The President, Association of Resident Doctors, Obafemi Awolowo University, Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Dr Nana Fayowole, has spoken on the alleged harassment of a young doctor by a senior nurse at the hospital

It will be recalled that there was a viral video about a young doctor at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Teaching Hospital being locked up and harassed by some nurses at the hospital.

Speaking on the incident, “what transpired was that my association’s members were contacted to have a specialised form of intravenous access for a female adult in the orthopedic ward on Thursday, June 16, 2022, which they obliged. The procedure was done and they were leaving after properly discarding the sharps and separated other medical waste for whoever would dispose of it because an appropriate waste bin wasn’t provided where they were.

“The story, in short, is that when they were leaving, the most junior of the doctors was locked in. I was told they said she wouldn’t be allowed to leave until she disposed of the waste. We learnt that the nurse on duty did that. That led to our emergency general meeting where decisions were made. Disposal of waste is not part of a doctor’s job description. I perform surgery from time to time and I do not think I have been asked at anytime to dispose of waste generated. If a patient is coming into the ward and he or she is vomiting or defecating, I have never seen where the patient is made to pack the vomit or the feaces because he or she generated it.

“It is supposed to be a team work. When things are done properly, nurses are supposed to be there from the beginning to the end of procedures because they will continue the care. They will administer drugs and other checks will be done by them. It is not the work of the nurses to dispose of waste but people that ought to do the needful were not allowed to do their job. Nobody was calling on the nurse to dispose of the waste. The team that operated didn’t ask her to dispose of the waste,” he said.

According to him, the case is not a nurses-versus-doctors issue at all; “It is just one doctor and a nurse that had an issue. This is just a one-off thing. We have resumed work since Thursday and we have been working fine with every other person as a team. Personally, I have had interactions with a couple of nurses. There is no animosity at all. I have not seen in any of our statements where we made any categorical statement that doctors are being abused by nurses. When we talk of incessant harassment, we are referring to what our members suffer across the board even from patients and patients’ relatives. We understand the volatility that is in the land because of hunger and poverty, but, of course, that doesn’t give anybody the right to assault anybody anywhere, not to talk of at workplace,” he added. (Story adapted from The PUNCH)

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