Brave nurse defies Physician Assistant's order to save patient's life

A nurse at the Ho Municipal Hospital has been receiving praises online after a story emerged about how she insisted against the express instructions of a Physician Assistant to administer a drug to a patient in a way she knew was not a standard procedure.

Gloria Atiayao's story flooded social media after the patient she saved, Bernard Gorni, made a post to the effect, showing pictures of how he, together with the authorities of the hospital, honoured her with a citation.

According to Bernard Gorni, the incident happened on February 25, 2021, when he went to the Ho Municipal Hospital for treatment.

He explained that after seeing the PA, he went to the nurse who, from seeing the prescription, immediately sent a colleague nurse to go back for clarity.

He said that after what seemed like long minutes after the nurse left, Gloria took it upon herself to follow up and when she did, the PA insisted that was what he meant.

"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," he wrote.

Bernard Gorni further stated that “… at the injection room, Madam Gloria 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 answered and said he instructed her to do so.”

Providing more details on this in his Facebook post that has been multiple shared on many platforms including The Ghana Nurse page, he explained that the nurse was still not convinced and immediately sort further clarity from a doctor.

"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 ignored his orders and went on to do the right thing with humanly affection to save life and avert a possible calamity," he said.

When it seemed like what her instincts were telling her would not be corroborated by the PA, she then decided to rather have him administer the injection himself since she didn't want any wrong attributed to her should it happen.

"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," he explained.

Eventually, the medicine was properly administered to the patient and it was thereafter that he and his family, with the Hospital administration, decided to acknowledge her bravery and her good work ethics.