Doctor's Handwriting?

Hello SV! My handwriting is quite legible and anybody can easily read my handwriting. I make it a point to write legible so that others could comprehend easily. Had I been a Doctor I would have been written legible prescriptions to that anybody and everybody could read my prescriptions. It reminds me of a joke - "A married woman with a hand written letter in her hand, went to a Chemist and asked - "Will you read this letter addressed to me?" Chemist - "But it is your personal letter, why do you want me to read it?" Married Woman - "Actually, my husband is a Doctor and I cannot understand his handwriting and I thought you being a Chemist will decipher this letter easily"

In the Philippines doctors are know to have terrible handwritings too but i have never encountered pharmacists giving wrong medicines because of it. Pharmacists here always know how to read the penmanship of the doctors no matter how awful they are that's why we call them the experts in reading handwritings. My sister and her friend are both an exception to the rule though. They are both doctors with really good penmanship. In fact my sister's handwriting is much better than mine.

Hi Dear Viswan! I fully agree with your views. It is beyond my understanding why some doctors have so bad handwriting.My friends who are doctors, almost every one does have a nice handwriting. A bad hand writing if subjected to an hand writing analysis then it can speak about the mental make up of the doctor at the time when he is writing the prescription. I think because of lot of work pressure and tensions doctors are generally a stressed lot and under stress may be they are writing such bad hand written prescriptions! A small spelling mistake or interpretation by the chemist can make a hell of difference as we have several medicines available with slight change in the spelling used for different ailments. So such prescriptions are always dangerous as they are directly dealing with the life! But now most of the doctors are using computers and printer to have their records stored this problem is solved to the maximum extent! I am a Veterinary Doctor and I have fairly good hand writing and my prescriptions are very easily be read by any one! It is absolutely legible! Thanks for the discussion...Good one, enjoyed participating in it!

Dear friend, I feel the doctors could give dictating to the nurser who have a better hand writing or a computer print. This could help the patient and also the pharmacist to find out the name of medicine without any confusions. Handwriting is big problem when the wrong medicine is given after spelling the wrong description. May be there are other alternative to give a better description.

It is something I do not understand about doctors. To think that they are well educated and have spent so much time in the universities to earn a prestigious title. Why is there handwriting so bad? So bad, that sometimes it gives you a terrible headache just to decipher each word and making sure it is the right interpretation or else you are going to make things worse by giving a wrong dosage or wrong medicine. Sigh... As for my handwriting? No, I do not give that person that kind of misery.If I know that someone has to read it, I'm making sure that he/she will enjoy reading it and would rather focus on the content than focus on the characters. I do not want to complicate things. I just want to convey my message as exactly as they should be. So as not to give the wrong signal or the wrong interpretations especially if the message has a serious content.

Usually hospital are now working through the computer and we can see the prescription is printed that is very convenient. Personally speaking, my handwriting is very neat. But now I use the computer much more than hand-written.

I realized in 11th grade (about 16) that I couldn't read my handwriting, so I went back to printing. Since that was OVER 40 years ago, we were taught how to write, unlike kids today. No joke, my handwriting and my brother's look remarkably like our father's - and the joke was after he retired, he was going to go teach penmanship at the medical school (to teach them how to write poorly.)

Here the doctors are the same. I don't know why doctors need to have the bad handwriting, I think they do it in purpose for a reason we don't know. But at least it has changed a little bit. Such as here the medicical prescriptions should be printed now. So at least we know what we will take. But the doctors have to write down our situation, and we can't really recognize what's wrong with us because of the bad handwriting. I love China

It's really a big problem.I think so in china.Most peole couldn't understand what doctors write.it's usual.but it's must clear to pharmacists.It's important to patients.

Yeah, it's so annoying! I don't understand why they have such awful handwritings. They went to prestigious institutions and studied for so many years right? You know what just recently, I transferred to a midwife for my prenatal appointments and I can really compare her handwriting with my previous doctor. My midwife's handwriting is so neat and well organized while the doctor's were so huge and dirty! When she was talking to me about my pregnancy and stuff and what to bring during labor she talked soooo fast and wrote down soooo fast, it was no use coz I still can't understand her handwriting! She doesn't even stay on the lines of the paper! OMG it really annoyed me! I thought to myself: a 5-year-old has a better handwriting than her! Humbly speaking my handwriting is not bad at all. That's why it's such a wonder (and annoyance) to me on why doctors have such bad handwritings!

Hi SViswan, Mine is small but clear and readable. It becomes worse when I write on the blackboard for my students as I cannot write larger sized alphabets at a stretch. Anyways, the doctors handwriting is always messy and it has to be. I asked a doctor once and he told me (on the lighter side though) that this way they have a chance of escaping any mishaps that may arise due to wrong medicines. But today's doctors should use computers and the printouts which are more readable should go well.

I think i have a good writing, very legible and neat. A few months back, I have difficulty in buying medicines of my husband because of his EENT bad handwriting. Luckily, I found a pharmacist who is good in reading writings of doctors.

hi there. yeah i dont know sometimes if they do that in purpose or what because i dont know if they even right in that way when they were still in college hehehe :) but yeah i think it would be better if they just have the prescriptions printed and then just sign it. so far i haven't seen any prescription printed in our country, or maybe in the other cities they do that already but i am just not sure. because i just graduated from nursing and so i would see and write prescriptions too but we students write it in print, but the doctors are still writing them in their own way. well for me, i dont think i have that bad of a handwriting :)

hi friend... im a B.Tech graduate but still i cant understand the doctors hand writing. but i dont know how the pharmacists can understand it... its really sometimes funny and times scarable to me.

I agree that the doctors' handwriting is really hard to recognize. I am wondering why they should write that way to avoid the understanding by their patients. I seldom find a doctor's handwriting easy to recognize...

My handwriting is alright but I must agree with you on the doctors' handwriting, haha!~Really illegible!~ That's a good idea - block letters or typed!~

we often make a joke here in our place that part of the doctor's training is how to have a bad handwriting... or how to create a code that only pharmacists can decode. hehe I do not have a nice handwriting but at least it is readable. But actually, since I write on the computer for almost all of the time, I dread the moments when I have to write by hand.

When I go see doctor, I look at the doctor's writing, I was like what is he writing??? It looks like he writing drawing grass on the paper... I think my writing varies, I sometimes write neat words, sometimes my handwriting is not so good, I guess it depends if I am in hurry or not.

I can still read my handwriting. Doctors tend to have a very bad handwriting and I don't know why. Maybe because they're so smart that's why they write very scribbly.

Doctors are very much known for their hideous handwriting, but reading the prescription wrongly is another story. But I think it is high time the doctors deal w/ their faults too, and start to write legibly. As per my handwriting, it isnt as good as before as I am working mostly w/ the use of the computer and not used to writing anymore, but I can say that it is still readable though :)