A nurse on TikTok is calling out others in her profession for not using the best practices when it comes to their nails.
Nurse Christina Dunham, or @cdunham.rn on TikTok, accumulated 3.4 million views on her video calling out another nurse for her acrylic nails. In the video, she shows another creator @patriotnursemeggydrn, whose real name is Megan D’Andrea, showing off long pink and white fingernails. Captioned across the video is “New nails” with a wink emoji.
Then @cdunham.rn pops in.
“I don’t mind me teaching some evidence-based practice from the confines of my own home considering some nurses just aren’t doing that these days,” she explains.
“You’ve made it clear in several of your videos that you don’t care about your long fake bedazzled fingernails,” she says.
She then goes on to explain that in the year 2000 there were NICU babies dying and they traced back some of those numbers to bacteria found under nurses’ fingernails.
The study she is talking about took a look at the death of 16 babies at the Children’s Hospital of Oklahoma. But most of those deaths were linked to the population they were working with, tiny babies. They did find some had the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, in their blood system. This bacteria can be found under nails. An earlier study in the ’90s with a sample population of 104 people found that the bacteria is just as likely to appear under natural nails too.
Christina goes on to explain that many hospitals do have strict policies against long nails though for patient safety.
“Many nurses wear nails,” D’Andrea, who is a travel nurse, tells the Daily Dot. “All patient care is done with gloves on.”
D’Andrea says Dunham’s video didn’t bother her because she knows who she is: “Everyone has an opinion and my patients love me. I’m always very safe when I am in practice and hold several state nursing licenses.”
She adds that she’s never worked anywhere that had a problem with her nails.
TikTok users weighed in, some backing Dunham’s take.
“Watching my preceptor do cervical checks with her long acrylics made me feel physically ill,” one person wrote on the video.
“In my experience there are two types of people that become RNs – actual caring, compassionate ones…and the mean girls from HS that never changed,” another user wrote.
“They aren’t willing to get a vaccine for their patients, we KNOW they ain’t changing their nails,” commented @molly112.
Others think she’s overreacting in the video.
“Can someone explain this… especially since we are wearing gloves. Like how is this dangerous?” one person asks.
Others think Dunham’s videos are too harsh.
“Nurses eat other nurses. Be better,” one person wrote.
“So you needed to post this and humiliate her publicly forrrrr,” another person commented, which has since got over 400 likes.
D’Andrea says the nursing field is “extremely toxic.”
“I am very bold and do not tolerate bullying in the workplace,” she adds. “In nursing, you must have thick skin and be bold and unapologetic.”
We’ve reached out to Dunham for comment.
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