Cursive confusion: The unforeseen side effect of a hospital cyberattack

Windsor Regional Hospital in Windsor, Ont. is seen on March 8, 2024. (Travis Fortnum/CTV News Windsor)

When the computers went down at Windsor Regional Hospital last October, CEO David Musyj said staff were quick to rally — pivoting to chart by paper in the absence of electronic systems.

However, he said, an interesting challenge arose when it came time for those frontline employees to read what was written on said paper.

“We had a bunch of younger nurses that don’t know cursive writing,” Musyj said.

Speaking to reporters following Thursday’s meeting of the WRH Board of Directors, the CEO shed further light on what workflow was like in the wake of a crippling cyberattack that struck five southwestern Ontario hospitals on Oct. 23, 2023.

“The machines just stopped, everything stopped,” said Musyj.

Nurses, doctors and other staff did not have the option to drop what they were doing until the problems were fixed.

Instead, they picked up paper and pens and went back to charting the old fashioned way.

Musyj said that’s when the cursive confusion arose.

“[Younger nurses] weren’t taught cursive writing in grade school and high school, so when a physician or a fellow nurse is writing in cursive, they can’t read it,” he said.

Cursive writing has been a contentious facet of Ontario school curriculums in the digital age.

In 2006, the province made handwriting an optional piece of learning, believing typing skills were more pertinent.

However, it was again made a mandatory part of the curriculum last September. Education Minister Stephen Lecce said it’s too crucial not to be compulsory.

"The research has been very clear that cursive writing is a critical life skill in helping young people to express more substantively, to think more critically, and ultimately, to express more authentically," Lecce said in June.

When cyber criminals seized the systems at WRH, the typing skills of medical staff became a moot point.

Younger employees who grew up without learning to handwrite struggled to make out what was written on charts and paperwork.

Musyj said that’s when staff came together.

“We had some older staff…who were used to paper charting, they were able to bring on the newer staff and were able to say, 'Hey, this is how you do it. I'll show you how to read cursive writing,'” Musyj said.

The code grey at WRH — put in place following the cyberattack to mark critical systems loss — was lifted last month with the restoration of all major systems.

No one’s anticipating another such event throwing the hospital back into a veritable dark age, but leadership said future frontline workers would be better prepared for this facet of recovery.

“From my understanding they are now being taught cursive in nursing school,” Musyj said, which Chief Nursing Executive Karen Riddell confirmed.

“This is the last cohort coming through now that didn’t learn cursive,” she said.