I noticed that I struggle a lot with making and maintaining a good impression with some clinical instructors and preceptors. So far, my best clinical instructor has been one that suspects she might have autism, and our personalities and communication styles meshed really well together.
I really need some tips and tricks on how to interact with and communicate with my current preceptor to like me.
I come from academia background where much of my way of talking and communicating was very normal, so the social skills I had developed in that time are actually detrimental in my environment where I am a student nurse. As an example, my version of small talk is sharing knowledge and discussing fun facts, and I found out a lot of neurotypical people see this as "stuck up" and this was detrimental to how I get along with some nursing instructors.
Mostly I am looking for a list of do's and don'ts for communicating with a neurotypical preceptor from the perspective of a neurodivergent person. I especially need advice on how to ask for feedback or interpret non-verbal feedback. I also need advice on the appropriate level of "closeness" with my preceptor, as I don't want to seem too cold but I also want to maintain professional boundaries.
