Docs forced to write legible

hypnotic_nurse · Jun 14, 2004

And here I thought they had to take a class in illegible handwriting to become MDs!

rjflyn, ASN, RN · Jun 14, 2004

Saw the article in the Detroit paper yesterday about that. The law is going to state that prescriptions will have to be written in printed script. Dont know how much it will help, some docs printing is pretty bad as well.

Rj

Marnaby · Jul 14, 2004

I work in a large teaching hospital in Boston and the MD's do all of their orders and scripts on the computer. The RN then has to go into the computer and acknowledge the order. The only time they write is when they are doing progress notes in the chart. It certainly cuts down on mistakes because you don't have to decipher crummy handwriting.

SthRNBelle · Jul 14, 2004

Heck yea...that is the best idea I have heard all week. It constantly a joke with all nurses on my floor to decipher md writing. its ridiculous. there malpractice insurance is going to go out of the roof due to poor hand writing and the inability to read and follow thru!!

Marnaby · Jul 14, 2004

It really is a wonderful system and I have never seen anything like it (of course this is the first nursing job I've had). I wonder if there are other places around that do the same thing.

I also hate when the MD's get mad because you call them to ask about what they wrote in their note. It's not our job to figure out what your assessment says!

I hope that more hospitals will begin to move away from paper and move towards computers!

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Jul 15, 2004

The headline in the paper should have been "Doctors Are Being Made to Do What They Should Have Been Doing From the Start".

nptobee · Jul 15, 2004

And here I thought they had to take a class in illegible handwriting to become MDs!

Sometimes I believe this is true!

I'm a Unit Secretary who loses valuable time trying to read these orders, then you have to ask the nurse if she knows what they say, and she winds up asking another nurse. It's a shame, and very unsafe.

Altra, BSN, RN · Jul 15, 2004

I hope that more hospitals will begin to move away from paper and move towards computers!

AMEN!

As a student I'm still astounded that it's considered acceptable for 2-3 people to spend 5 minutes or more huddled around a chart trying to decipher an order or note!

TiffyRN, BSN, PhD · Jul 15, 2004

I hope this law goes beyond requiring printing. The absolutely most illegible writing I ever had to decipher was a very sweet cardiologist who kinda printed. I say kinda cause it was somewhere between printing and heiroglyphics, but if one had to guess printing vs. cursive most would have said it was printing.

Computer entry; that's about the only way to help the handwriting issue. I actually have a personal doc that enters his prescription for me into a small laptop and the prescription prints at the front desk as I check out. I like that.

Where I work now the docs make an extensive head to toe progress note every day that they enter on computers then print out and file on the chart before they leave the unit. Wouldn't be a far stretch to computer enter the orders as well. I know it's done in some places.

NannaNurse · Jul 15, 2004

It took me while, but now I can read 'pretty much' most of what all our docs write, but I won't hesitate to call them and tell them that I can't read the orders they wrote. One went as fas as threaten me with a write up........oh right, like he could even go there..........for calling him for no reason and wasting HIS time........... :rotfl: :rotfl: We are known as the unit that calls docs to verify orders and now most of them will read out the order to a nurse before they leave the floor......but I think that this ruling is a long time a coming!!!! It's about time.....now all they need is to make a 'law' about the nurses who write like crud!! Boy howdy, you would think that some of them think they were docs in another life by the way they write!! ahahahahahahaha

SharkLPN · Jul 15, 2004

The headline in the paper should have been "Doctors Are Being Made to Do What They Should Have Been Doing From the Start".

:rotfl: Isn't that the truth!

There's a resident MD in my area who has cerebral palsy. His joke is that because of his condition, he aced Bad Handwriting 101 in med school without even studying! :chuckle Gotta love him!