Is it possible to be a decent nurse if I'm a sociopath or have antisocial personality disorder?

I'm a new nurse working at 2 snfs and I have to see signs in some of the offices say things like "Nurses are ordinary people with extraordinary hearts." What if I'm a nurse and I can't help but be cold and uncaring to everyone because of my condition?

I have had several patients pass away and I tried to feel bad for some of them. I think I feel a little bit shocked/sad for some patients who've passed away but it's not like I run home and cry myself to sleep whenever a patient dies. I just think that the deceased resident was suffering and it was their time to go and I move on.

Sociopaths don't usually feel sorry for anyone and I don't feel like I have to genuinely care about anyone in order to do my job.

I wonder if there are any other nurses who have ASPD and how they respond when someone wrongly assumes they're very empathic or able to feel sorry for others misfortunes just because they're a nurse.

Do I have to genuinely connect with someone's emotional distress to be their nurse or can I just fake it and provide their care just because it's my job?

[Simba&NalasMom, LPN]

uniteddemclub said:

I have not actually been diagnosed but was told by an immediate family member that I should have been diagnosed as such. I was told by a patient that I'm such a gentleman and I've given the impression that I'm nice when I'm at work. At the same time I don't feel like I'm truly the sympathetic and tenderhearted individual that everyone imagines a nurse to be.

Good grief! There are many reasons an individual may display a lack of empathy, and ASPD/sociopathy are a couple of the more far-fetched ones.

A family member is the most inappropriate individual to make that determination, even if they are a qualified diagnostician. And on a personal note, that family member sounds toxic and may well have some profound issues of their own and could be projecting. 

Find yourself a professional and get evaluated.