Can You Be a Nurse With Autism or Not?

Can you be a nurse with autism

Autism is a social disorder that exists on a spectrum and can stick with an individual for life.

It affects interactions with other people and doesn’t develop as fast when it comes to social cues and societal norms.

Can you be a nurse with autism?

However, the disorder doesn’t hinder their ability to work with people on jobs or limit the amount of information they can take in.

People who run some of the most complex jobs on the planet happen to be autistic, but sometimes they’re successful because they work alone most of the time.

Under federal United States law, an employer can’t discriminate against a potential employee exclusively because of a disability that they have.

This means that as long as you are qualified, you should be able to get the job.

Of course, there can be times when they simply aren’t hiring and they can’t give you a job.

That’s nothing to be ashamed of.

What’s important is that you get the job that you’re applying for.

You can tell your employer that you have autism if you trust them, but not a respectable employer is going to reject you because you have autism.

The relationships that you’ll share with your patients and coworkers are going to be completely different than working with people at the hospital.

In these cases, the patient may notice that you are autistic from the way that you act and may even comment on it, but they can’t change anything about that.

In fact, many of them will be supportive and sometimes be impressed that you have made it so far as a nurse with your disorder.

See also: Can You Be a Nurse With Bipolar Disorder?

The same can be said for your nurses and just about anyone else that you see in the hospital.

You can provide a lot to people while being a nurse.

Being autistic doesn’t hurt your ability to think critically and in some cases doesn’t actually affect the tests that you take or your performance.

You probably won’t be the most social person there at all, but you also didn’t get that job for the opportunity of making friends.

The only thing that’s important is your ability to save the lives of other people.

Sometimes people who are autistic do better in high-pressure situations since they aren’t worried about impressing others.

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Can you be a nurse with autism

Can you be a nurse and have autism?

In terms of the job, the administrator can’t fire you for having autism.

As important as it is to protect the people who trust their bodies to the hospital, what’s important is being able to do the job.

There’s no real proof that being autistic makes you a worse nurse than other people who don’t have autism.

The majority of people who do get fired are people who don’t have mental disabilities.

The people who you work with also will respect you and recognize that you can do things that they can’t do.

See also: Are Nurse Practitioners Respected?

They provide a lot to the hospital and they have to work together.

Administrators can’t retroactively fire you because that would be illegal.

See also: Can You Be a Nurse With Epilepsy?

They could potentially fire you if you lie about having autism and then you end up becoming a liability due to something that you do.

However, in that case, you wouldn’t be getting fired for having autism.

In that case, you would be getting fired for being bad at your job.

Most of the time, the laws are going to side with those in authority but equally be in favor of those who are getting unlawfully terminated.

Just make sure that you’re being as honest as possible with the people that you work with.

In terms of getting into school, there aren’t rules that prohibit people with autism to study medicine.

Autism exists on a spectrum meaning that people have different levels of severity.

Some people may not even remember that they have autism half of the time.

It’s not really important since that doesn’t stop your ability to read and write in the slightest. There isn’t a checkmark of lists you have to answer when becoming a nurse.

In fact, most major decisions in your life aren’t going to require you to tell others that you’re autistic.

Honestly, it’s completely your choice if you want to tell people at work that.

See also: Can You Be a Nurse With ADHD?

Some of them may treat you differently to know that you’re autistic, but most of them won’t.

You need to be able to trust the people that you’re working with but maybe hold off on telling that to your patients.

Most people know that autism has nothing to do with performance but it could still make the patient worried and that’s the one thing that you don’t want.

In fact, even with autism, you can have a very successful career just as much as people without autism.

See also: Can You Be a Nurse With One Eye?

Conclusion: Can someone with autism be a nurse?

Autism is a social disorder that affects the way that people interact with each other and slows your social development.

It can really affect the ability of the person to make friends with others and sometimes connect on an emotional level.

It makes it harder to be empathetic and have meaningful conversations when things get serious.

Thankfully, it won’t be a big problem when you go to get a job unless you’re constantly talking to people all day.

It could be a problem if you work fast food or have a job on the telephone.

See also: Telephone Triage Nurse

However, simply becoming a nurse doesn’t have that much to do with being drawn back by autism.

Being a nurse is about being able to assist someone in their health.

It’s the kind of job that people read textbooks for years and procedures before ever working on a real patient.

Getting the job is about making the right decision and not how they’re able to carry a conversation with the patient.

Fortunately, society realizes how much potential people with disabilities offer to society which is why discriminating against a disability is illegal.

So many lives can be improved and saved with the service of those with autism.

Now you should know whether can you be a nurse with autism or not. Hope you enjoyed reading the article.

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About Ida Koivisto, BSN, RN, PHN

Ida is both a registered nurse and public health nurse. Her passion is to provide as much valuable information about nursing to the world as possible. In her spare time from work and blogging, Ida loves to work out at the gym and spend time with relatives.