Sometimes, relying on co-workers to watch your back can end up not working in your favor, something that this Twin Peaks waitress realized when she paid her co-worker $100 to cover her shift. The only problem is, her co-worker never showed up—and still pocketed the money.
While that’s inconvenient and frustrating, having a restaurant with one less server isn’t as disastrous, or potentially fatal, as, say, a healthcare worker not looking after someone else’s patients.
This is exactly what pediatric emergency department nurse Lexsa Marie (@lexsamarie) said happened to her when she went on a lunch break during her shift. Her viral TikTok has accumulated over 207,000 views as of Friday.
In the clip, Marie expresses her shock at seeing her co-worker walk into the lunch room, moments after asking them to watch her patients so she could take a break and have some food.
@lexsamarie Ariana what are you doing here????#ernurse #nightshiftnurse #nightshiftnurse #nursehumor #pedsednurse #blacknursetiktok #viral #fypシ #nightshiftlife #pediatricnurse #blacknurses ♬ Cartoon Eye Blinking Sound – Anna
Marie applies a filter to her face in the video, giving her an animated character look with enlarged eyes. She blinks in the video, which is accompanied by a cartoonish sound effect, as she sits at a table with a Tupperware of food before her, fork in hand. She writes in a text overlay of the clip, “When the person who was covering your patients for your lunch comes in to the break room for lunch too.”
The TikToker adds in a text overlay of the video, “Ariana what are you doing here????”
Judging from the comments, it appeared to be a relatable struggle that other viewers sympathized with, and some users found her predicament amusing.
One commenter quipped in the comments, “The patients be watching each other in the ER.”
While another joked, “She doubled it and pass it to the next nurse.”
Someone else appeared to find the situation humorous as well, writing, “Like girl wyd ?????? Who watching my patients?”
One TikToker didn’t seem to think it was funny, however, writing that they had a similar experience at their own job.
“It happened to me a lot when I have one on one patient they begged to take ur spot just to left a few minutes after, are u trying to get me fired,” they said.
The topic of patient neglect in healthcare institutions was the subject of a 2013 National Library of Medicine Study, which states, “Patient neglect is an issue of increasing public concern in Europe and North America, yet remains poorly understood.”
There are also a number of reports pointing to elderly adults residing in nursing homes and assisted living facilities being neglected by their caretakers or nurses. NursingHomeAbuse.org claims that 10% of all nursing home patients have at one point or another suffered abuse or neglect from staff members.
Bio Med Central also published a report that pediatric nurse neglect against child and adolescent patients “are not rare individual cases, but that medical facilities bear system risks for assault.” The study argues that due to the very nature in which children and adolescents are treated in medical facilities, they are at risk for abuse or neglect at the hands of hospital staff.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Maria via email for further comment.
