nursing caps

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · May 29, 2007

We did have one older Nursing Supervisor on the night shift who continued to wear her cap. In the 1980's sometime, Administration told her she MUST STOP wearing it because it was too intimidating to the younger nurses!!

A cap intimidates newer nurses? Wonder what else frights these poor mites, eh? LOL....there's just a couple in my hospital who still wear them, and I can guarantee you their caps aren't gonna intimidate any of us!

nuangel1, BSN, RN · May 29, 2007

i went to school 83-87 never had a cap the whole time and have never worn one .i had a pinning ceremony..my program did not have them agree with them or require them .i have always disliked the idea of them at all.the female subservience for one,id issues for 2 ,and i hate hats period .i don't look good in hats.also this whole idea that we would look like nurses and be more respected in all white to me is nonsense.my bsn and my 20 yrs of experience plus the way i carry myself is what earns respect .certainly not the color of my clothing .white is impractical and i don't look good in it.i love my comfortable scrubs thanks.:)

ShariDCST · Oct 2, 2007

hi - i just joined recently - you all can probably see that. i was an lpn student in the late '70's but had to leave school when my doc put me off my feet for hypotension issues after i got pregnant with my daughter after the program began! (can you say bad timing???) i'm now a cst, and love it. but i've always had the nursing "calling" in some way or another.

i've been reading the posts on caps, i know this is a few months too late, but in case someone still catches it, i thought i'd throw this in the "hat" - or cap, as it were.

i see mentioned from time to time that the guys aren't really formally included sometimes when schools that still do capping ceremonies give them to the female students. i saw something a while back i thought was a nice compromise on that particular issue. if your school still does this, and you have male students in your class - here's a neat way to include them in! the school/class i saw photos of had provided the traditional school caps for the female students, and all-white baseball style caps for the guys! if stripes were needed to represent class rank, then they wrapped one around the base of the cap, just above the brim. i'm sure they didn't actually wear them on clinicals, but it sure would give them a way to be included in on the fun, and a dandy keepsake for later on!

i still have my cap from way back in the old days - we had already been capped before i had to drop. i wore it every day in clinicals like a crown - and now it's a precious memento to me of all the hard work, study and sacrifice we made to get past that initial "probationary" period and move on to becoming nurses. i still wear a cap now - just a different kind.

wayunderpaid · Oct 2, 2007

At the risk of getting in trouble, I will say that my wife's nursing cap did something really special for me....

As a male nurse, I think that caps are put-dated in the workplace.

allnurses Guide · Oct 2, 2007

I think some people are overlooking what the cap did in the early days of nursing. Women had very long hair, washing it daily wasn't really an option (no hair dryers!). Women did not go out in public without a hat, nor did they wear it down. (Ever hear the phrase "letting your hair down"? It meant you were in a private and confidential place, such as the bedroom). The cap helped keep dirt out of all that long piled up hair, and under control. Not to mention, they didn't have plastic ID cards nor name badges the way we do, and a lot of people were illiterate anyway. It was a public identifier, a source of pride, and culturally fitting.

I wear brightly colored scrubs. I wore a lot of white uniforms in the 80's. Got really good at using bleach!

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Chocirish · Oct 16, 2007

I graduated from nsg school in 1977. We had a capping ceremony; each received a nurses' lamp, a corsage--the ceremony was very moving and it was such a big deal. But, you didn't get capped unless you had a certain GPA etc. After the next yr we got a stripe and then at commencement, a wider stripe. I think the capping ceremony meant more to us than graduation. This was back in the days when you got demerits in school if your shoe laces weren't white enough!!

ShariDCST · Oct 17, 2007

i graduated from nsg school in 1977. we had a capping ceremony; each received a nurses' lamp, a corsage--the ceremony was very moving and it was such a big deal. but, you didn't get capped unless you had a certain gpa etc. after the next yr we got a stripe and then at commencement, a wider stripe. i think the capping ceremony meant more to us than graduation. this was back in the days when you got demerits in school if your shoe laces weren't white enough!!

sounds very familiar! we had the requisite uniform inspections on a weekly basis on any day the instructors chose to line us up for the once over! the difference in the capping ceremony from yours, in our class if you went to capping, that meant you had the required gpa and so forth - those who did not were no longer in the class to move on with the rest of us. it was a very significant event in our lives as students - i don't think graduation had the same impact as capping. we got candle lamps and we had to light them after we were capped and walk back down the aisle to our seats from the stage. we had a whole class group picture done - i've still got mine someplace...later on, we got a light blue (i think - it's been a long time) angled stripe across the corner of one side of the cuff of the cap indicating our advancement from "sophomore level" student, (with the probationary period being the "freshman" level) and then one more stripe when we made it to the final quarter of the program, that being the "senior level." at graduation, we were given the indiana color designation of lpns at the time - that being a bright red band to wear all the way across the cuff of the cap. i seem to recall each state had their own color - indiana was red, virginia was navy blue, florida was kelly green, and so on. those are the only states i'm sure of.

sugar plum fairy · Nov 24, 2007

i really want to wear a cap at work, seriously!

but i have a teensy little problem: i don't know how to put it on!

i bought a school cap for pinning in Dec 10, but i still don't know how to put it on.

does the edge with the strips go against the hair or up?

geez i haven't asked anyone cuz i think i'd sound stupid

SICU Queen · Nov 24, 2007

Yep, I had to wear one. I graduated in 1993. I hated every second that I wore that cap. UGH.

Fiona59 · Nov 24, 2007

The stripes go up at the top. My class had a cap making session. Don't laugh, it was really helpful. Fold the cap into shape on a white towel if possible. Place stripe side down, fold rim with stripes back. Isn't there a how to make folder included in the cap?

Get some bobby pins and some white paint. Paint half the bobby pins white. Nothing looks worse than the dark hairgrip against the white cap.

newohiorn, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Nov 24, 2007

I was part of my nursing school's first online RN program. My online class and a traditional class graduated together. Apparently there was a vote whether or not we would wear the hats for our class photo and the vote came out to wear the hats. A photographer took our picture both to send for our license and for the class photo. I was in the first group of people to get our pictures tkaen and I refused to wear the hat and told them to leave me out of the class photo if they wanted to since I wouldn't wear the hat. Bless my online classmates who, without any planning on our part, all refused to wear the hat too and they did include us in the class photo anyway. It's easy for me to find my online classmates in the photo because they are all hat-free!

P_RN, ADN, RN · Nov 24, 2007

All I can do is smile. There must be almost as many threads on here about caps as all the other topics put together.