A registered nurse , Gloria Atiayao, who works at the Ho Hospital was given a citation for her heroic measures to make sure her patient safely received a medication prescribed for him. Her actions has been trending all over the internet as she stood against the orders of a physician assistance (PA) to administer a medication intramuscularly instead of through intravenous.
We produce the story as explained by the patient, Bernard Gorni on his Facebook wall below.
I, Bernard Gorni, on Thursday, 25 of February, 2021, went to the Ho Municipal Hospital for a treatment. The Physician Assistant (PA) who attended to me prescribed *Benzylpenicillin* for me to go and buy for injection. He also gave me a note to give to the nurse who will administer the prescription. On my return, the nurse who happens to be in the person of *Madam Gloria Atiayao* took the note and upon reading it told me to wait since she is not so sure about the kind of injection the PA wrote in relation to dosage. She quickly sent another nurse to enquire from the PA if the prescription was really what he wrote. Upon waiting for about 15 minutes without the other nurse returning, She followed up on them and in about 10 minutes returned in the company with the PA and the other nurse. She then asked me to join them in the injection room. At the injection room, Madam Atiayao persistently asked the PA if he was really sure of the dosage to be given as 20ml *intramuscular* (IM) or anything else? To this he answerer and said he has instructed her to do so. The nurse then said this particular prescription isn’t given that way but only given in such a high dosage through *Intravenously* (IV). The PA kept insisting for her to mix the vial to inject me. The nurse who knew her work insisted and refused to administer the prescription, this went on for about 45 minutes until she asked the PA politely to administer the drug himself since she doesn’t want to do anything that will put any patients’ life in danger and also put her job on the line. The PA refused to administer it himself and kept telling her that he was only there to give her moral support but not to administer the prescribed drug. In the next 50 minutes, a doctor came around She quickly sought his opinion. The doctor after seeing the prescription asked Mad. Atiayao to go and administer the prescription as an Intravenous (IV). While administering the prescription, the PA who left the injection room still sends another nurse to come and insist that she should give the prescription intramuscularly. She ignore his orders and went onto do the right thing with humanly affection to save life and avert a possibly calamity. For this singular act of courage and tenacity, I with my family in collaboration with the Hospital administration, honored Madam Atiayao with A Citation presented on the 17th of March, 2021 at the OPD of the Facility.
Source: Abena Manokekame
