Factor 1: Doctors have to write more than just about any other professional.
In the medical field, written evidence is very important (if it is not written, it didn’t happen).
So, in a day, a doctor has to write discharge summaries, referral forms, drug charts, pathology slips, x-ray slips, etc. (the list is unending).
So, the handwriting gets worse over the course of the day — the overworked hand muscles can’t keep up with the strain and even good handwriting turns illegible by the end of the day.
Factor 2: Time pressure
If a doctor could spend an hour with each patient, we won’t be complaining about their bad handwriting.
The doctors, however, are always rushing from one patient to the other and so their focus is to pass on the information (and not to perfect their handwriting).
This leads to shortcuts and, therefore, a lack of comprehension for people outside the medical field, e.g. QD is shorthand for a Latin phrase meaning “one a day” and TID means “three times a day.”
Over a period of time, the writing load and time pressure lead to gradual deterioration of the quality of handwriting.
Factor 3: Stereotyping.
Just consider the number of people you know and the number of people whose handwriting you have read.
So, maybe lawyers or perfumers also have to do a lot of handwriting and maybe their handwriting is equally bad.
But we don’t usually come across the handwriting of these professionals and, therefore, we don’t have a point of view.
A doctor’s handwriting, on the other hand, is something that almost all of us have read (or tried to read) some time or the other.
Having said all this, the problem of bad handwriting is not as relevant today as it was 20 years back because the medical field is increasingly moving towards electronic records.
