Doctor's handwriting

SarahCeleste · Nov 13, 2003

As a student nurse, I'm having a hard enough time deciphering the whole chart to fit in my care plan and the last thing I need is illegible writing! I've run into a lot of nurses as well that look like chicken scratch. I don't know what happened to the Docs between grammar school and med school, but I wish they'd get the hint----that (!!!) maybe, JUST MAYBE, some med errors could be prevented if they'd just take a little more consideration and time.....(if I had a penny for every "clarification".....) :eek: Sorry, I'm just running into that a LOT lately and had to vent!

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Nov 13, 2003

It truly is frustrating.... I sat at the desk for over an hour last week when they asked me to "take off orders" as the secretary was out that day, and the charge nurse was busy. Each and EVERY chart had orders that to me were toally illegible. I was about in tears. Everyone was SO busy and counting on me to do just this one thing for them to help out, and I absolutely could NOT read these orders !!! And I had to stop the nurses in the midst of what they were trying to accomplish anytime one happened by the desk, just to ask THEM what these orders were ! So how much help WAS I ??? And they were all from different docs !

I was about ready to throw in the towel. It really, truly SUX.

I hope and pray this hospital will go to having the docs enter their orders by computer. There's just no excuse for this nonsense.

live4today, RN · Nov 13, 2003

Where I work, one of the latest newsflashes is the nurses handwritings on the charts will be monitored and discipline measures will follow if handwriting is illegible. We must also date and time every order received on the patients charts.

No problem....we should write legible. My beef is WHEN will the same disciplinary policy go into effect for doctors sloppy handwriting? Ohhhhhhhhh those wasted minutes nurses could be using doing patient care if it weren't for having to take so much time figuring out what a lot of doctors scribble on the orders for the patients we care for.

The docs want stat and now orders carried out......well, they should start writing their orders legible enough for us to read so those stat and now orders can be carried out on time if that's what they want.

Too busy to write legible? So are we as nurses. Not only do we have to deciper sloppy handwriting, we are entangled in the unit wars that are ongoing with five to eight patients, their family and visitors, other departments in the hospital wanting information from us, pain med management of our patients, documentation of our own "neat" assessment/discharge/care plan notes, not to mention entering the acuities on all our patients, and making sure our unit education lessons are done on time. The work is neverending, especially the paperwork.

Therefore, with all we must do as nurses while on duty (and sometimes on time off) the least the doctors could do is write legible to make that one less task for us to figure out in our already "not enough hours in the shift to make everyone happy" shift worked.

barefootlady, ADN, RN · Nov 13, 2003

When in doubt ask another nurse to see if she/he can understand the order. Ask unit clerk too. If there is still a question, call the doc and ask, it's his order and if it's important then he won't care. If he gets angry, then state you will file incident report with copy of unreadable order attached. That usually calms the waters. Our time if valuable too. I know of one institution in the area that forced a physician to hire a scribe, his writing was so bad they were afraid a court case would show neglect on their part for not forcing better communications.

seanymph · Nov 13, 2003

Yes, the eligible handwriting is a big problem, but with my new assignment I have run into a new one I have never had before. (and please I am not trying to offend anyone, but this has been a problem for me).

The heavy accents of my co-workers and physicians. I have had to have doctors repeat orders do many times I am sure they think I am either deaf or dumb. I am in New Jersey and along with the heavy Jesery accent we have alot of Italian, East Indian, Phillipino, Korean, Chinese, etc. ethinic groups. I am trying very hard to listen closely, but when you have a screaming labor patient in the back its not always easy. I am loving learning about the different cultures which I didn't have alot of exposure growing up to in a small town in Michigan. But, the accents make it just as hard taking orders verbally, both in person and over the phone, as reading handwriting.