Quebec nurse becomes TikTok star with funny, gritty takes on hospital life

John Dela Cruz, an emergency-room nurse from the South Shore of Montreal, has become a sensation on TikTok with his raw and humorous videos about the realities of working in health care during the pandemic. “They see the real me, no pretending, no script. When ideas come to my mind, I just get my tripod, my camera and film,” he said in an interview with CTV News Montreal. He films fake scenarios that are, ostensibly, all-too-reminiscent of real-life nursing scenarios. These include a video of him trying to get a patient to take their pills; him after helping trim a patient’s hair before a pelvic exam; and him escaping on the back of an eagle after being asked to stay an extra four hours at work. His content has resonated with many: he has over 3.5 million followers on TikTok, raking up 195 million likes. CTV News noted that his videos have received positive online comments from fellow healthcare workers. “The reason I became a nurse is I want to be part of a change in someone’s life, and I would never have thought that social media could give me this power and influence,” Dela Cruz said. “For me, I still see this as nursing, because I’m nursing you through your phone. While you’re swiping, you’re laughing, you’re forgetting your stress." In many of the videos, he is either dancing or crying. Sometimes, he is doing both at the same time. “It’s like, me in the bathroom at work having a mental breakdown, hyping myself up … because of what we do, right? We cry in the bathroom and we’re like, ‘Okay, we got this, let’s keep going’” he said. Dela Cruz explained to CTV News that like nursing, his social-media gig is a lot of work—and, like nursing, doesn’t pay much. “There’s a myth that I’m getting paid a lot from this social media. As a Canadian, they actually don’t pay content creators for anything,” he said. Dela Cruz does have a partnership with Garde-Malade, a made-in-Quebec scrubs company. He also sells his own line of scrubs. The 27-year-old started his nursing career during the pandemic. After two years, he is now taking a mental-health break to deal with burnout. "I need to be having a longer time off and seek help at the same time,” he said. He added that he is seeking help from a therapist. Delacruz said that he will return to work when he is ready, and that he loves the job—but not the working conditions, according to CTV News.

Quebec nurse becomes TikTok star with funny, gritty takes on hospital life

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