Why are doctors' handwriting so bad? Both the issue of bad penmanship and its traditional explanation are no longer issues in the modern world. The common explanation I have always heard is - that while rapidly taking notes in college and medical school, a doctor’s penmanship deteriorated over time. By the time they got out into practice, those writing habits could not be “unlearned”. In reality, even when I was in school in the seventies, one class member was charged with taking comprehensive notes for each class lecture, typing them and then distributing them to all the other members of the class. So at most, we only had to take hand-written notes once every 170 lectures. Today, students start using computers for note taking at an early age. They don’t even teach cursive in many grade schools anymore. Today, I don’t write anything. All orders and notes must be entered electronically. I don’t even sign my name - I put in my password and an electronic signature is generated. I’ve found that one can still hand-write a prescription in a pinch, but legally, they are all supposed to be transmitted electronically. Even calling the pharmacy to prescribe a drug has gotten so user-UNfriendly that it’s quicker to log into the system to order it instead. Source
