"Lost a Patient Today" Nurse TikTok

Submission 13,850

Part of a series on TikTok. [View Related Entries]

About

"Lost a Patient Today" Nurse TikTok is a viral video uploaded by a nurse and TikTok user @olivia_tylerr33 showing her mental state after losing a patient earlier that day. The controversial TikTok caused a backlash and viral debate on social media over the nurse coming off as using her patient's death for attention rather than genuinely grieving, and has since been referenced in memes.

Origin

Prior to June 26th, 2022, TikToker^[1] and nurse Olivia Vanderford (@olivia_tylerr33) uploaded a TikTok video in which she showed her reaction to a patient dying and her having to "shake it off" and complete the rest of her shift (original post no longer available). On the same day, Twitter^[2]^[3] user @ateenyalien uploaded the TikTok, commenting, "aw man can't believe my patient died let me go make a tiktok rq." The video gained over 14.5 million views, 1,300 retweets and 20,800 likes in five days (shown below).

Spread

Starting on the same day, the video became a subject of viral discussions on Twitter as users argued that immediately recording a TikTok was not an appropriate reaction after a patient's death. For example, on July 3rd, 2022, Twitter^[4] user @Ray82253885 made a tweet in which they accused the nurse of attention-seeking (shown below, center). Later that day, Twitter^[5] user @MoeMoeMoe1992 quote tweeted the video, writing, "Patient died, hang on let me make a video. Get in the fucking bin." The tweet received over 21,900 retweets and 224,600 likes in four days (shown below, right).

The video also inspired reactions on the app where users ridiculed @olivia_tylerr33. For example, on June 26th, 2022, TikToker^[6] @marc0p0l0o3 posted a Duet in which he reacted to the video with a judgemental expression, captioned, "A patient dies and their first thought is to shoot, edit and post a tiktok for likes and attention." The video gained over 880,000 views and 59,000 likes in two weeks (shown below, left). On July 5th, TikToker^[7] @thelukecook posted a stitch TikTok that gained over 3.8 million views and 461,000 likes in two days (shown below, center).

More posts, including memes, about the viral video and the TikTok nurses trend in general were posted on Twitter,^[8] iFunny^[9] and other platforms in the following days.