Importance of handwriting?

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Hello, nursing folks. The following question may sound dumb, but it's sort of becoming a legitimate concern of mine.

I just found out recently that I was admitted into my local nursing school for the upcoming semester. While this is all very exciting, one thing has been strangely bothering me more than many others. My handwriting. To be blunt, it's kind of awful. Not illegible (in my opinion anyway), but still pretty bad. Also, through my attempts at trying to improve, I also realized that I have pretty much forgotten how to write in cursive. Whoops.

I'm a guy, which I think kind of predisposes me to having worse handwriting than what will sure to be the majority of my colleagues. So adding that into the mix...it's just not pretty.

So I guess my question is: Is this something I should focus too much of my worrying on? Like I said, I apologize if this sounds stupid and trivial, but I need to know. I assume (hope) that a good bit of the documentation I have to do will be computerized, so if that's the case, that will ease me a bit. I just want to make sure I'm not doomed to be the bane of my co-workers/supervisors/patients existence because of my juvenile penmanship.

Thanks!

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Specializes in ER.

You can relax buddy. During d time with which you are a nsg student you will encounter alot of more pressing issues on your way that you won't mind having a bad penmanship . Mind you - mine is no better on top of that it is minutely small they said they wanna use magnifying glass. But then i was able to be a Nurse and so far in God's grace i haven't encountered any issues with my handwriting. But i see to it that whenever i write documentation it is something that others can read too..

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Is your printing better? My handwriting is horrible and I think a third grader could do a better job. My printing is easier to read, and just generally tidier.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

At least you admit it .... When you do have to document something officially, just keep it mind and do your best. Write slowly, print large, whatever.

Your post made me smile. I worked with a nurse some years ago. Fairly new nurse, she was in school for her MSN/NP. I truly liked her. Loved coming on behind her shift. Great report, good technical & assessment skills, finished what she started and did things right, cared about her pts; you couldn't ask for a better peer co-worker.

Problem- her handwriting. The biggest, flowery-est & loopy-est writing ever! I'd get dizzy just trying to read it. I found my head bobbing up & down when I could read it. What took her 3/4 of a page to write something would take me maybe 5 lines of space. (And I have healthy size handwriting.) The sad part was her documentation content was excellent, but it was so ornate that I couldn't read it. Most of the time, I just passed over her nurses notes. When I did read her notes it was comprehensive, informative & professional. Spot on.

I guess it was just my loss. One thing though - she always put in an extra blank page because she knew she took up so much space.

Now that was courtesy!!!

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Specializes in Orthopedic, LTC, STR, Med-Surg, Tele.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I have a couple of coworkers with absolutely atrocious handwriting (to the point where I show it to someone else and say... can you read what this says?!) but it's not the end of the world.

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

Just print instead. As long as it is legible then no big deal.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I myself have horrendous handwriting. I type everything for grad school and did in undergrad too. I printed when I had to so you will be ok!

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I can't remember the last thing I needed to hand in/document that was handwritten. Everything needs to be typed or just entered into the computer at the hospital.

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