Anyone here in healthcare?

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It occurred to me a while back that I should look into career paths that work with both my values/interests and my aptitude. Healthcare is something that sort of just fell out of the blue when I stopped to think about this. I'd been advised in the past "Oh, you'd be good in technical/engineering fields" and been utterly dismissive of those suggestions as insufficiently people-oriented. Aptitude be damned, I don't care one iota about machines, computers or systems. I care about people. Healthcare is kind of technical though, and is focused on people. So I'm thinking of exploring this as an option.

I know some autistic people are down on careers that require a lot of social interaction. I on the other hand consider it a requirement for me to be interested in a job in the first place. It's not my strong suit (I put on a very convincing facade of being NT, at least) and can be trying sometimes, but it's something I value deeply.

So, who here works in healthcare? What do you do? How did you get into it? How has it worked out for you? Any recommendations for an aspie looking at getting into it? Or just say anything you think may be of interest or helpful for me to know or consider.

I work in health care, although in an administrative position (I have a master's degree in political science).

I've worked a lot with education of health care personnel for more than 6 years, though, so I can probably give you some pointers about the working conditions of different health care professions.

Are there any particular fields you are interested in?

Not quite yet, though I know I'd be more interested in something "hands-on" than anything administrative. One possibility I considered was starting with EMT, then transitioning into nursing or a Physician Assistant. There's plenty of other possibilities though; always a demand for physical and occupational therapists. I know both have helped me in the past.

Howdy. I'm not in healthcare, I just look like I am.

Sorry, I thought that was funny.

Anyway, can you handle stress?

I can handle stress quite well, as long as it's from something that's important to me. I know these are all high-stress fields, but if the job suits me? It's cool. I'm not sure it will suit me yet, I'm working on getting some counseling on that.

You do understand that working as an EMT can be one of the most stressful jobs in the world, right?

Physician assistant or laboratory assistant would probably be a much safer bet for someone with Asperger syndrome. As for a nursing career, it likely depends on the medical speciality. Working in an inpatient ward is likely a lot less stressful than an emergency department.

Yeah, I get that. These are all things that I need to consider, but I'm not ruling things out at this point.

I would recommend working in ICU in the hospital setting. A lot of the patients are intubated and can't talk or communicate. You deal mainly with machines and labs telling you what condition the patient is in.

Physical or occupational therapy would be good too. You work with only one patient at a time, however, those patients do tend to want to talk a lot.

NICU is another option where you would work with babies - they can only scream, but won't do any small talk. Very high stress environment and a lot of legal problems can arise since you are working with people's kids.

I've been doing the hospital thing for 14 yrs now and I'm burned out. I want to eventually work in a doctors office or clinic as a nurse practitioner (which is why I'm back in school) so I can work with one patient at a time. I'm also burned out on codes, being around unknown diseases, being elbow deep in crap and being expected to help lift people who are 400-500 lbs.

Do you deal with ICD-10, Nurseangela?

I hear it's been a pain in the butt for nurses.

Oh, another thing. Most EMT's end up switching to be nurses because the pay sucks as an EMT.

Floor nursing is extremely stressful because of the number of patients. I also find the healthier the patient is the worse it is because they are asking you to do everything in the book for them. Where I work, we are almost always low staffed and because of this there is a very high turnover.

The only good thing in healthcare that I see is that you will always have a job and the money is good once you have been in it for awhile. For new grads, the pay sucks for the amount of stress you handle. Most move to PRN positions or weekend option (like me) or work for an agency to get the most pay.

Hey Mr. K! Most coding goes through the doctors. We did have to have a class on it so we know how to put in certain orders, however, I don't put in any orders anymore that a doctor doesn't give. We used to order respiratory treatments without thinking twice, but then one hospital's staff got in trouble and it was all over the news here. Now, I order nothing of my own.

I forgot - there's also PACU where patients come right out of surgery and most are under anesthesia and don't talk. Those are usually day shifts and on-call positions. You also work with the surgeons which I can't do.

Then there's also surgery nurses. I get claustrophobic with those masks and again it's working with those pesky surgeons. Yuck.

Thanks Nurseangela, that's a lot of helpful information!

Worth noting, I like being around people much more than most aspies seem to. That doesn't mean I'm pleased to deal with difficult people, but every job has those. I'm fine with interacting with people though, and don't think I'd want a job where that's kept to a minimum.

I am also in healthcare, but I don't work with the people. I work with the medical records. I know I'm more of a task-oriented worker than a people-oriented one; I'm introverted and socially awkward, and I don't think I'd have good "bedside manner" if I were a clinician.

But I love medical records; they are fascinating and there is always new research going on. Working with medical people is not always fun, as clinicians can be arrogant and treat patients as though they are idiots and staff as though they are office equipment with no feelings just a function to perform.

But the papers with the diagnoses and treatments, symptoms and conditions, differentials and plans of care are always interesting. I learned diagnostic coding and transcription, but my actual job is just converting paper records into electronic health records in a ginormous database.

I like what I do. I just don't always like the people in whose company I have to do it. I hope this helps; maybe you can dovetail what I've said into your own more people-oriented style. I do know that human anatomy makes a fascinating special interest for me at least and don't see why it wouldn't work for a more extraverted Aspie.

I'm fascinated by medical records, too. Are there any openings where you work, Lyra?

When I worked in a medical library when I was 18, I spent all my break time reading about genetic disorders.