Katie Duke NY Med – Nurse Fired for Social Media – Updated

Katie Duke, a nurse propelled to fame by popular reality show NY Med, was fired for social media. This article is written not to attack Katie, but instead, share a very public example of how nurses can easily be fired for inappropriate social media use. There are many examples of nurses being fired for social media use, but Katie’s story is one of the most well-known and allows for a very teachable moment.

To be clear, this article is not intended to attack Katie in any way. The intent is to explore the complex issue of where personal life intercept work end and how social media makes that all the more complex. This article contains personal opinions and assumptions based on the facts available to me as of the original publication date. Where new information has been made available, I have provided updates and clarification.

No Nurse is Immune to Being Fired for Social Media

Even famous nurses make mistakes on social media. Katie Duke, who has a massive following on Twitter and Instagram, is one of the stars of the ABC hit NY Med. At this point, however, I should probably say “was” a star, since a recent episode revealed that Katie was fired after posting this photo of a trauma room to her popular Instagram account (thekatieduke).

The Photo In Questin

Photo that got Katie Duke Fired
Image credit: ABC News

The caption for the image reads “Man Vs 6 Train… The after #lifesaving #EMS #NYC #ER #Nurses #Doctors #nymed #trauma #realLife.”

Was the Photo a HIPAA Violation?

Katie Duke states that when she was dismissed from her job of nearly 7 years that she wasn’t fired for committing a HIPAA violation or for breaking any hospital policies, but for being insensitive. I am not sure what hospital administrator would say this wasn’t a HIPAA violation. I can think of at least two potential HIPAA violations:

  1. All geographical subdivisions smaller than a State, including street address, city, county, precinct, zip code, and their equivalent geocodes, except for the initial three digits of a zip code, if according to the current publicly available data from the Bureau of the Census: (1) The geographic unit formed by combining all zip codes with the same three initial digits contains more than 20,000 people; and (2) The initial three digits of a zip code for all such geographic units containing 20,000 or fewer people is changed to 000.
  2. All elements of dates (except year) for dates directly related to an individual, including birth date, admission date, discharge date, date of death; and all ages over 89 and all elements of dates (including year) indicative of such age, except that such ages and elements may be aggregated into a single category of age 90 or older;

The NY Med Reality Show Complicates This Issue

The fact that this drama all plays out on a reality show where patients and healthcare professionals are filmed does muddy the waters a bit. Was this patient in an episode? And even if they were, are Katie’s posts protected by the waivers the producers of NY Med no doubt have patients sign? That I am not sure of.

Was Instagram Post Insensitive?

It was poor choice for Katie to post this particular social update. In my humble opinion, this type of social media is insensitive and inappropriate. This is not an opinion all nurses share, but clearly Katie being fired for it shows that hospital administrators largely share my professional opinion.

The Caption in Question

It’s not the photo, in my humble opinion, that’s the real issue. It’s the caption: “Man Vs 6 Train.” As if the poor soul who encounter that level of trauma was intentionally playing chicken with an oncoming train. The photo itself tells a story. The caption is not needed. I think that if the photo was the only thing posted, without her personal commentary about a real-life tragic event (that she made light of), I think it would have been perceived as harmless and she’d still have her job today.

A Double Standard for Physician and Nurse Social Media Use?

Her employers agreed with that stance. In fact, it is my understanding is that a physician shared the same photo without the caption and didn’t lose his job or receive a known reprimand. Whether this has to do with physician-privilege or the comments on the photo is an unknow, but it’s worth mentioning

Many Nurses are Fired for Social Media Mistakes

I speak professionally on the topic of social media for nurses and often get asked about specific examples of nurses making mistakes on social media. A single Google search for “Nurse fired for social media” will yield plenty of results. I don’t like to focus on the negative aspects of social media for nurses, but this Katie Duke is one example is being highly publicized and merits a response. It highlights just how easy for nurses to make an error that could cause them to lose their job.

The Silver Lining in All of This

As unfortunate that is is that Katie was fired over the incident, there is a silver lining here. This is a great chance for nurses to learn from the mistakes of one another and put a little more thought into the pictures they take, the statuses they post, and even the times they post them.

Social media can do many wonderful things for nurses. Even Katie has used social media to catapult herself as a personal brand and grow a huge following online. But it can also have big, sometimes unforeseen consequences, even for bold nurses who are on reality shows.

Katie Duke Website
Screenshot KatieDukeOnline.com

Katie Duke Will Deal With It

Katie Duke is a no-nonsense kind of nurse who has a personal motto of “deal with it.” It may even be her nursing motto. This time it looks like she didn’t exercise the best judgment when it comes to using social media as a healthcare professional and has consequently been forced to “deal with” her own inappropriate actions.

However, Katie is resilient. She moved to New York and made something of herself. She is able to get back up when she is kicked down and I have no doubt that she will deal with it and come out better for it in the end.

Was Katie Dukes Social Media Mistake Sensationalied for TV?

A large part of me thinks this was all for the show. Reality TV is never quite reality, and this social media slip might have been a clever move planned by NY Med for major media and nursing coverage, or by Katie herself to further her growing fame. I can’t be certain that this is the case, but it should be considered when looking at the big picture here.

Katie Duke Will Bounce Back

Katie Duke is a passionate nurse who has strong opinions and will no doubt find another job and have continued success. Her social media mishap can (and should)  be a powerful tool that nurse educators, bloggers, and others can use to show how a simple oversight in your online activity can have a damaging impact on an individual nursing career and potentially the nursing profession as a whole.

Update – I was informed that later in the episode it showed Katie Duke working in a new ER and being filmed there. This further suggests that the social media mishap was planned. Even so, the example still has the potential to help many nurses avoid making similar mistakes.

More information about how social media got Katie Duke NY Med fired:

Update: What Happened to Katie Duke After Being Fired on NY Med?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or perhaps are active on social media, you likely know that Katie Duke has skyrocketed her social media presence and various nursing business ventures. With over 128,000 followers as of the writing of this update, she is one of the most popular nurses on Instagram. In addition, Katie pursues additional education and now works as a nurse practitioner. She has launched social media training programs, nurse travel and excursion, her very own scrub line, and a wildly popular podcast.

All and all, I’d say Katie Duke used her social media mistake to make lemonades out of some very sour lemons. We can all learn from her mistake and her perseverance.

23 thoughts on “Katie Duke NY Med – Nurse Fired for Social Media – Updated”

  1. I am not a nurse. I did see the episode and was totally shocked when she was fired. My take on her social media post was not that she was being insensitive but that it was a warning to anyone thinking they could take on or out run a train.

  2. And just look at her now…..a NP and one of the most popular nurse influencers on social media. She took her loss and won!

  3. I know this is old but I just saw this episode and if you seen the very beginning of the show it had Katie Duke saying she would never want to work at another ER…and then by the end of the show she was fired. Sounds like a huge setup to me.

  4. This was such a teachable moment, She could have used her brand that she has built to help other nurses avoid making the same mistake. But instead she decided to act as if she was not at fault.

  5. @NurseBecca thank you so much for your comment Becca.

    I sincerely wish that Katie had used this opportunity as a teachable moment. She has such a huge audience and so many nurses that look up to her. Rather than continually refuting any wrong-doing in the situation, I would have liked to see her say “You know what, this is what nurses should do in this situation…. learn from my mistake.”

    Because none of us are perfect. Not even nurses who are constantly held on a higher pedestal than others. But those of us who do have an audience have obligation to lead by example. I just wished she used this opportunity to talk about how to use social media appropriately. Think of all the the nurses she could prevent from being fired.

  6. Thank you for a more balanced discussion of the situation. It seems so many people want to denigrate Katie Duke, from her choice to post the photo being discussed to the measurement of her waistline.

    I cannot claim to know what was going on in her head when she posted that photo, I can only express my opinion. She did something insensitive and potentially damaging to a patient and her hospital.

    I appreciate that you are looking at the facts of the situation, as you understand them, and addressing them without making the conversation a personal attack. You have every right to express your opinion, as do the others who have blogged or posted about this situation. I do want to thank you for attempting to bring some balance to the discussion without using it as an opportunity to belittle another nurse.

    Is Katie Duke a good nurse? Is she a bad nurse? I do not know. What I do know is that she made a choice and has experienced the consequences of that choice. Perhaps the discussion should not be about why she is a villain or a hero and should focus instead on how the behavior of nurses can have repercussions that reach beyond the expected and that professionalism is not just a quality to be valued only when at work.

  7. Perhaps I can clarify a little.  Columbia (where Katie was fired from) is a unionized hospital.  It is near impossible to fire a nurse from a unionized hospital in New York.  It is highly likely that a strong case had already been mounted against Katie for her to be fired.  She is known to be difficult.  This would explain why the MD did not get fired for posting the same photo (without patient identifiers) but Katie did.  I am a nurse in NYC, have worked at Columbia, Katie and I have mutual friends, I am very familiar with the operations of the nursing unions in NY, and I have had this conversation with other nurses here.  This was not staged but there are things that happen behind the scenes that explain the situation.

  8. I’d never heard of Katie Duke, until this string of blogs. I do find the comment very insensitive. Man vs. 6train… So, did this really happen? Is it a possibility it was staged? Since, she is working at a new facility and being filmed there? If so, it certainly upped her ratings, I’m sure… I’m don’t believe I like that sort of stereotyping about nurse role models though…

  9. I also saw Katie on an interview on Inside Edition late in the week – she didn’t seem to admit any wrongdoing – just said ‘I can’t believe they fired such a caring person’. Now I know they cut interviews and spin them – so I don’t know if she admitted she was wrong or not. If you make a mistake – own it, learn from it and teach others not to make the same mistake. We’re all human and in her case she was in a stressful environment, plus had TV cameras. Just admit you made a mistake and move on. She’s in a great position to become a public speaker and teacher of what not to do with SM – I’m curious to see where she takes it.

  10. I’m not a HIPAA expert by any means, but I thought it was more than insensitive – IMO it was a HIPAA violation.
    ‘Man vs 6train’ gave identifying information to the public about a patient (she said it was the man who was hit by the 6 train; she didn’t need to post his name as the media will have already taken care of that); her account identified where she works (thereby identifying that the person is being treated in her hospital – can’t release that info to anyone unless the patient or family consents – doubt she got a release) and the actual picture showed the type of treatment the patient received (it’s a stretch – but any person with reasonable medical knowledge can figure out what kind of tx the pt received). They all sound like HIPAA violations to me.
    I saw a lot of nurses / RTs posting because the media released the name – she wasn’t bound by HIPAA.
    My response to that is – that last time I looked, the media was in a different business. We as licensed healthcare professionals are held to a higher standard by licensure and ethical / legal standards such as HIPAA.
    Again – not an expert on HIPAA by any means – but from all my years of experience and training – that’s how I see it.

  11. The Nerdy Nurse

    Mary, in my opinion the photo wasn’t the problem. It was the caption, which was very insensitive. You can read it in the stills. “man vs 6 train”

    1. That is how it is said. Pedestrian v. Car, motorcycle v. Truck. It’s not some dramatic social media driven statement to evoke anything. It’s nomenclature. Simple. If you practice medicine you know this.
      The lines are way too blurry to point fingers. She was swimming in muddy waters. But calling her insensitive? Know the facts.

  12. Mary Alyn Garcia

    I saw that episode of NY MED. It bothered me that she was fired for re-tweeting the image that was originally posted by a doctor… a doctor who works for the same hospital. It wasn’t even her image. I could see having to go to a “social media sensitivity” class or something, but I sympathized in shock and my heart went out to her. Definitely would make me think twice, however.

  13. The Nerdy Nurse

    Mary Krusi Dyke D’Rozario I think that many nurses (and other employees) are getting by with a lot more on social media than they would be able to if their employers monitored their activity more often. I’m not saying that nurses should be monitored any more closely that anyone else, but unfortunately it’s an option for any employer these days so everyone should be on their toes about it.

  14. Mary Krusi Dyke D'Rozario

    I have a whole file for training. People often use keywords like “I shouldn’t violate HIPPA, but…” that make the inappropriate material pop up on a search for “HIPAA.” There are a few frequent fliers on my search lists but their employers obviously aren’t doing the same searches.

  15. The Nerdy Nurse

    Lauren Hunter I didn’t watch the episode, but was told she already had a new job in it and they were shooting in that ER. This really makes me think it was a complete set up.

  16. Just wanted you to know, I saw an episode of NY Med that showed this story at the time she was fired. She did get a new job at another local ER. It actually filmed her there.

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