A smiling nurse holds a recently removed spleen. Two others pretend to drink donated blood. Another poses alongside a surgery patient, the newly made incision clearly visible body.
These are just some of the images to have reportedly been shared to social media by Russian nurses in recent years, all of whom are believed to have escaped the scandals without losing their jobs.
The latest case to make headlines is that of Anna Kim, an employee at Sakhalin Regional Hospital, in Russia’s east, who according to The Sun, is under investigation for sharing images online mocking her sick and elderly patients, and boasting about how she and her colleagues would “tie them to beds” when they “go out of their minds”.
She also alleged that doctors are selective in helping patients. “If they don’t want to help, you are doomed. They don’t give a ****,” Kim said, according to The Sun.
Australia’s healthcare sector has experienced social media scandals of its own. In December, a Western Australian nurse was stood down from a public hospital after posting a racist, expletive-laden rant on a Broome community Facebook page.
Responding to reports of children breaking into local homes, nurse Kevin Naughton wrote, according to ABC, “Just f***ing bash them within an inch of their useless, worthless lives, they are nothing more than rats or cockroaches.
“F*** this do-gooder shit, let’s f*** these little c***s up, we’ve got bull-bars for a reason.”
Naughton was dismissed by the WA Country Health Service, and later publicly apologised for his “disgusting and completely inappropriate comments”.
