Nurses Fired for Mocking Labor Patients via TikTok

Several nurses are out of job after appearing in a video on TikTok. The clip shows the providers at an Atlanta hospital wearing scrubs as they discuss their “icks” regarding labor and delivery patients. It’s part of a trend on TikTok that started around two years ago where users describe their personal turnoffs, such as poor hygiene or personality flaws. The video sparked enormous backlash online, prompting the hospital to take disciplinary action.“My ick is when you come in for your induction,” a nurse said the video, “talking about, ‘Can I take a shower and eat?’”

“My ick is when you ask me how much the baby weighs,” another nurse followed, “and it’s still … in your hands.”

“Saying you don’t want any pain medicine, no epidural, but you are at an 8 out of 10 pain,” another nurse said.

“When we’ve already told you to push the call light, but every five minutes, your family members comes up to the front desk asking for something else,” another added.

The nurses’ employer, Emory Healthcare, responded to the incident in a statement posted online.

“We are aware of a TikTok video that included disrespectful and unprofessional comments about maternity patients at Emory University Hospital Midtown. We have investigated the situation and taken appropriate actions with the former employees responsible for the video.”

“This video does not represent our commitment to patient- and family-centered care and falls far short of the values and standards we expect every member of our team to hold and demonstrate,” the statement continued.

Emory didn’t clarify whether the nurses had been fired or if they had left on their own accord.

The original 52-seconds clipped has been deleted, but several copies have been shared on other accounts. Several pregnant women took to the comments to say that the video only intensified their anxiety about giving birth. “As a first-time mom this makes me so sad and more nervous. I pray my nurses aren’t like this,” one woman wrote.

“This is sad and concerning…I went out of my way to leave my nurses great surveys but if I found out this is how they thought I would be so upset,” another user wrote.

This comes at a time when maternal mortality rates are rising across the U.S.

Uma M. Reddy, an obstetrics and gynecology professor at Columbia University, said pregnant women need to know that their providers have their best interest at heart.

“Patients who are well-supported … do much better and have better outcomes. These kind of comments make you worried if patients are being listened to,” Reddy said of the video.

Hospitals set their own social media policies, but the American Nurses Association encourages its members to avoid “heavy-self promotion,” while “maintaining a respectable presence” at all times.

Reddy added that nurses should be sensitive to the concerns of their patients before, during, and after stressful procedures. They are bound to have questions and anxieties in the moment.

“Undergoing childbirth is a situation where you’re dependent upon nurses and health-care providers to support you and to listen,” Reddy said. “It’s a big unknown, and you look to the nurse for support.”