But I keep stressing whether this is entirely a stupid decision for me. I have begun some care work (very new), I like the service users I work with and the actual work is fine, but I hate not knowing what I should be doing though I think this is a problem with the particular agencies training and scheduling, also it is still new so maybe just struggling to adjust. With lockdown I have not been interacting with people outside of my close circle much for months which probably does not help. 

Anyway I will stop rambling, advice appreciated.

  • Are there any options to volunteer in a hospital environment (possibly harder during the panedemic?) to get some real ife experience of some of the pressures?

  • Hi - I'd say it depends on how you operate in that environment - whether you are panicking all the time feeling out of your depth or if you drop into 'professional detachment' mode and are super-focussed on providing a methodical and accurate service to your patients or if you find it hard to drop into that 'performance' mode - being on 'best behaviour' all day.          

    Think of it as being an actor - you do what has to be done to provide the best performance - but it can be physically and mentally draining to be so 'perfect' for an entire working day - every day - in that environment - and if you're strong enough to do it now, how many years do you think you could maintain it?. 

    It all comes down to the way you deal with the stress of the job - if you're technically able to do it with very little stress, then it's just playing the social game - and you can very quickly develop a happy / cheerful mask to interact with the patients because each interaction is only a few minutes long - and it's the same 'act' repeated with every patient - so it's not as daunting as you think..