Doctors' Handwriting. Why is it ugly?

I believe because this way if they dont know what they are talking about nor do you.lol After working with a number of doctors they have had to do so much writing to get were they are that by the time they take on there own patience they cant be bothered writing neatly. Or they just think your a number and want to move on to the next patient. So they can buy there BMWs lol.

hey argie.. i had been having this doubt since my childhood.. when my parents ever used to say that i have to improve my handwriting i used to say i am going to become a doctor and that's why am preparing for that.. anyway, coming to the question, i think they do that to prevent us from knowing the correct diagnosis and medicines that they have prescribed.. only then we will visit the doctor often for further check-ups and medication.. [lol]

doctors do have a bad handwriting but not all of them.. my two cousins are doctors but both of them have a fantastic handwriting.. generally what i feel is doctors have to study a lot.. learn a lot and they do this by writing so that it is there for ever in their mind..( it is a proven fact that if you write something you tend to remember it ) and so they write a lot and with a gr8 speed so that they cover the entire course in time.. maybe thats why their handwriting gets distorted in the way... :)

I think it has something to do with doctors always being in a hurry. They never seem to run out of paitents. So they scribble as fast as they can to save time. I have never seen any doctor's writing that I could completely understand. Many people with poor handwriting make good doctors...lol.

doctors are not the only one's who has bad handwritings, most of us do.it so happens that the doctors became epitome of the curse.they usually have bad handwritings because they have a lot of things in their minds and calligraphy is not one of them.People who has a lot to thing about usually suffers from this syndrome and today there are a lot of people who has it because of the current technology being used in communicating.there are only a few people nowadays who writes letters so they do not have the practice of fine tuning their handwriting.so, let's not just point our finger only to the doctors.try looking at some architects.

In my country if you want to become a doctor you have to follow 6 years at the University. And in 6 years they have to learn a lot, i mean very very much... and having to learn so much they neglect the writing or they are trying to write as much as possible in short amount of time... so probably that's why the writing is so ugly... it's like a code between doctors:)

Because they write so many things in one day that they just stopped caring how their handwriting appears. I notice too that when I write a lot of things, it start to become ugly too.

I think it's called occupational disease. Their works make them write as fast as possible. And i think ppl get used to this. It's said "as bad as doctor's handwriting" so we usually cosider it normal. So it makes a feeling that if you're a doctor, your handwriting must be bad.

I agree. i have seen may doctors writing shabby. Well I might say illegible. I don't think I ever could read their handwriting. They should take extra care in order to write legibly so that patients can follow the instructions. It is hard to make out what they want. I have seen that sometimes even medicates fail to red their recipes. The only reason to my mind is that they are careless.

Yep you are right. Almost all doctors I've went to bad Handwriting. It seems to me as if the patients shouldn't understand the prescription. Hope they change.

I kinda noticed tha Pharmacists understand a doctor's handwriting, I guess its kind of a code for them to be able to give proper instructions to pharmacists and for us not to be too nosy about and start spreading the prescription to other people without proper knowledge about it. But I think its most likely that is a form of short hand writing since the small sheet of paper where they write the whole prescription a times cant fix the whole prescription.

Doctors' handwriting is probably a code language which only a chemist understands clearly. It is the instruction given to the chemist to give such medicines which makes the patient to visit the doctor time and again for getting rid of the diseases which might have started due to some side effects of the medicines prescribed by the doctors......hehehehe....

Doctors write a lot during their duty. They're so busy that they don't exert that much effort to make their penmanship legible. Nurses and pharmacists are so used to this...

doctors are busy man. they have their own writings. the only thing that can understand their writing are their co-doctors and pharmacist.

If you're meaning the coded words that they write like: prn (as necessary) tid (three times daily), bid (twice daily), and other abbreviations like that, it's because it's Latin abbreviations that are universally understood by people in the medical field. If you're referring to their sloppy penmanship, it's because they fill out amazing amounts of paperwork each day, and with each and every patient. Add to that the mass quantity of patients they see in a normal day, and you can kind of get a feel for why they have to write so fast just to get their job done. My oldest is a Dr, and let me tell you, her penmanship has gone to heck in the handbasket, lol, just because of how rushed the job is to get everybody seen and taken care of. If your Dr writes a prescription, or gives you hand written instructions, if you can't read them ask for clarification. If he doesn't have time to do that, then maybe one of the nurses, or the pharmacy will help you interpret them.

Most doctors rushed in school to write subjects and notes. That is the reason it stuck, and their handwriting is difficult to read.

Well first of all they do it so people can not falsify prescription slips. Many times people steal them and try to write unprescribed medications for themselves. This way, the harder it is to copy or forge. I have seen some horrible writing, where the doctor had to be called it was so bad. Usually most today, do make an effort to be somewhat legible. Either that, or I am getting better at reading them. LOL

May be the doctor think patient are not necessary to understand what they write.The note is simply a diagnosis report for the future references....:)

i believe its to do with the language that doctors are instructed to use with dealing with medicines , most doctors learn most medical terms , medicines , vacines in Latin dont ask why its just the way it is and the hand writing is ho doctors write in latin its kind of like a font but hand written , if you take a doctors note to another doctor i bet my house on it they can read it

well i think practising so much in their life for operation that their hands have become so stiff that they can hardly move it to make curves in there alphabets making it barely eligible........heh