A Georgia nurse was shocked when she witnessed a TikTok video posted by a fellow nurse. In her opinion, the video he posted was incredibly cold and callous to those who suffer from drug addiction. Now, she’s speaking out about what she calls an ‘unprofessional’ post with a call for those in healthcare to do better.
Nurse Nya (@nurse_nya) starts by showing a snippet of a video a fellow nurse posted on his TikTok. The video is captioned, “When the addict keeps asking for more pain meds.” In the nurse’s video, the nurse dances around the room, flipping off the camera. Nya is astonished by the actions shown by another nurse in his video. Disturbed by what she sees, she mentions, “He hates patients who he considers drug addicts. And if you’re a patient and he’s your nurse, and you’re in pain, and he thinks you’re drug-seeking, you’re not gonna get pain relief. You’re gonna get the finger.”
Nya says that this is a bigger issue than people think. She says that there are nurses out there providing care to individuals who have “hurt people.” And yet they don’t talk about that issue and say they’re going to withhold care from them. But she says the moment someone is a known addict or they’re mentally ill, suddenly their care no longer matters. Suddenly, she says they’re targeted by discriminatory nurses. She says this is giving “selective outrage” vibes and it’s “scary” to her.
As Nya explains, this behavior is extremely harmful to a very “small section of patients.” She says, as a patient advocate and nurse, addicts still deserve proper care. She says a nurse acting in this type of way is “disingenuous” and that it needs to stop.
Since Nya’s posting, thousands of people have seen her viral video. This video sparked reactions from hundreds of commenters, many of which shared Nya’s sentiment. One commenter asked, “Why is everyone so cruel?” Another commenter mentioned, “Hot take – addicts deserve proper pain management, too. They deserve treatment for their illness, too (acute, chronic, mental, doesn’t matter). They deserve kindness and compassion, too.”
Other nurses commented on Nya’s video to share their opinions as well. One stated, “As a student nurse, I know that if a patient is asking for pain relief and I am able to give them it safely, I’m going to. Their substance use has nothing to do with if they’re in pain or not.” Commenters continue to share opinions on Nya’s video as it gains popularity and poses many questions about how we treat those suffering with addiction in the U.S.
