[fleury]

I am and old nurse from France who came to the UK in the mid 60's .

I have to give a talk about HOW to clean ,iron your uniform and generally how to take care of your uniform INCLUDING the hats .
.
you know what ...I do not remember very well!!

Anybody out there who could help me ?

thanks a lot for any lead and/or help Fleury

[sharrie]

Hi Fleury, welcome to allnurses.com

I have moved your thread into the UK section to get more appropriate responses for you. I am going to dig out my old hat and have a look to answer you as well

[sharrie]

I can't find my old hat, although that's not surprising but I do remember how difficult it was to clean and starch.

I used to wash it the use spray starch to iron it to get the hat stiff. It took almost a whole tin of the spray starch and it still wouldn't stay stiff till the end of a shift.

In the end I cut a bit of cardboard and fixed insite the frill to keep my hat shape. Sister did not approve.

I wore an apron for the first year but then the uniforms were updated and we no longer had to wear them. This was in 1989.

[Silverdragon102]

The hat's I used to wear was provided by the hospital and cut out which was easy to assemble. Then had strips to indicate what year student you was or green strip for EN

[karenG]

oh at the risk of appearing old..

we had cardboard hats as first years then linen ones as second and third year students. they had to be starched and folded with 7 pleats into an oval shape. we used discarded x-ray film as a template! one hat took a long time to make and we wore them for at least a week at a time!!

have also worn the very old fashioned dress/pinny and cuffs style. you had to soap the inside of your collar to stop chaffing. you only got 2 dresses but 10 pinnies.. and you were not allowed to take the uniform out of the hospital.. we rustled as we walked. when you left the ward on errands, the pinny was taken off and folded neatly. it only left the ward at the end of the shift. I think that was an attempt at infection control.. maybe the bugs only went on the pinny??

K

[nightmare]

Our first year caps were a square of starched linen that you folded so that you had a 'boat shape' for your head and the rest of it hanging down at the back.I don't remember how we folded them.Second and third year and as staff we had the precut ones that you held together with a stud at the back and about two dozen hair pins!My first uniforms had removable studs all the way down the front.You had to remove them all before going to the laundry and the collars were so uncomfortable they chaffed your neck!You only got one set of studs so,if you slept in in the morning it was an almighty rush to get dressed with all these studs.

[RGN1]

Can't find my pics - think they're packed already but here's a link to a website for you. Mine was like the 6th one along when I qualified. We flettened them out to wash them (they had a draw string) then used starch to iron them with.

http://dyk1.homestead.com/Caps.html

Students wore cardboard with stripes indicating their year & we made them up following the score marks & fastened them with a white popper thing. They were phased out the next set that started after I finished!

[fleury]

ouf !!!!! I made it ..it took me a long time to find this site and all the answers ..

thanks to all who answersed ...it is a great help.
could you give me dates please ? i would be greatfull.

I suspect that all those cardboard hats dated from the 80's .what happen to the really old nurses -like me with around 50years of nursing here and there-?
may be they are like me ,stugling with the computer?

keep the good work up thanks again ...
next time i will tell you what I will do with all thoe infos Fleury.

[sharrie]

Fleury, I wore carboard hats as a student from 1987 - 1990 and then starched frilly hat from 1990 - 1996

[Silverdragon102]

I trained 86-88 and everyone bar the sister wore cardboard hats, the sisters wore small round hats with fabric and lace. I do have a picture somewhere of me in my hat, will see i I can find it and scan it