Nurses fired after mocking patient in TikTok video
The clip poked fun at moms-to-be refusing medication and fathers asking for a paternity test
A US hospital has fired four nurses who appeared in a TikTok video mocking patients’ demands and behavior. Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare referred to the quartet as “former employees” in an Instagram post on Friday.
The 60-second clip, viewed hundreds of thousands of times, shows nurses making fun of people who ask to “take a shower and eat” upon arriving at the hospital to have labor induced, refuse pain medication despite being in obvious pain, or “ask [the nurse] how much the baby weighs, and it’s still in your hands.”
Fathers who demanded a paternity test right after birth also came in for mockery, and one nurse cited “when you’re going room to room between one baby-mama and your other baby-mama” as her “ick.” ‘Icks,’ as seen trending on social media, are unpleasant quirks that trigger “a sudden feeling of repulsion and total turn-off from someone you’ve been dating.”
The hospital’s statement concerning the video acknowledged that “it included disrespectful and unprofessional comments about maternity patients at Emory University Hospital Midtown.” It also revealed that Emory had “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,” Emory’s statement reads.
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While no direct causal link was made between the video and the nurses’ ‘former employee’ status, Emory Healthcare confirmed to local media via email that the hospital system does have a social media policy employees must adhere to.
The original TikTok post, made by user @hanhinton on Thursday, was deleted after a flood of angry responses, but not before it was reposted elsewhere. One of the reposters included a screenshot of Hinton’s Facebook profile, which describes her as a registered nurse in Labor and Delivery at Emory Healthcare, though her profile is no longer public and it’s not clear whether she still works there in any role.