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We have several doctors with wonderful penmanship. I, personally, make sure and thank them whenever I can.... For those doctors who write illegibly, I have absolutely no problem in calling them and saying, "sorry to have to call you like this.. but no one on this unit can make heads or tails out of your order, would you mind clarifying it please?"
I triple dog dare em to give me lip....
I remember there was this one infectious disease specialist, big big guy, used to wear these really nice suits and carried the most expensive fountain pens I've ever seen. His handwriting was so beautiful - like art. He also always smelled really nice.
Just made you smile when he came by... :)
Funny you brought this up. A couple of months ago a renal doc I had never met came in to see one of my patients. It was about 9 pm. I asked who he was as he was sitting writing orders. He said he was ____. I said you can't be a doctor! He said Why not? I said I can read your handwriting. What did you cut class when you should have been in lose that penmanship 101. He said you're a wise ass aren't you? I said yeah, so are you, huh? He said yeah! We got along just fine!!
We have a cardiologist with handwriting so bad, he can't even read it. We called him one day last week to clarify an order, and he could not remember what he wrote, so we faxed him the order sheet. He couldn't read it either, and still could not remember what it was supposed to be. Couldn't have been too important!!!!
sharann, BSN, RN
1,758 Posts
Yesturday a physician came to our recovery area to see a post-op pt. He wrote orders and I glanced at them as I always do before he left (so I wouldn't have to page him in 3 minutes for clarification of handwriting). I was AMAZED. The writing was not only readable but worthy of a penmanship award! I told him "Thank you for writing so neatly". Know what he said? He said, "I don't see why M.D's write sloppy, it just wastes everyones time when we have to be called when noone can read the writing". He is my new hero (as far as doc's go). What a breath of fresh air for a change. To top it off, he is actually a sweet guy and a great doctor.
Just had to share some good news for a change.:)