Four of the city’s labor and delivery nurses have been relieved of their duties after a TikTok video in which they complained about expectant mothers and their families went viral. 

Downtown Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital fired four nurses this week after they went to social media to mock patients and complain about mothers and families who visit the maternity ward. The news was first reported on December 11, 2022, by WSB-TV, an ABC affiliate in the city.

The nurses chose to publicly describe their “icks” with labor and delivery patients using the popular video app, whining about such issues as, “My ick is when you ask me how much the baby weighs and it’s still in your hands.”

Another nurse shared, “Dad comes outside (of the mother’s room) and asks for a paternity test right outside the room door.” And still another mocked, “when you’re going room to room between one baby mama and another baby mama.”

More of their complaints about having to do their job included, “Saying you don’t want any pain medicine, no epidural, but you are at an 8 out of 10 pain,” and, “When we’ve already told you to push the call light, but every 5 minutes your family members come up to the front desk asking for something else.”

Another whines, “My ick is when you come in for your induction talking bout, ‘Can I take a shower and eat?’” The last nurse can be seen in the video wearing a yellow mask and rolling her eyes while sneering, “It’s the unlimited trips to the nurse’s station for me.”

Emory University Midtown released a statement that said, “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.”

The hospital went on to assure the public, “The 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.”

According to reports, the video had over 100,000 views before it was taken down from TikTok, the nurses were fired, and an apology was issued by the hospital. You can still see the video here. 

Many commenters expressed their shock and dismay that nurses would say and feel such animosity towards patients, saying that if they’d known that this is how nurses felt about them, they would be “so upset.” Is this how you would feel? 

Would you be angry and embarrassed, or would you laugh it off as a joke? Tell us in the comments what your reaction would be to seeing your nurse in such a video. 

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