"Creeping Out the Creeps" — Male Nurse Stands Up For Harassed Female Co-Worker

The phrase “service with a smile” is a ubiquitous one that's been around for ages. It’s been the unofficial motto for good customer service across a plethora of industries since the 1930s.

For instance, the iconic smiley face, which has morphed over time to an endless horde of emojis, came along in 1963 courtesy of Harvey Ball.

And a male nurse used his own, grin-filled approach to customer service protocols as a means of out-creeping a creepy patient.

A TikTok user named Mali (@nursemali11) posted a viral clip detailing a particularly inappropriate ER moment where he helped a fellow nurse out.

According to Mali, he was documenting notes at the nurses' station when his female co-worker came out of a patient’s room "looking like she’d just seen a ghost."

She told the patient she needed to insert a catheter, but the male patient made her uncomfortable by insisting she "smile" while doing it, adding that "it’s a privilege," for her to do so.

Seeing her in this state, Mali told viewers that he wasn't going to just let the skeezy person get away with being gross.

“Don’t worry,” he told his fellow nurse, "If you can’t smile, I definitely can." He grabbed a Foley tray, walked in with a large grin emblazoned on his face, and told the patient, “Hey, sir, my name is Nurse Mali. I'm gonna be the nurse inserting your Foley right now.”

The rest of the story unfolded in a direct-to-camera saga.

The patient, clearly thrown, asked what happened to the previous nurse.

Mali explained, "She’s helping me out with something while I help her out with something, and this just happens to be that something." Then, in what many viewers commented was a satisfying role reversal, Mali smiled broadly and said, “Luckily for you, Foleys are my favorite task. I never miss, and I have a blast doing them all the time."

Throughout his video, Mali denotes his attitudes towards the situation with a series of facial expressions that assist in painting a picture of how he decided to handle the patient's behavior with his female co-worker.

Mali keeps a comically oversized smile on his face while explaining to the patient, "When I slide the catheter inside the urethra, you’ll feel a lot of pressure, but it’s only gonna last a little bit."

The squirming patient asked why Mali was taking so long to finish the procedure, to which he replied, “I’m just trying to take my time to make sure you feel as little pain as possible. It’s my privilege to help out," the nurse stated.

By the time the procedure wrapped up, the patient was clearly not enjoying himself. When Mali’s co-worker came back into the room to later check on the man, the patient reportedly said, "I don’t want that guy…to come back in my room ever again. He was so weird about the Foley."

Mali went on to leave a remark that indicated he was fully cognizant of the fact that his ploy to out-creep the creepy man was a success. “All I did was do it with a smile. I enjoyed every second of it.”

TikTokers who replied to the male nurse's video penned a series of replies to his clip, letting him know that they applauded his work, "Let’s normalize creeping out the creeps. I will always one-up them.” Another added, “On behalf of all women everywhere, thank you."

A third, who appeared to be a fellow nurse of Mali, commented, "Forever my favorite coworker, countless times you’ve been our savior with the creeps that come in."

Throngs of other commenters who replied to the nurse's video also embodied the idea he had flipped the script on patient discomfort, too.

While Mali's video culminated in a chorus of folks applauding him for his behavior, his post speaks to a worrying statistic about sexual harassment that female nurses are often faced with in the workplace.

According to research published by National Nurses United, "rising rates of workplace violence and employer failure to implement effective prevention strategies [are] contributing to the staffing crisis" among healthcare professionals.

The same published piece says "one systemic review found a 43.15% prevalence of sexual harassment." Furthermore, 7 out of 10 female nurses "experienced at least one type of workplace violence."

Additionally, National Nurses United said that female employees will often have unwanted sexual advances from both visitors, patients, and physicians alike while they're on the job.

The National Library of Medicine published findings in 2024 that were even more troubling. According to the agency, "63% of operating room nurses experienced sexual harassment in the past 12 months."

Moreover, the same report said that "gender harassment" along with "unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion" was directed towards women in the field.

What's more is that speaking up about these incidents is rare. The NLM went on to state that 47.8% of all victims in these cases usually "remain silent after being sexually harassed" and opt for utilizing "passive coping strategies."