Just imagine how overwhelmingly upset you’d be if you lost a loved one, were now trying to depart the hospital, and saw the nurse that was just in the room with you making a TikTok about the whole ordeal.
A TikToker going by olivia_tylerr33 did just that last month, in a video that’s going hugely viral this week. ‘It never gets easier,” was her TikTok’s simple caption.
“Lost a patient today,” it read on the screen as the nurse collapsed against the wall, looking very much like an extra from Grey’s Anatomy. “Shake of (sic) off, you have 5 more hours. A cheesy pop song that also sounded like it could frame a Grey’s Anatomy scene played as this all unfolded.
While there was some sympathy for her – healthcare workers have had it much harder than most since the start of the pandemic – many more called out the act as crass and unnecessary.
“aw man can’t believe my patient died let me go make a tiktok rq,” someone popularly tweeted. “Great way to exploit the dead for one’s own popularity… I miss the days when people didn’t share absolutely everything online,” another Twitter user decried.
The TikTok treads such a fine line between being voyeuristic and empathetic. People can understand how difficult it must be to lose a patient as a nurse without seeing such an intrusive video; it feels like a lot of people these days don’t know how to process their emotions without making it a virtual spectacle.
And as other people alluded to, there’s no actual evidence that Olivia lost a patient. If she did though, it feels like a massive act of disrespect towards the deceased person’s family.
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Olivia isn’t the first nurse to come in for criticism for their use of TikTok. Last year, a nurse was suspended after posting videos appearing to claim that they were mistreating patients, although they later insisted these were just skits.
— nikki (@ateenyalien) July 2, 2022
@marc0p0l0o3 #duet with @olivia_tylerr33 Can you imagine her just scrolling through sounds trying to pick the most trendy song while her patient’s body is being wheeled out to the morgue #fyp #foryou #viral #foryoupage
