Four labor and delivery nurses who worked at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital have been fired after filming and sharing a TikTok in which they discussed their personal "icks" about patients. For example, the first nurse kicks things off by saying, "My ick is when you come in for your induction, talking about, ‘Can I take a shower and eat?’"
The "icks" video trend originally began with participants talking about things that bother them about people they go on dates with, and it's unclear why the nurses believed it would be appropriate to use the trend in this way.
A second nurse commented that she is annoyed when a mother doesn't want pain medication during delivery "but you are at an eight out of 10 pain." Another nurse rehashes a story about one father "going room to room between one baby mama and your other baby mama."
Emory hit back at the video, commenting that it is "disrespectful and unprofessional" and that it does not "represent our commitment to patient-family-centered care."
Emory University also noted that the nurses in the video no longer work at the hospital. The hospital explained in a statement, "We have investigated the situation and taken appropriate actions with the former employees responsible for the video."
Several people have responded negatively to the video. As one person pointed out in reply to the hospital's statement, "To be belittled and mocked during that experience is outright unacceptable. If they’re saying those things on camera who knows what they said amongst themselves or how they treated their patients. It’s really just sad."
Others have spoken out about their negative experiences with the hospital. One former patient shared on Twitter, "this is crazy bc this is quite literally the same hospital that sent me home with undiagnosed postpartum preeclampsia I was complaining about chest pain & all types of symptoms that signaled something was wrong & they labeled me a hypochondriac until I was admitted into the ER."
A woman named Nicole Knight-Justice echoed this experience on Instagram. She wrote, "As someone who had the most neglectful and egregious birthing experience here—one that could have cost me my life and my child’s-I’m unsurprised by the attitudes of these nurses. What it does reveal though is that this is a culture. 18 months ago when I had my son, a similar attitude was present amongst the labor and delivery nursing staff."
Nicole continued, "When I brought it to the attention of the hospital, I was given a letter that gave a completely false retelling of my experience. What this showed me then and shows me now is that my experience wasn’t 'just' a couple of bad apples. This is a culture that has been allowed to continue, unchecked. No one films themselves saying such disheartening and insensitive things and being annoyed by the needs of patients without that being common practice. So sad, because the mother baby unit nurses were so incredible, but I wouldn’t wish this labor and delivery unit on any birthing person ever."
