#PatientsAreNotFaking Is Trending After A Skit Of A Nurse Mocking Patients Went Viral
"A lot of y’all 'nurses' should’ve picked a different career..."
The hashtag #PatientsAreNotFaking started trending after a nurse made a TikTok mocking patients for allegedly “faking” their ailments.
The video was filmed and uploaded by Danyelle Rose, a nurse and former Vine content creator who regularly uploads skit videos online. The viral 15-second clip features Danyelle as both a nurse and a patient allegedly faking her breathing issues. Danyelle captioned the video with “We know when y’all are faking” before sharing it online.
We know when y’all are faking 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/uBV9LjXN3W
— D Rose (@DamnDRoseTweets) November 19, 2019
People weren’t happy with the video, which jokingly mocked patients who complained of pain, because dismissive doctors and nurses are commonplace in healthcare. The responses to Danyelle’s video highlighted the questionable mentality of a nurse who outwardly believes that patients go out of their way to fake symptoms.
Hysterical! When my wife miscarried & almost died from an ectopic pregnancy the ER doctor didn’t see anything wrong at first and thought she was a drug seeker and shouted at her that he wasn’t giving her anything for the pain before storming out of the room! Funny video https://t.co/8JexMDQIXO
— Justin🦈Boldaji بلداجي (@justinboldaji) November 22, 2019
This video just gave me the motivation not to quit school because the world needs more compassionate nurses so thanks I guess 🙃
— KeKe Wyatt’s uterus💪🏾 (@TellMeyURllyMad) November 21, 2019
A lot of y’all “nurses” should’ve picked a different career…
— long titty no nipple having ass bitch💁🏽♀️ (@JustLOVEJas_x33) November 20, 2019
Yeah great I had shortness of breath, heart palpitations, fainted multiple times, and had a seizure in the ER waiting bc the nurses thought I was faking and on something but LOL you’re so funny and relatable 🤪
— humanity first 🧢 (@contrajackie) November 20, 2019
This disbelief in patient symptoms is particularly common for women and people of colour, and is a costly process for patients who have to see multiple doctors to be taken seriously.
I’m so glad #PatientsAreNotFaking is trending, like sis I’m not paying these exorbitant hospital/consultation bills just to test out my acting skills on you. In what world, where medical care is expensive as fuck, does someone come to a med facility to “fake it”?
— Tom Nook stole My tax Refund (@TrippleAyeee) November 22, 2019
Not only is #PatientsAreNotFaking a healthcare access issue, it is also a financial one because many people will try out multiple doctors until they’re believed.
That costs money.
— Crutches&Spice ♿️ (@Imani_Barbarin) November 22, 2019
Out of curiosity, with the price of healthcare in this country being as astronomical as it is (I looked & location was not clear so I’m assuming America) who fakes it and why?
There must be a cheaper way to get attention… Like doing tiktoks at work.— Amanda Holland (@AwkwardHolland) November 21, 2019
Following the backlash of Danyelle’s video, disability blogger Imani Barbarin started the hashtag #PatientsAreNotFaking in response to the notion of “faking” symptoms. Imani’s tweet highlighted the fact that people often die from a lack of proper diagnosis and treatment at the hands of dismissive healthcare workers.
That video of the nurse dancing not believing patients has stirred up a lot of trauma for many in the disabled community and BIPOC communities.
People get killed because of that mentality. You did a whole video to tell us you’re bad at your job.#PatientsAreNotFaking
— Crutches&Spice ♿️ (@Imani_Barbarin) November 22, 2019
Imani’s tweet struck a cord with Twitter, inspiring people to share stories of the times their medical pleas were ignored and dismissed as nothing. Unsurprisingly, most of the responses came from women and people of colour.
I bled through every feminine products I used, within an hour. My doctor at the time tried to "fix" the bleeding with birth control. I have stage four endometrial cancer. #PatientsAreNotFaking
— The Unkillable Sarah Samedi🎗️ (@Sarah_Samedi) November 23, 2019
My origin story is literally doctors not believing a young black mother that her child wasn’t moving the lower half of her body. #PatientsAreNotFaking
— Crutches&Spice ♿️ (@Imani_Barbarin) November 22, 2019
the first time i told a doctor that i sleep 14 hrs a day, it was never looked into and i was told ”i wish i could sleep that much”. if the doctor took me more serious i couldve been diagnosed with my sleep disorder and started treatment 4 years earlier #PatientsAreNotFaking
— SoaR Ashtronova (@Ashtronova) November 23, 2019
I was accused of being a drug seeker by one doc and later an alcoholic by another & was told I had given myself pancreatitis. Turns out it was pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer. That had metastasized and is now incurable. Because no one listened. #PatientsAreNotFaking
— Erin Leibowitz (@ErinLeibowitz) November 22, 2019
I was told multiple times over the course of several weeks in & out of the emergency room that I was having panic attacks & needed to calm down/relax.
Turns out, it’s extremely hard to relax when you’re having your first attack from Multiple Sclerosis (MS).#PatientsAreNotFaking
— Tori Saylor (@tori_saylor) November 23, 2019
The hashtag even caught the attention of doctors, who reiterated the importance of listening to patients and their concerns, saying that doing otherwise would be “dangerous and unethical”.
I would encourage anyone working in healthcare to read the stories of #PatientsAreNotFaking. Our hidden curriculum in medicine often teaches us to discount patient symptoms. It’s dangerous and unethical. Listen to your patients.
— Colleen Farrell, MD (@colleenmfarrell) November 23, 2019
People deserve to know the truth. Doctors aren’t saints or morally superior people. We’re human beings who make mistakes and can dismiss the concerns of patients out of ego or pride because we think we know better than you do for your own bodies. It’s wrong. #PatientsAreNotFaking
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) November 22, 2019
Some defended the video, simply calling it a “joke” and explaining that Danyelle was “just having fun with something that happens all the time”.
People really are offended by this tweet ? You gotta walk on eggshells in this generation 😒. Reading the comments this went from a joke to “black woman die in labor all the time because of people like this” I wasn’t even thinking that deep
— Jayla Wayla 🎀 (@LoveJaylaAyanna) November 20, 2019
But that just further highlighted the issues with the sentiment of the video — invalidation happens because doctors think that patient symptoms are a joke.
The responses of people saying the video is only a joke, just demonstrate how easily invalidation happens. #PatientsAreNotFaking
— #FactCheckUK (@MemyselfandCP) November 22, 2019
Despite all the backlash and response towards the video, Danyelle holds firm on the belief that she did nothing wrong. In a thread of tweets, Danyelle explained that “humour has always been what made me stand out to the people I work with and the patients I help… that was the intent of my video.”
“If it triggered a bad memory for you, I had no way of knowing that and took no part in that,” she continued. “It was not directed to anyone.”
She ended the thread by standing her ground and saying: “I absolutely will not be bullied into apologising or deleting a video because some people disagree with me.”