Healthcare is a profession rooted in trust, compassion, and advocacy. Patients place their well-being and dignity in the hands of healthcare professionals with the expectation that they will be treated respectfully and competently. However, a recent social media video posted on Labor Day by healthcare professions of a Santa Barbara, California-based outpatient clinic, illustrates a troubling lapse in professionalism.
In the video, staff members are shown reacting with exaggerated disgust to lubricant stains left on sanitary paper after internal examinations, accompanied by comments about patients “leaving gifts.” While intended as humor, this behavior reveals a deeper issue: the persistence of incivility and unprofessionalism in healthcare. Such conduct isn’t only juvenile and inappropriate on the surface, but it also carries significant implications for patient trust, healthcare outcomes, and the integrity of the nursing profession.
The impact of incivility in healthcare reveals failures in professional education and training that allow such behavior to persist. It underscores the need for systemic solutions, including explicit instruction on professionalism, responsible use of social media, and a renewed commitment to compassion in practice.
Consequences of incivility in healthcare
Incivility, broadly defined as rude or disrespectful behavior that violates norms of respect, pervades healthcare settings. Incivility can occur among colleagues, between providers and patients, and even, as demonstrated in this case, through social media platforms where professional boundaries are blurred. When incivility manifests publicly, its consequences are magnified, as the damage extends beyond individual interactions to the broader perception of healthcare as a profession.
Mocking patients on social media erodes trust, discourages individuals from seeking timely medical care, and undermines the effectiveness of the provider–patient relationship. Patients may feel unsafe, judged, or ashamed, leading them to disengage from preventive care, withhold important information, or resist seeking treatment altogether. Patient withdrawal and avoidance of care compromise individual health and place significant strain on public health systems that rely on early detection and preventive care.
Incivility undermines the therapeutic relationship at the heart of healthcare. When patients perceive providers as dismissive or disrespectful, the relational bond that fosters healing, adherence, and open communication is fractured. To reduce patient experiences to fodder for ridicule, such as the events that transpired at the healthcare clinic in Santa Barbara, California, is to betray the very essence of professional responsibility.
Supporting patients with dignity and compassion
A particularly troubling aspect of the clinic video is healthcare professionals reacting with disgust to bodily fluids and lubricant left after an internal exam, which demonstrates a betrayal of women. Nurses and healthcare professionals have an ethical obligation to advocate for all patients, ensuring dignity, equity, and compassionate care. Patients who entrust their care to professionals expect to be supported, not shamed. When providers mock normal physiological responses, it reinforces damaging cycles of body shaming and embarrassment. Ridiculing patients for leaving expected residue demonstrates not only a lack of compassion but also a lapse in basic clinical practice.
In addition, the video posted to TikTok potentially highlights an additional lapse in quality care. Proper clinical practice suggests that patients be offered a tissue or towel to clean themselves after an exam or assistance by the examiner when appropriate. Failing to provide these basic accommodations not only compromises patient comfort and dignity but also represents a tangible deficiency in care standards.
The role of professional education and training
The behavior displayed in the video underscores the urgent responsibility of nursing education to reinforce the humanitarian role of the profession. Patients must be treated with dignity and respect while in the office or clinic, and their experiences must remain confidential, respectful, and professional long after they leave.
Nursing curricula must move beyond isolated lessons on professionalism and instead embed civility, compassion, and respect as threads woven consistently throughout the progression of coursework and clinical training. Professionalism isn’t an innate trait but a skill set that must be intentionally taught, modeled, and reinforced at every stage of education.
The role of social media in healthcare incivility
Although social medica can serve as a powerful tool to advance healthcare education and advocacy, it also poses risks when misused. Instances of unprofessional conduct on social media are increasingly widespread and concerning. Examples of unprofessional conduct by healthcare professionals include nurses live-streaming medication administration, staff making jokes about patient conditions, and, as illustrated in the Santa Barbara clinic’s TikTok, disparaging patients after they’ve left the examination room.
Each of these breaches of professional conduct represents a significant violation of ethical and professional obligations. These instances of unprofessional conduct emphasize the urgent need for structured social media training in healthcare education. Professionals must be equipped to understand both the power and the peril of digital platforms, with clear guidelines on ethical engagement.
Ending incivility in healthcare
Addressing incivility in healthcare requires a collective action to eliminate harmful behaviors and foster a culture grounded in professionalism and respect. The nursing profession must lead this effort—nurses’ conduct directly affects patient outcomes, colleague well-being, the integrity of healthcare institutions, and public trust. Advancing the imperative of civility and professionalism requires the following steps:
- Nursing faculty must integrate explicit education on professionalism and civility into curricula. Nursing and healthcare training must extend beyond technical competencies to include structured instruction, case studies, and simulations that demonstrate the consequences of incivility and the value of respectful, compassionate care.
- Healthcare organizations must implement robust systems of accountability to ensure that unprofessional behavior is identified and addressed promptly. Healthcare organizations should implement clear mechanisms for reporting, investigating, and handling unprofessional behavior, ensuring that civility is treated as a professional standard, not an option.
- Social media training must be embedded into nursing curricula, emphasizing both the opportunities and risks of digital platforms in healthcare. When used responsibly, social media can be a powerful tool for education, advocacy, and public health promotion. However, unprofessional use of social media, particularly when referencing patients as seen in the TikTok video created by staff at the Santa Barbara clinic, poses a substantial risk to patient confidentiality, erodes public trust, and compromises professional credibility. In this case, the uncivil and unethical behavior captured on video led to the termination of staff, underscoring that online misconduct carries not only ethical and professional repercussions but also immediate employment consequences. Social media education and training should make clear that professional and ethical standards extend beyond the clinical setting into all online interactions.
- Nurse educators and nurse leaders must model civility, consistently reinforce professional standards, and recognize individuals and teams who demonstrate respectful behavior. Prompt and decisive action against incidents of incivility is essential to protect patient dignity, maintain trust, and uphold the professional integrity of nursing.
A call to action
The TikTok posted over Labor Day weekend by the healthcare staff in Santa Barbara serves as a stark reminder of the urgent need to address incivility and unprofessionalism in healthcare. Although presented as humor, the video displayed behavior that was far from harmless. The unprofessional and uncivil conduct of the staff depicted in the video eroded patient trust, violated patient dignity, and highlighted systemic gaps in professional education and training.
A unified call to action is needed to establish and enforce policies that protect patient dignity and privacy. Nursing academia, healthcare organizational leadership, and professional nursing organizations must collectively take stronger measures to confront the pervasive threat of incivility and unprofessional conduct in healthcare. Failure to address these unethical behaviors undermines patient trust, jeopardizes patient outcomes, and endangers the credibility of the nursing profession
Michele Lopez, DHED, RN, MA, CNE, CHES, CDE is Assistant Professor-Nursing, Pace University, Pleasantville, NY.
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