MD's hand writing

[Leonardo Del Toro]

I cannot believe this. What in the world possesses some MD's that they think it's OK to write riddles so we have to spend precious time dicifering and getting together in groups of guessing games trying to figure out what in the world was the hidden message on these orders. Isn't this order suppose to be extra precise and specific? This should not be acceptable at all, if you go through medical school you should be able to write legibly. Thank the lord computers are taking over this problem. Would't be great if we could just read the order and know what was the meaning rather then spending time decoding, looking online for a case that matches so on and so forth....? Some MD's get ****** if you call them and say you don't know what's in there...I feel like given them a calligraphy book.

[boricualuna]

I'm actually a Nursing Student, ya just passed my first semester with two As and one B. For the past 8 years I've been working as a tech in CCU at the local hospital in my town. I remember when I first started I had a hard time reading the dr's hand written orders, forward 8 yrs later and I'm the one nurses approach when they have questions about an MDs orders.

[uRNmyway, ASN, RN]

I have no problem whatsoever calling a Dr to clarify an order if it is not legible. My patient getting the care they need is my priority. I worked nights and if the order has anything looking like 'stat' or anything important, I WILL call them in the middle of the night to clarify. If not, I will wait til 5am or so to call. When cussed out, I have simply explained that all the other nurses looked at it, no one could decipher it, and if it had been written legibly this wouldn't be an issue.

[Sammy Mendez]

I, like many other nurses undersand your frustration marcos9999. You figure at their level of professionalism, their penmanship would be ledgible. For the life of me, I just don't get it! And the ones that get ****** off, I make them clarify orders, period. Once an MD knows that you, and staff aren't going to guess what he or she put on paper, then they adjust their manners accorrdingly. I note this more in men than women physicians. Stand your ground, your not alone.............

[atlnurse477]

In our setting, doctors still give handwritten orders...what I noticed is that younger doctors have much legible handwriting than older doctors=). But if ever I encounter an indiscernible handwritten order, I am really taking time to clarify it first with them...patient safety is still my first priority

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

The point is that you shouldn't have to call the MD to clarify a handwritten order, and you certainly shouldn't have to rely on someone else to decipher it for you. Since our docs put orders in on the computer, we rarely have a handwritten one anymore, but the problem I am having is that I cannot understand some of our doctors when they speak. Most of our doctors are from a country other than the United States, and they can speak English, of course, but with a different "accent" that makes them difficult to understand. Some speak too "low," especially on the phone. We have to ask them to repeat something 3 times, then they act like we are the idiots.