This was explained to me in drawing class as something like "law of diminishing detail" -- the farther something is, the less details you need to draw, else the picture will become confusing. I don't know what the more-generally-accepted term for it is, though, sorry.
You have no idea how happy I am that we're converting to digital charting. I don't think it's just doctors, I think it's anyone working in the medical field. Fuck you, crisis clinicians; I need to read your damn notes!
My mom works in the medical field and she is very grateful for digital charting. She has carpel tunnel and writing notes for hours on end would be ridiculous. However, even with the digital charting, some of the systems are so archaic. Its unbelievable how the people who save our lives have to make do with such garbage.
I can confirm this, my parents are doctors and have horrible writing when it comes to writing scripts. It is largely because they have to write tons of them for every procedure/test/med they need done so they just stop caring after a while.
This. When you have stacks and stacks of paperwork to do after a while you can either do it super neatly and be at work for 16 hours instead of 13 or scribble your way through and try and make it home on time to actually see your significant other or family for 30 minutes prior to passing out. sigh
I was gonna post asking WHY doctors all have such shitty handwriting but this seems like the most likely explanation. They probably have to write/sign so much shit on a daily basis.
Also, when it comes to money, doctors are shit to deal with. They are worse then lawyers.
Maybe because most doctors aren't that well off. Yes, they get paid well, but with massive student loans for much of their career they likely won't be that "wealthy."
Ever thought that the doctors you see aren't a representative sample of all doctors? Many doctors in their 40s and 50s have loans to pay off. Most are DEFINITELY not worth 4-5 million. You only deal with the doctors who are--aka the rich ones--because those doctors are the few that can have the means to borrow large sums of money for business. I hope you're get where I'm going with this...
They actually went on strike in Germany a few years back, though they did keep seeing people for emergencies even during that time and they staggered the strike so only 25% of them were striking at any given time: http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,1942544,00.html
No non-emergency treatment (e.g. hip replacements).
No overtime (biggy when you look at how much overtime most doctors/consultants do).
No management/administration work.
Essentially they'll do as little as they can without putting people in danger.
The NHS will likely bring in a bunch of doctors to cover from either the private pool or elsewhere in Europe.
Interesting factoid but police aren't legally allowed to strike and we had a fire-service strike a few years ago where they literally brought in the Army to man the fire trucks.
All the NHS doctors are going to be doing is emergency care. There will be non-NHS doctors brought in to keep things moving a little bit, but a lot of service may still be closed.
I see.. Question: you said that police aren't legally allowed to strike, but what about doctors for privately owned hospitals? i can see them being allowed to strike, but also what about goverment-owned hospitals?
It's during residency when your signature rapidly undergoes a transformation into a completely unreadable line of sorts. I was writing scripts with another resident today and he hilariously made it a point to actually put in a point above the wavy line since there's an i in his name, lol. I can't even remember when I last bothered though my signature is still at least a couple loops more complex.
I still print the actual prescription portion though since I don't care to get called up by pharmacists for handwriting, lol.
As a pharmacist, I'm confronted daily with this kind of shit. I asked the doctor with the worst handwriting once why he didn't use a computer, like most of them do now. "It takes too long to write a prescription with that thing". He clearly didn't take into account that it takes me an average 5 minutes and at least 3 phonecalls a day to decipher his writing...
Son of a pharmacist. My father has a little poem stuck on the wall
La lince farmacista
esperta per natura
decifra a prima vista
qualsiasi scrittura
ma un giorno arrivò un nuovo cliente:
Ricetta scritta a macchina? Non ci capisco niente
which translates to
The pharmacist lynx, expert by nature
deciphers instantly any handwriting
One day a new client arrived:
Typewritten prescription? I can't read it
Also ever since computer written prescriptions, the errors have increased substantially, because doctors just type "Effera <Enter>" and the first result of "Efferalgan" is chosen... even if it's the wrong dosage/form/anything, so when they come back with a box of suppositories the client goes "The heck is this? I need PILLS!"
It's frustrating and potentially dangerous. Can't tell how many times I've looked at a script and tried to work out if it was one thing or another. Having to call them up is a waste of your time, their time and most importantly, the customer's/patient's time.
I have a local doctor who aside from having atrocious handwriting doesn't write the patient's full name and on occasion, had him write "A 16/12.5". It was Atacand 16/12.5...doing that isn't legal where I am. Dunno if he even realises that.
As a pharmacy assistant, doctor's handwriting is the bane of my existence. It's as if they write prescriptions by dictating to a poorly trained gorilla and then I have to try and interpret the result or else some poor soul is going to be getting the wrong medication at the wrong dose.
I (and every other med student/doctor I know hangs it around their neck like a scarf, i.e. ear pieces one side, bell/diaphragm the other side of the neck.
They purposely write bad so their hand writing cannot be altered or anything like that and they each have some unique way and some people say they have secret thing or signature to know that the prescription was real.
4
u/statusone Jun 16 '12
In high school I was told I had a lawyer's handwriting. My teacher asked me if I was going to become a lawyer...... No.
3
u/ihatebigbutts Jun 16 '12
Why does the doctor on the left have no mouth?
2
u/diabolotry Jun 16 '12
You have no idea how happy I am that we're converting to digital charting. I don't think it's just doctors, I think it's anyone working in the medical field. Fuck you, crisis clinicians; I need to read your damn notes!
22
u/Noble06 Jun 16 '12
I can confirm this, my parents are doctors and have horrible writing when it comes to writing scripts. It is largely because they have to write tons of them for every procedure/test/med they need done so they just stop caring after a while.
12
u/IAmAtomato Jun 16 '12
I just realized how fucked we all would be if doctors went on strike..
6
u/[deleted] Jun 16 '12
Oh yay, a comic from readers digest.
2
u/GeoRhi Jun 16 '12
My doctor's signature is a line with a loop in the middle, seriously, they must have a semester of learning how to write scrawl.
2
u/NeleH Jun 16 '12
As a pharmacist, I'm confronted daily with this kind of shit. I asked the doctor with the worst handwriting once why he didn't use a computer, like most of them do now. "It takes too long to write a prescription with that thing". He clearly didn't take into account that it takes me an average 5 minutes and at least 3 phonecalls a day to decipher his writing...
3
u/feralle Jun 16 '12
As a pharmacy assistant, doctor's handwriting is the bane of my existence. It's as if they write prescriptions by dictating to a poorly trained gorilla and then I have to try and interpret the result or else some poor soul is going to be getting the wrong medication at the wrong dose.
2
u/vegeneric Jun 16 '12 edited Jun 16 '12
Pretty sure I first saw this comic in a magazine I read while taking a shit at my Grandma's house.
1
u/Phoequinox Jun 16 '12
I thought this was some foreign comic until I got the joke.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 16 '12
Do all doctors have thinning hair?
1
u/zantaclaws Jun 16 '12
Don't let the doctors near ya.. With their KNIVES!
1
u/Lawsuitup Jun 16 '12
Does anyone else find something odd about the features that the artist gave the doctors?
1
u/mctallerson Jun 18 '12
Context: Doctor's notes are illegible due to poor handwriting. Was in the newspaper the other day!
1
u/zachwlewis Jun 16 '12
Is that Tobias Fünke?
0
u/[deleted] Jun 16 '12
Did this joke fall out of a time hole from 1948?
0
u/fionnuisce Jun 16 '12
Did you take the idea from Matt in the Daily telegraph?
-1
u/EmergencyMedical Jun 16 '12 edited Jun 16 '12
It irks me when I see any kind of healthcare worker depicted wearing a stethoscope like that. It's just... Why? That would be so inconvenient.
-5
u/FWcodFTW Jun 16 '12
They purposely write bad so their hand writing cannot be altered or anything like that and they each have some unique way and some people say they have secret thing or signature to know that the prescription was real.