This
topic seems almost superfluous—everybody keyboards, right? Everybody texts or emails. Who, over the age of 12, actually takes
pen to paper? In fact, there are
even movements afoot to abolish penmanship altogether.
However,
handwriting is not quite dead, and as a nurse I have to write narrative notes
and document medications and fluid intakes and outputs. Some hospitals are moving to a
computerized charting system, but my nursing home is quite a ways from that.
Of
course, we’re all taught penmanship in school, usually using the Zaner-Bloser
or Palmer method (you know, the kind where the capital Q looks like a 2,
although there’s been a movement away from that in the last 20 or so years, and
children now write Q’s that look like Q’s—more’s the pity!). But when teachers stop stressing
penmanship in the later grades, girls start experimenting with cute calligraphies
and then college lectures come along, and all the pretty penmanship we learn
falls by the wayside.
In my
particular case, my 5’s and S’s look alike, and my 4’s and 9’s resemble each
other, which from a patient care standpoint can be a real problem (did she give
4 milligrams of the drug, or 9 milligrams?). What I usually have to do is stop and write very slowly and
carefully for these numbers. I
also choose to print most of the time, because when I feel rushed, my
handwriting becomes more and more “flattened” and small. When I do handwrite, my capital letters
are just the printed form.
I
don’t mind printing (in fact, my notes tend to stand out, and if I want to see
what happened with a patient on my watch in the past, I can find it quickly),
but the number situation bothered me, and I want to be safer for my patients.
And
so…penmanship class!
I
printed out a handwriting chart and have been forcing myself to use it for
shopping lists, etc. I thought it
would be hard to relearn this skill, but I’m actually finding it fun (although
I’m woefully out of practice with the capital letters). I’m also pleased because it does look
refined.
