Patients Struggle To Understand Prescriptions Over Bad Doctors’ Handwriting
Physicians have explained why their writing on prescription notes is mostly ineligible for patients, clarifying that bad handwriting isn’t peculiar to doctors alone.
Though they acknowledged that most physicians write fast, they, however, claimed that the development might have been influenced by the need to write in shorthand while in medical school to meet up with lecturers’ dictation.
The doctors agreed that deciphering some doctors’ prescription notes could sometimes prove herculean for patients, pharmacists, and fellow physicians.
The Canadian Medical Association in an article published on its website titled, ‘Why do doctors have bad handwriting’ says despite doctors’ incredible education and a job that requires critical attention to detail, they just can’t seem to make their handwriting readable to others.
“When comparing a group of health care professionals, including hospital executives, clinicians, and managers, researchers didn’t find that doctors’ writing was any better or worse than others in the group”, it said.
The association maintained that whether written on a piece of paper or emailed, it is important that patients understand what their health status is and the pros and cons of available treatment options.
The doctors, who spoke in separate exclusive interviews with PUNCH Healthwise, argued that while doctors’ handwriting is always a subject of discussion, some other professions also have people with bad handwriting.
Dr Japhet Olugbogi
A Public Health Physician and Epidemiologist, Dr. Japhet Olugbogi, told our correspondent that with a high turnover of patients, doctors tend to write fast and attend to as many patients as possible.
According to him, doctors work very busy schedules, sometimes with a high turnover of patients, and don’t like to see people waiting too long.
The senior health professional noted that doctors’ habit of ensuring all patients who are waiting on their clinic days are attended to influence their fast-paced style of writing which sometimes appears ineligible.
“Because of this, our handwriting becomes very, very bad. There is a misconception that doctors intentionally write illegibly so that their patients cannot read it. No, that is not true. We do not do that.
“From personal experience, our handwriting gets bad because we are in a hurry to quickly finish what we have in mind. We are in a hurry to diagnose, and treat a patient, and then move on to the next.
“It all started in medical school. There were so many things to copy, so many things to write down, and you had to keep up with lecturers dictating notes at high speed.
“We had to read a lot, write a lot, and cover so many pages within a short period of time. Because of that, our handwriting deteriorated,” Olugbogi said.
According to a report by the Institute of Medicine, 1.5 million injuries occur every year because pharmacists and healthcare workers misread sloppy handwriting. These handwriting errors involving prescription medications kill up to 7,000 Americans each year.
On his part, a Consultant Peadiatrician, Dr Ayodele Renner, argued that it was an exaggeration that doctors have the worst handwriting among professionals.
Dr Ayodele Renner
According to him, in reality, many professionals, such as lawyers, also have challenging handwriting, but their work is not as publicly scrutinised.
He, however, argued that despite the challenge, efforts can be made to improve handwriting for better clarity.
The child health advocate said, “Doctors often have to write quickly due to the high volume of patients they attend to daily. Taking time to write neatly could mean seeing fewer patients, which might not be practical.
“Some speculate that doctors deliberately write illegibly to prevent patients from self-medicating, but this is largely a myth.
“However, the stereotype that doctors intentionally write poorly is largely unfounded.”
Explaining why doctors’ writing could be illegible, a general practitioner in Lagos, Dr. Cindy Madu, said most physicians’ handwriting has been influenced by the need to write fast.
“Sloppy handwriting doesn’t have to do with any particular profession. However, in medical school, things are usually done in a rush, but I can still tell you that there are several doctors whose writings are readable,” Madu said.
On her part, a Family Physician at the Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi, Benue State, Dr. Laadi Swende, said sloppy handwriting was not peculiar to doctors, but that physicians write fast most times due to work pressure.
“But because a layman doesn’t understand a doctor’s writing doesn’t make it illegible.
“It is not good to generalize and say that all doctors have bad handwriting. The majority of medical prescriptions are difficult to read, but it shouldn’t be that way,” Swende said.
