By LINDA BOYLE
Nurses have once again been ranked the most trusted professionals in Gallup’s annual Most Honest and Ethical Professions Poll. They have held that position for almost 25 years. The public has recognized us as having compassion, expertise, and integrity.
The results showed 75% of those surveyed gave nurses a very high rating in comparison to medical doctors (57%) and pharmacists (53%). In contrast, telemarketers (5%), members of Congress (7%) and car salespeople (7%) remain the lowest-rated professions for ethics.
Yet the last few weeks have brought out a different less humane side of some nurses that I didn’t think I would ever see.
The first was a TikTok post from a Florida nurse named Lexie (Alexia) Lawler. On or about Jan. 22, Lawler took to her TikTok account and stated that she is a labor and delivery nurse and that she hopes Karoline Leavitt (the White House press secretary) has an extremely painful delivery. Leavitt is pregnant.
She said, “ As a labor and delivery nurse, it gives me great joy to wish Karoline Leavitt a fourth-degree tear. I hope you f**king rip from bow to stern and never sh*t normally again, you c*nt.”
After this video went viral, Lawler doubled down. On Jan. 23, Lawler hopped on her Facebook page and said, “You know you’ve done a good job when the MAGA trolls and various other ignoramus are calling your place of employment to report you! Such little snowflakes.”
The organization for whom she worked has fired her and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has suspended her nursing license. Various statutes were cited in the Order of Emergency Suspension of License dated Jan. 28, with the caveat that “a proceeding seeking formal discipline of the license of Lawler to practice nursing in Florida will be promptly instituted.”
Lawler has a GoFundMe site, “Help Lexie Lawler Fight Retaliation for Speaking Out,” and has so far raised $26,955.
Then Malinda Cook, a nurse anesthetist in Viriginia, posted several TikTok videos on what she’d like to see happen to ICE agents. These videos ranged from having anti-ICE protesters spraying ICE with homemade poison ivy or poison oak water—aiming for the face and hands. She also suggested grabbing some syringes and filling them with saline as a scare tactic. But the worst was yet to come.
Her final suggestion was to fill syringes with succinylcholine, a drug that causes temporary paralysis.
Succinylcholine is a short acting neuromuscular blocker medically used to relax muscles, making intubation easier. However, if an artificial respirator isn’t used at the same time, it can paralyze the respiratory muscles and lead to death. She wants to see ICE agents killed. She lost her job.
Cook is currently under criminal investigation and Virginia lawmakers are calling for her license to be revoked.
Then there was another nurse anesthetist, Erik Martindale, (licensed in Florida) who posted on TikTok that he would not administer anesthesia to any MAGA patients, basically saying he would abandon his medical responsibilities based on political ideation.
“I will not perform anesthesia for any surgeries or procedures for MAGA,” Martindale wrote in the now-deleted post.
“It is my right, it is my ethical oath, and I stand behind my education.”
“I own all of my businesses, and I can refuse anyone!” he added.
After the firestorm, he alleged that he had been “hacked.”
Martindale voluntarily relinquished his nursing license after his post.
Sadly, there are others who also spew venom about those with differing political views.
I am glad to see states taking action against these nurses. I’m not sure how we can be the most trusted and ethical group when you have nurses wanting to see harm come to individuals for not having the same political viewpoints.
Never in my career did I concern myself with what political party my patients belonged to, or what religion, or what color, or what sex. My only job was to meet them where they were and provide them with the best care possible to save their lives.
While in my military career I never went to war. I was taught to care for all patients who I came in contact with even if those patients were the enemy. It was my job to treat them with compassion and ensure they received the best care possible. I was there to save lives. That was understood by all.
Somehow some of the new generation nurses must have missed those lessons. And, they feel justified by their stance, citing their First Amendment rights.
Yes, it is their right to say what they want. However, it doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences. Kudos to states for taking action.
Linda Boyle, RN, MSN, DM, was formerly the chief nurse for the 3rd Medical Group, JBER, and was the interim director of the Alaska VA. Most recently, she served as Director for Central Alabama VA Healthcare System. She is the director of the Alaska Covid Alliance/Alaskans 4 Personal Freedom.
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3 thoughts on “Nurses are America’s most trusted — so why are some wishing harm on patients?”
Many years ago a family member from my family was pursuing a career in law enforcement. As part of the process of interview there was a psychological evaluation. I don’t know if that still occurs with law enforcement applicants but maybe it needs to be instituted for healthcare professionals. It seems sociopathy, psychopathy and just plain mental & emotional instability are on a steep rise in our culture.
These stories of TDS nurses reminds me of one particular woman, who was a manager in the Anchorage municipal health department a decade or so ago.
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This California carpetbagger was a radical leftist wrecking ball, who was on a deranged campaign to harass, intimidate, and by her own admission to me, to put out of business, many if not all Anchorage food-related small businesses, of which I happened to own and operate one. She and her pet rabid bulldog of an inspector did everything within their power to harass, intimidate, and frustrate many food-related small business owners and farmer market vendors for the better part of a year, all in total contradiction and violation of the existing municipal food code at that time. She also tried to ramrod through a rewrite of the municipal food code, with virtually no public input or exposure, to essentially make it impossible to operate any small-scale food-related business within the municipality of Anchorage. The woman was malicious beyond words, and a pure sociopath.
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However, I and a number of other small business owners called this woman and her activities out, both to her superiors (who I honestly do not believe knew of the full extent of what she was doing), and in a series of public meetings highlighting her blatantly CRIMINAL abuses of powers. Her superiors rapidly slapped her down, and backtracked on her entire program of illegal intimidation and harassment.
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Why do I bring this up here? Because that same woman is now an emergency room nurse at Providence Hospital in Anchorage. And I completely believe that it is within her twisted mentality to take similar steps to those advocated by these deranged nurses who have been arrested. So if you or a loved one are ever admitted to Providence Hospital’s emergency room, beware of a nurse named “Shelley”. She is pure evil, and one of the most soulless individuals I have ever had the misfortune to meet.
“Lawler has a GoFundMe site, “Help Lexie Lawler Fight Retaliation for Speaking Out,” and has so far raised $26,955.”
Gaslighting at its best. Wishing severe bodily harm to another person isn’t “speaking out”. It is malicious intent to terrorize and dominate and proofs beyond a shadow of a doubt that none of these individuals have a real argument or the mental wherewithal to have a civil conversation.
Sadly I have spent many years working in healthcare and have encountered individuals, who seem to think that all should live according to them or be made to do so by any means necessary.