I cant read MD handwriting! Ack!

Nurses General Nursing

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Okay, I have heard this is one of those skills that you develop as you grow in your career.... but for the life for me, I cannot read physician handwriting!! To me, it all looks like random loops and lines... I cannot see letters or words! Often, I will ask a coworker to help me translate this mess, and they are guessing and grasping at straws as well.

Of course, if nobody can figure it out, I will call to clarify, but the doc I work with gets ticked that I cannot read his handwriting:uhoh3:

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Specializes in Cardiology and ER Nursing.

This is one of the reasons Hospitals and many other facilities are moving more and more digital.

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So let him get ticked. Your job is not to make him happy, it's to make the patient safe. If he can't be bothered to write it correctly the first time, then he's going to need to explain.

Of course, try to figure it out first. But when push comes to shove, call his ass up to explain it. Better that than having a dead or about to die patient because he scribbled it.

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Specializes in ER/Ortho.

I know isn't that the worst. I spend a lot of time trying to figure it out. I have other nurses bring stuff to me..."Do you think he meant this or that?" or worse yet "What is it?" I had one doc who wrote something and I swear it was a straight line with a swerve in it....????

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Specializes in ICU / PCU / Telemetry / Oncology.

I can't believe that in 2010 we still have to face issues like these. Everything should be electronic now. Only thing that doctors should put to pen is their signatures. Thank God for prescriptions that are now generated by computer, as long as they are hand-signed.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

Are you in the hospital setting.. We have a program for just those unreadable orders.. A copy is sent to the chief of staff and he will send a nice little note to the MD to write better :)

I can't wait for MDs to put there own orders in with the PDA or have them digital.. Sometimes orders are hard to read other times an MD with a heavy or different accent is hard to understand over the phone. We have a lot of foreign MDs on our unit, it is very frustrating for us and them to get the orders correctly.

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We once had a GI doc that wanted orthostatic BP's taken on his patient. Instead of writing "orthostatic BP's" he drew 3 stick figures in the lying, sitting and standing positions. Combined with his serial killer handwriting, none of us could figure it out. And he actually sounded surprised when we paged him and told him that we couldn't read it. :uhoh3:

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Specializes in Tele Step Down, Oncology, ICU, Med/Surg.

As a new grad RN I'm really struggling with this issue. It can really throw a wrench in my day when I'm already grappling with time flow issues. It's very humbling when I finally flag down a senior nurses who seems to have no problem with the writing. Starting to feel like I have some sort of decoding problem that's never been diagnosed in this age of computers.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
We once had a GI doc that wanted orthostatic BP's taken on his patient. Instead of writing "orthostatic BP's" he drew 3 stick figures in the lying, sitting and standing positions. Combined with his serial killer handwriting, none of us could figure it out. And he actually sounded surprised when we paged him and told him that we couldn't read it. :uhoh3:

That is hilarious... I can just picture that in a chart, too. Can you imagine the look on the QA person's face seeing that in a chart review? :)

Luckily most of our doctors actually have really good handwriting, but there are a few whose orders we have to get together and decipher sometimes... the worst handwriting I've ever seen though is my dad's and he's not in the medical field at all. Many times he can't read something he's written if he comes back to it, and sometimes he and my mom will look at it together and one of them will figure it out. Typewriters and computers are a wonderful invention!!

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

It's not you at all, Testa Rosa- it's probably just that those nurses have worked with those doctors for a long time and are more used to their handwriting. :)

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Are you in the hospital setting.. We have a program for just those unreadable orders.. A copy is sent to the chief of staff and he will send a nice little note to the MD to write better :)

I wish!! I work in LTC, so usually this horrid handwritten notes are addendum's to the discharge paperwork from the hospital. Often, this means a change to the typed orders :uhoh3: Plus, since I am not in the hospital with them, I do not know the contact info to reach them easily.

My alternate problem is that the 2 doctors I work with daily both have very heavy accents and speak 100mph. One is worse than the other, and his stream of thought will change directions so quickly!! I usually end up asking him to clarify at least 3 times, I read back the order, and sometimes I am still not sure it is right! :down:

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.
Okay, I have heard this is one of those skills that you develop as you grow in your career.... but for the life for me, I cannot read physician handwriting!! To me, it all looks like random loops and lines... I cannot see letters or words! Often, I will ask a coworker to help me translate this mess, and they are guessing and grasping at straws as well.

Of course, if nobody can figure it out, I will call to clarify, but the doc I work with gets ticked that I cannot read his handwriting:uhoh3:

After he gets several calls, he'll start writing neater.

Our facility has this policy:

If the nurse cannot read the handwriting, they show it to another more experienced nurse, if she cannot read it either, the original physician gets called back to clarify.

We are lucky...our medical director has 100% backed this policy up.

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