A Nurse Is Begging For Donations After Losing Her Job Over TikToks About Mistreating Patients
Well, well, well, if it isn't the consequences of your own actions.
Over the weekend, a nurse in the US was suspended from her job after she was caught mocking patients on TikTok for a few laughs.
The Citadel Winston-Salem in North Carolina announced that Kelly Morris had been suspended after the facility received a number of complaints about the nurse, who made numerous jokes about overmedicating patients, unplugging ventilators, and lying about their vitals online.
Posting the videos under the name “BubbleGumKelz”, Morris has defended her now-deleted videos by claiming that they were just “jokes” and “no one was actually harmed or in any danger”. However, Morris was criticised by people on TikTok who shared that they had actually previously been personally impacted by nurses doing the exact things that Morris had “joked” about.
In one video, Kelly Morris made a joke about overmedicating patients along with the caption: “Me making sure all my patients sleep at night because they kept me up last night.” In response, TikTok user @yurtrippymom shared her frustrations with Morris’ video by explaining that overmedication is exactly how her own father died.
“This is so triggering. My father died this way, from a hospital and a nurse giving him eight times the legal dose of his medicine,” said yser @yurtrippymom. “Scrubbing his public records, telling us he had a heart attack until we got the coroner to go get the death certificate… and it said accidental overdose.”
“I think nurses should be put under evaluation just like cops should because they have people’s lives in their hands, and they can kill a lot more secretly than cops. And they can get away with it a lot more frequently because the person is already sick.”
“Fuck bitches like this, she needs to go to jail for these videos.”
Similarly, @cybernetic_gorilla shared their own personal experience when Morris made a TikTok about ignoring doctor’s advice on how much medicine to give a patient, encouraging other nurses to instead “measure that shit with your heart”.
“When I was institutionalised against my will, it was the nurses that kept giving me more medication than I needed,” they said. “I know this because I heard them: ‘He’s too big for that!’ [or] ‘That’s not enough!'”
“It’s people like you that make it hard to escape. And for those of us that remember, it’s hard. I spent days just drooling and not having any idea of how I could get out,” they emotionally continued. “It’s people like you that are why I don’t have trust anymore. I hope you lose your job.”
Other videos of concern include Kelly Morris joking about “making up” vital signs, unplugging ventilators to charge phones, and deciding not to give CPR to people during night shifts.
Once these complaints shifted from TikTok to Morris’ place of work, The Citadel Winston-Salem decided to suspend the nurse effectively immediately.
Accordius Health, the parent company of The Citadel Winston-Salem, explained in a statement that Morris’ actions on social media “violates our core values and is not tolerated” and that the situation had been “handled”.
“The Citadel at Winston Salem was made aware of TikTok videos by an employee last week. Our team investigated content and acted immediately.”
“Misuse and unprofessional use of social media platforms by employees violates our core values and is not tolerated,” the statement shared to local outlet WXII 12 News read. “Any form of resident abuse is never tolerated. Be assured we have handled the situation and reported her actions to all appropriate state and federal agencies.”
“We love our residents; provide for and protect them every day. We are grateful for the global healthcare team that protects the elderly with pride in our profession.”
— Valerie Meadows💟 👨👩👧👦🇺🇸✈️👩🎨 (@Valerie33174791) July 1, 2021
In response to her suspension, Kelly Morris started a GoFundMe page to recoup her losses, which was originally titled “TikTok got me fired, so feed my kids” with a $50,000USD goal. It has since been amended and, unsuprisingly, has only currently raised $145 of its new $20,000 goal.
“First I’m going to say to the people that were offended by my ‘jokes’ on TikTok, I will apologise,” the GoFundMe page notes. “No one was actually harmed or in any danger, they were bad taste jokes. I am out of work due to these ‘jokes’.”
“Second, I still have children that are in my custody as a single mother that still need basic needs. I’m no longer commenting on the negativity I am receiving.”
“The only thing hurt in my TikTok videos were people’s feelings. All my videos are comedy skits. I can understand how someone can be upset but not to the degree they are taking it,” Morris further clarified in a statement to WXII 12 News.
“No one was ever harmed and I treat all my patients with great care and they all love me.”
Sadly this isn’t the first time a nurse has come under fire for their questionable use of TikTok.
Earlier this month, a nurse in Alabama was allegedly fired for his videos where he not only spread COVID-19 misinformation but also shared racist and homophobic statements — sometimes even in his nursing scrubs and while at work.
Back in 2020, an Oregon nurse was placed on administrative leave after she proudly bragged about breaking COVID-19 mask restrictions in a TikTok. And in 2019, nurse and former Vine star Danyelle Rose caused uproar when she made a TikTok mocking patients who were apparently “faking” their illnesses that sparked widespread outrage and had #PatientsAreNotFakingIt become a trend.