Is there a history behind the white?

[CityKat]

Hi everyone..

I'm a nursing student who is graduating in 8 months:) yay! I just recently found out that my school is NO LONGER going to pin graduating nurses in white. The "dean" has decided he wants all graduating nurses to be pinned in our clinical uniforms which are wine colored shirts with our gold patch on the left. I'm actually pretty upset about this, as I think it should be a continuing tradition for graduating nurses to be pinned in white.

I was curious if anyone knows of the "tradition" or "reasoning" behind nurses wearing white? Is it reason of purity?

the reason I am asking is because the assistant dean said in order for her to talk to the dean about changing the pinning back to white she would need a letter and signatures which I am planning on getting. I'm just looking for added amuinition for my letter.

Any help is appreciated:)

[KarryRN]

We were pinned wearing our cap and gown that were in school colors (maroon). We all wore dressy clothes under our cap and gown. I guess all nursing schools do things differently.

[tridil2000, MSN, RN]

if i'm ever dean, the men will be wearing suits and, the women, a business outfit.

1. you'll need it again for interviews

and

2. you all need to start seeing yourselves as educated professionals, because YOU ARE!!! if you want the respect a business professional etc gets, play and dress the part.

YOU ARE NOT YOUR MOTHER'S NURSE!!! IT'S THE 21st century!

you have to realize that if you want to continue in the tradition of nurses from 60 - 100 years ago, you WILL be treated that way in the health care arena and you better give up your chair to the doctor and follow all HIS orders.... you better be ready to scrub blood up off the floor and clean and sterilize needles to be used again.

like another poster said, time moves forward. do nurses want to or not?

[CityKat, BSN, RN]

Thank you all for your input. I think it's important to be pinned in white and am upset that "per the dean", we are now going to be pinned in our dark wine clinical shirts. I think it looks unprofessional personally. I thought that the white meant purity and am happy to hear that basically means that. All the students I have talked to in regards to this are upset. Most of them think the same as I and that is this is an important day in our lives. The pinning ceremony will have our immediate family there and we are all crossing a bridge into what we think is a great profession. I mean afterall, he was pinned in all white and so were all the other administrative staff, why change now? Especially since this has been a tradition at my unviersity since the nursing program was started MANY YEARS ago.

I am a member of the SNA on campus and there are others like me who are trying to change it back. Thanks again for all your input and histories on your pinning ceremonies. It's nice to hear these things

**editing**

In response to tridil2000

You are right. I agree with the business attire. What I DON'T agree with is our clinical uniform. It just doesn't look professional and quite frankly, if I have to choose between white and my uniform now, i would choose white. So would many other students whom I have talked too. Business attire would definitely look GREAT, but it isn't even a choice for us.

I think it is a poor choice by the dean to make without getting input from the nursing students. Eh, students are losing their voices it seems.

[truern]

At my pinning ceremony we wore white uniforms...dresses or pants/tops. We also wore our nursing caps, recited the Nightingale pledge, lite our lantern from our neighbor's lantern, etc. It was a beautiful ceremony and many tears of joy were shed. I wouldn't change a thing!!

I wish you much success in getting the ceremony you desire and deserve!!

[llg, PhD, RN]

if i'm ever dean, the men will be wearing suits and, the women, a business outfit.

1. you'll need it again for interviews

and

2. you all need to start seeing yourselves as educated professionals, because YOU ARE!!! if you want the respect a business professional etc gets, play and dress the part.

YOU ARE NOT YOUR MOTHER'S NURSE!!! IT'S THE 21st century!

you have to realize that if you want to continue in the tradition of nurses from 60 - 100 years ago, you WILL be treated that way in the health care arena and you better give up your chair to the doctor and follow all HIS orders.... you better be ready to scrub blood up off the floor and clean and sterilize needles to be used again.

like another poster said, time moves forward. do nurses want to or not?

Great post! While it may not be the majority viewpoint among students who have yet to practice nursing, I am one RN with almost 30 years experience who things you are right on the money.

If we continue to cling to the all aspects of the past, many of the negative aspects of the past will continue to cling to us. There are plenty of ways to honor the past without clinging to out-dated practices.

llg, PhD, RN

[kat911]

I agree with other posts that the Grads should decide what to wear. I graduated wearing all white, we had pinning ceremony at graduation and capping ceremony after our first year. Both were traditions for our school, it was very nice and looks great. Some people are rabidly against white's, I don't see the issue, my uniform doesn't determine how good a nurse I am, I do. I wish more nurses would be rabid about being the best at what they do instead. BUT back on point, graduation should not be in your student uniform, you are a graduate and should wear something different, even if it is white's, dress clothes or business attire, anything but your student uniform!

[JoeyDog]

My husband recently graduated and his nursing uniform for the past two years was ALL white. White scrub top and white scrub bottom, he also had a white lab coat. When he graduated they all wore business clothes with their lab coat he wore black slacks with a LS button up shirt and dress shoes with his lab coat. No one complained about not being pinned in all white. That was probablly b/c they had been wearing all white for the past two years!

[GatorRN]

It was my schools tradition that our uniforms were all white. We had to wear a white uniform top (couldn't be a white scrub top, had to be a collared uniform) with white pants, and a white lab coat, as well. We wore a college emblem patch on one sleeve that identified us as students, like the all white in itself didn't already do that..LOL. We didn't have to wear the lab coat during clinicals; but when we went in the night before to do chart review on our assigned pts for the following day, we had to be in full uniform, including lab coat, to even step foot in the hospital.

Come time for our pinning, we removed the college patch and wore our whites to the ceremony. Some wore caps, some didn't. I didn't wear my cap. I think you, as graduates, should be able to decide what you wear to the ceremony. Afterall, it is your graduation, not the Dean's. I hope your signature petition convinces the Dean to let you wear white, like you want to.

Congratulations on Graduating!! :mortarboard: :yelclap: :yelclap:

[jetscreamer101]

When I went to school, we had to wear our caps and white uniforms to all clinicals, except our peds rotation. The clinical instructor for peds refused to have us wear them. After graduation a bunch of us had a cap burning ceremony. At the time, virtually no one was wearing caps in the workplace.

[llg, PhD, RN]

When I went to school, we had to wear our caps and white uniforms to all clinicals, except our peds rotation. The clinical instructor for peds refused to have us wear them. After graduation a bunch of us had a cap burning ceremony. At the time, virtually no one was wearing caps in the workplace.

I worked at one hospital in which it was an irreverant tradition for nurses to wear their caps on Halloween. It made a lot of sense to me.