Why doctors have incomprehensible handwriting and how to make it out

The bad handwriting of doctors has long been a reasonfor jokes - the Internet is full of funny pictures on this topic. It has happened in the life of every person that after visiting a therapist it is impossible to read a prescription for medicines, and the only way to decipher the text is to show a piece of paper to a pharmacist in a pharmacy. Most often, bad handwriting is observed in therapists and surgeons, and sometimes everything is so sad that even pharmacists cannot help. This problem is relevant not only in Russia, but also in other countries - in 2018, the Italian Ministry of Health sent out a call to the regions to improve the quality of the writing of medical workers. But why do doctors have poor calligraphy? There are many explanations for this phenomenon, and it's not just that they don't have much time. Let's look at all the likely causes and find out how you can decipher prescriptions for drugs.

Most doctors have bad handwriting, and there is an explanation for this

Content

• Why is a doctor's handwriting difficult to recognize?
  • 1.1 Doctors have little time to write well
  • 1.2 Burnout worsens handwriting
  • 1.3 Doctors emotionally shut out patients
• 2 Services for deciphering a doctor's handwriting
• 3 The best way to read a doctor's handwriting

Why is a doctor's handwriting difficult to recognize?

Bad handwriting is different.Some people have letters so large that it is impossible to tell where one character ends and another begins. Others have letters so small that the text looks like a line with small squiggles - the handwriting resembles an electrocardiogram of the heart. Any bad handwriting is united by the fact that it is impossible to make out.

Bad handwriting is different

In most cases, the doctor's handwriting is impossible to decipher.

But why do doctors predominantly have bad handwriting?

Doctors don't have much time to write well

Lack of time, this is the most commonan explanation for bad writing by doctors. It all starts from their student days, when they have to write a huge number of notes - for six years of study, the fast pace of work has time to noticeably reduce the quality of writing.

After studying, work begins.Fifty or more people enter the doctor's office every day. No more than 15 minutes are allotted for the reception of each patient - during this time you need to examine him, make a diagnosis based on the symptoms, prescribe medications and fill out a medical book. Needless to say, there is no time to print each letter - you need to quickly draw the text and take the next person.

Many doctors do not have time to write beautifully

It should not be forgotten that healthcare workersyou need to regularly fill out a bunch of documents and write in magazines. It is necessary not only to have time to complete all work tasks, but also to find time for personal life. Again, there is no time to surprise people around with a beautiful letter.

Emotional burnout worsens handwriting

Some sources say that due tohard work doctors very often burn out. It is very difficult to work, withstanding a lot of stress - some workers simply do not want to display each letter. And this is very similar to the truth, because you yourself could observe how much the quality of work decreases with fatigue.

Another example of illegible doctor's handwriting

Doctors emotionally shut out patients

It may seem that some doctors write badlybecause of callousness - in fact, this is not always the case. To work as long as possible, every physician has to emotionally isolate himself from patients. Otherwise, it can be difficult for them to confidently diagnose and tell patients the whole truth in person. Surgeons have to become especially strict, because they often give bad news to patients.

Doctors often have to emotionally disengage from patients' problems.

See also: 5 most shocking treatments from the past

Services for deciphering a doctor's handwriting

As mentioned, the bad handwriting of doctors isa problem that is relevant in many countries. The health ministries are trying to rectify the situation, but, as you can see from everything written above, it is very difficult. This is because trying to write beautifully can make doctors even more tired than usual.

There are many applications for handwriting recognition, but they do not cope well with prescriptions from doctors.

There are many services on the Internet that candecipher the doctor's handwriting. However, their quality leaves much to be desired - people have different writing styles, and not everyone can recognize algorithms. Because of this, it is difficult to recommend a specific service, you need to try several options yourself. To find a program for deciphering a doctor's handwriting, just write in the search "recognize a doctor's handwriting online."

For example, the handwriting recognition functiontext is available in the Google Lens app. With it, you can take a picture of a piece of paper, select the text and paste it into a text editor. Unfortunately, often the application does not live up to expectations, because the doctor's illegible handwriting is too complicated for him.

Google Lens also does a poor job of deciphering doctors' handwriting.

Google recently announced that it is workingon the new application - this time it is aimed specifically at deciphering the doctor's handwriting. With it, you can take a picture of a prescription and get a list of medicines that is written in it. At the moment, the service is not available to ordinary users, and the release date is unknown. In addition, it is not clear whether it will support the Russian language. But it would be nice.

You will be interested: Which countries have the best medicine and why?

The best way to read a doctor's handwriting

Most of the time, handwriting transcription services don't work well - perhaps the perfect app simply doesn't exist.

Therefore, the best way to decipher the recipe intomedicines - show it to a doctor you know or a pharmacist in a pharmacy. Once in South Africa, an experiment was conducted in which medical workers were shown 300 prescriptions and medical records written by twenty different doctors. 8% of doctors, 82% of nurses and 75% of pharmacists were able to decipher the text.

Medical professionals really understand illegible handwriting

It turns out, in most cases, medicalworkers can recognize doctors' handwriting. They are helped in this by their extensive experience of interacting with drug prescriptions and knowledge of what drugs are and in what dosage they are usually prescribed.

However, sometimes due to illegible handwritingphysicians are in serious trouble. In the experiment mentioned above, some experts misinterpreted the dosage of the anti-anxiety drug - they mistook a dosage of 4.0 mg for 40 mg, and this is a very dangerous dose for health.

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Summing up, we can say that bad handwritingdoctors can be explained by many reasons. Most likely, the situation with handwritten text will never be corrected - the only solution is to abandon handwriting and execute all documents electronically. In the USA, Canada and some European countries, electronic medical records have already been introduced, and in Russia progress is also moving in this direction.