Forced wearing of nursing cap.

[onetiredstudent]

I'm a senior registered nursing student and our school has a pinning ceremony to mark the completion of our program.

Our class contains about 20% men, equal split of black and white in both genders. I am approaching 50 and this is not my first career.

The director of the nursing program gave the class the "option to vote" on the wearing of a nurses cap for the pinning ceremony and our class photo. The majority of the class voted to wear the cap, men excluded from wear.

I do not wish to wear the cap and have been told by program director that "the class voted to wear it and you have to or you will not be able to participate". I understand the cap is traditional, but I feel it calls specific attention to my gender and not my success in passing nursing school. I've worked very hard to get where I'm at and I wish to celebrate my success with a pinning ceremony.

I truly feel that being "forced" to wear the cap is discriminatory based on my gender alone. Period. The guys are not made to wear them because they are considered "feminine or female dress", and I don't wish to be "forced" to dress as such either (we are all wearing pant-scrubs by unanimous vote).

I respect the choice of anyone else that wishes to wear the nursing cap. I don't and won't presume to force my opinion on them.

Has anyone else had this experience?

Does anyone know of any precedence against forced wearing of nursing caps to participate in school activities, etc? Any input on how else to proceed in approaching my school administration would be appreciated.

I welcome the input from both genders, seasoned and new nurses, students and educators, and anyone else on here that wants to chime in.

I ask only, that you be nice to me and each other. This is very serious for me.

[overthemoon]

It is very silly but probably not worth the battle. Just wear the horrid little thing and keep it for next Halloween. Most of all, be thankful that you won't ever have to wear one at work! Congratulations on your graduation!

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Couldn't have said it better.

So if the class voted that all black people in the class had to stand in the back, would we just tell a black person, "Your class voted, you lost."

[x_factor]

So if the class voted that all black people in the class had to stand in the back, would we just tell a black person, "Your class voted, you lost."

Facepalm.

Did you really just compare a female wearing a hat as part of the traditional female uniform for an hour during graduation, to the entire segregation and racial profiling of black people?

Wow.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

You realize that women have faced (and obviously do still face) discrimination? How about all the black people just have to wear a hat? Discrimination?

Maybe it's not a big thing in the history of discrimination against women, after all, I'm guessing both the women and men got to vote on this instead of just the men. And it's a hat instead of a translady partsl ultrasound. But when something is forced on one gender and not the other, that is the textbook definition of gender discrimination. People can say this hat thing isn't important, but saying it's not discrimination?

Quoting from "discrimination" on wikipedia which is quoting from a sociology textbook:

Discrimination is the prejudicial or distinguishing treatment of an individual based on their actual or perceived membership in a certain group or category, such as their race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, or religion. It involves the group's initial reaction or interaction, influencing the individual's actual behavior towards the group or the group leader, restricting members of one group from opportunities or privileges that are available to another group, leading to the exclusion of the individual or entities based on logical or irrational decision making

How is this NOT "distinguishing treatment..based on their ...membership in a certain group or category, such as their race, gender..."? How is this NOT "restricting members of one group (women) from opportunities or privileges (not having to wear a hat to the ceremony) that are available to another group (men)"?

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

I am floored at how many people continue to say "just wear the thing". The bottom line to all of this is the OP felt strongly enough about her belief system, her gender identification, her thought process in the history of the hat for female nurses in a "chaste" role, to ask if it was disctiminatory. As noted above, it not only is the epitome of discrimination, but allowed at a school that accepts federal funding. A nursing hat is not a reflection of anything other than a tradition that is not reflective of most nurses practice. Remember, this is an older student in her second career, so perhaps her thought process is far different than that of a younger student fresh out of high school, or a nurse from "back in the day" that did not have life experience to realize for some, this is a female outward sign of what some could consider subsurvient. We need to support each other in the right to be able to have a choice.

[Racer15, BSN, RN]

I would have just skipped the ceremony. It was enough of a stretch getting me to buy the pin.

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

Our class voted NOT to wear the traditional white uniform with cap at our pinning. But one student had her heart set on it and wore it anyway. No one had a problem with that. What were we going to do? Lock her out?

Since we had to graduate with the entire college, we were told NOT to draw attention to ourselves as nursing students. Well, many of us decorated our mortar board with glitter and paint spelling out RN.

I don't think this is a big deal. I probably would not have worn one though.

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

It kinda surprises me, that so many people aren't recognizing that yes, it IS discriminating when a facility is demanding one gender to wear some illogical hat from the past, that does NOT have a positive connotation to many of today's modern professional women,

to even be allowed to even participate in their pinning,

but the other gender doesn't have to wear the lil pointy hat.

.

I think the faculty (or facility) is only saying that the students have to abide by whatever the vote was. Otherwise, why have a vote?

I also don't think it is legal discrimination.

But I still wouldn't wear the cap and I did decorate my mortar board.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

I fail to see how this is sexist in any way.

[PatMac10,RN, RN]

So if the class voted that all black people in the class had to stand in the back, would we just tell a black person, "Your class voted, you lost."

Don't be ludicrous. Segregation is a belittling and illegal force that went on for Years. It put one person above another, and deemed the slave as an unintelligent Living thing. So that comparison was in NO WAY justifiable. Also the OP and get other classmates had a voice in the matter, many times oppressed people NEVER did. Under the name of democracy, the class voted, and the OP lost. End if story. She can fight it, that's her right. However I doubt the the program director would budge unless half the class or more had an issue with it. My program voted on it and came to that conclusion.

Firstly, the wearing cap, especially now-a-days at pinnings, was never meant as a negative sign or derogatory action. It signified that you were a special person. It is meant to be an honor, not a tribulation. Women wear them at pinning for a brief time because of the many of the intelligent people that helped structure the current nursing practice wore those caps, which signified they were trusted healers.

[PatMac10,RN, RN]

I am floored at how many people continue to say "just wear the thing". The bottom line to all of this is the OP felt strongly enough about her belief system, her gender identification, her thought process in the history of the hat for female nurses in a "chaste" role, to ask if it was disctiminatory. As noted above, it not only is the epitome of discrimination, but allowed at a school that accepts federal funding. A nursing hat is not a reflection of anything other than a tradition that is not reflective of most nurses practice. Remember, this is an older student in her second career, so perhaps her thought process is far different than that of a younger student fresh out of high school, or a nurse from "back in the day" that did not have life experience to realize for some, this is a female outward sign of what some could consider subsurvient. We need to support each other in the right to be able to have a choice.

The point is that there are too many other more important issues at hand to worry about wearing a cap for a short passage of time. Wearing that hat is meant to be an honor, not derogatory action. The women who truly shaped nursing into to what it is today, many of them wore that hat..

My perfectly honest truthful opinion, because that's what the OP ask for,is to just not go if you can't let yourself wear the cap. If the OP really wants to wants to participate in the ceremony, the pull it together for an hour and then call it a day.

[PatMac10,RN, RN]

Gotta love it when the "discrimination" card is pulled out over something this mundane. It's a hat. Wear it or don't. But out of all the trials and tribulations of nursing school, and a HAT is what puts a kink in your gears? I'd just be happy I'm graduating, happy I made it through. I'd probably do a backflip across the stage while wearing a chicken suit if they asked me to, just to know that my journey was finally complete and I was graduating. Something as absurd as wearing a hat or not would not even begin to put a damper on my happiness to be graduating. I'd wear it with a smile.

It's a hat. It's just not that serious.

Praise!