nurses and spelling

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I believe nurses to be some of the most well educated, bright and savvy professionals across all disciplines. My question is, why can't a large majority spell? I am talking basics here, for example their, there and they're. Is this a general failure of education or specifically science-oriented curriculum? It is embarassing.

Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

Type A of course.

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Specializes in LTC, Acute Care.

I can forgive poor grammer/spelling on online forums or facebook, and I am guilty of a few myself. What peeves me off is seeing it in the charting. These are someone's medical records and legal documents! We could at least make an effort to use proper English when charting. I always wonder when I read some charts what an attorney would think of the horrible grammar and spelling, and how he/she might use them against the nurse who wrote them.

Now wait...from what I understand, a nurse is given the chance to elaborate on charting if it isn't immediately evident. You certainly are allowed to explain nursing shorthand and abbreviations to a non-nurse, so why not spelling and grammatical errors that are not so easily inferred by reading the chart? I truly believe most nurses do not chart intending to use poor grammar or spelling. I am personally aware of a rare exception to this, and the gibberish was purposeful when the actual nursing care wasn't in tip-top shape - and the nurse knew it.

Listen, doctors get these things wrong, too. If they had to always chart like nurses, there would be some charting you would assume came from less-than-intelligent persons when they are anything but. When dictating, they just have the advantage of a transcriptionist to make the words and grammar prettier, unless the transcriptionist is stuck in a verbatim account. Then we cringe when we hear and subsequently transcribe those errors.

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Specializes in LTC, Acute Care.

I'm a type B, by the way. I usually see a word once and will remember it forever. It's a handy skill my brain gave me.

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Specializes in LTC, Acute Care.
We can't exactly dictate our notes for transcription. I think it's important for the nursing note to make sense, since it's often the only reminder of care rendered on a patient if the chart someday ends up part of a court proceeding.

Some nurses do dictate their notes. Besides nurse practitioners, of course, I've transcribed for RNs who are generally in certain clinic settings. They are all generally worse than doctors in the pronunciation of basic medical words. It doesn't mean their nursing care is bad. I think the same idea should be applied if a nurse charts less than perfectly. ;)

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Because I'm not stupid and I KNOW for a fact certain people do.

Let me help explain to you what I meant......why in God's name (since I guess we have to bring Him into this....) I feel that way.

What OTHER reason would a person have for pointing out someone's grammar and spelling mistakes...? Unless that person is you teacher, or a very involved boss, or a good friend...and they are just trying to help you learn to spell (which is rarely the case).

When someone HERE for example rips into another member because their post is misspelled and poorly written, they aren't doing it to "help" the poster......they're doing it to build themselves up by pointing out other's flaws. It's the "You think I'M stupid, well look at how dumb she is!" mentality that many people seem to possess. It's not like they're sending PM's....

And okay, you DONT KNOW ME FROM ADAM, so why are you judging me again? Talk about expecting the worst from others? You're a champ at it! I never one time said I believe people are bad, but I 100% stand by what I said about people pointing out other's spelling mistakes. You tell me what the other "genuine" and "non-malicious" motive would be for pointing out your peer's (not your best friend, Im talking co worker or boss) spelling mistakes?

And yes, one who misspells often AND DOESNT MAKE MUCH SENSE (if you're gonna quote me, quote the whole thing honey) is obviously an idiot. Or crazy, one of two. Pick! LOL. My whole point was that one should EASILY be able to distinguish between someone who is smart and capable and maybe just has issues with spelling versus someone who is genuinely not smart.

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And once again people: FOREIGNERS! Maybe the reason they spell is alot instead of a lot is because they are still learning our language? Think about how long it would take someone to learn all of our phonetics and grammar. I can't imagine going over to India and learning even one of their 23 languages!

No point in further discussion with you - I doubt I could ever get my point across to you. So we can just wish each other well and go our separate ways. To me nothing is "obvious" about your example. I see you're only 27, so I guess you still know everything. I, on the other hand, am older but hardly wiser and there is a world full of things I know longer know.

Forget God if you want to. He is my strength, though, often nearly all that keeps me going. I am not judging you, Adam or Honey or whoever you want to be. I just feel very, very sad that some people, like you, and like some with whom I have worked, just have all the answers and have them immediately and the world is black and white, no shades of gray, no areas of doubt or uncertainty. :crying2: It's all just very sad to me.

Oh, just for the record, I do not point out these errors to others. I cringe in silence. I was just participating in this thread, that's all.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
QUOTE=applescruffette;4192018]I'm a type A. No, type B. Yeah, type B. Nah, type A.

That makes me type A, B, B, A.

I'm type ABBA.

Are you a dancing queen, by any chance? :p

Were you recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? :lol2:

You all would love some of the notes I read in home health. Because in shift work the nurse is alone and usually without EMR, each nurse seems to adopt a unique style. They feel the short area provided for a narrative was a horrible mistake and write things like "vent filter changed, pt tolerated well" up the side margin in tiny little letters, and liberal use of letters from a foreign alphabet. Sometimes they seize on a random empty place on the form, starting their note "pt watching a musical" under the area meant to describe their bowel program. After all that, the page meant to stay in the chart is the bottom copy of a triplicate- I stare at it and ask the patient if anything unusual happened the day before. :)

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Specializes in LTC, Acute Care.
Were you recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? :lol2:

Honey I'm still free; take a chance on me. :p

ABBA is the ultimate in bring-me-out-of-a-crabby-mood music, I swear.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Yep, music like medicine-- I've recently discovered that a video of Ricky Martin MTV Unplugged singing-dancing "Pegate" with his Latin band cures me of most ills these days- and I don't care if people say it's corny! :p

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Specializes in L&D; GI; Fam Med; Home H; Case mgmt.
Honey I'm still free; take a chance on me. :p

ABBA is the ultimate in bring-me-out-of-a-crabby-mood music, I swear.

I agree, even though when they were so popular, I was a kid and thought they were horrific. Now I just pretend not to like them. :p

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Specializes in Acute Care.

I think the problem is mostly grammer. I haven't had any kind of grammer related lessons since second grade...

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Specializes in N/A.

If you guys want to discuss ABBA, what type of personality you are, and blah blah blah please go do it in PMs.

It's really annoying to have to read through all that BS for those of us who are actually trying to keep up with this thing.

Kooky Korky, I don't even know what you're talking about, because you made zero sense. Nothing you said pertained to anything I said...... were you confused, or what? Scratch that, I don't care. LOL :D

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Specializes in LTC, Acute Care.
If you guys want to discuss ABBA, what type of personality you are, and blah blah blah please go do it in PMs.

It's really annoying to have to read through all that BS for those of us who are actually trying to keep up with this thing.

I think you are experiencing a serious ABBA deficit. It's happy, relaxing, lose-the-'tude music.

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