No, Caps Are Not Totally Gone - Page 4

Register Today!
  1. Mar 16, '10 by
    Quote from SuesquatchRN
    I want the Hunter cupcake holder.

    I was born in 1953 and only left the island in late 2004. I moved to Manhattan for a 10-year hiatus in the 80s-90s and didn't recognize it when I returned. Now it's impossible. I remember when the drive to Al Deppe's was out to the country. HA!
    Oh honey, I was born after you (none of your bidness!*LOL*), but left in SI in the 1990's when switched from a nursing major at CSI to a different college in da City!

    It really is amazing how "inbreed" nursing on Staten Island is, meant in a good way of course.

    You have the three nursing programs (CSI, St. Vinny's (now St. Paul's), and Wagner basically churning out grads for the Island. Of course there are in and out flows from and to Jersey and Brooklyn. Think for most nurses just getting to Staten Island would put them off if they aren't from there already. Public transportation is modest and probably serves St. Vinny's best, and would take forever and probably several bus changes to get out to SI hospital. Driving is slightly better, but these days the traffic on the Island is murder.

    One thing about SI that hasn't changed is everyone still pretty much knows everyone or their family from grade or high school. As a nurse you could find yourself working with your family doctor and taking care of your first grade teacher as a patient. How weird is that!
  2. Mar 16, '10 by
    Quote from DoGoodThenGo
    One thing about SI that hasn't changed is everyone still pretty much knows everyone or their family from grade or high school. As a nurse you could find yourself working with your family doctor and taking care of your first grade teacher as a patient. How weird is that!
    Your generation will be gone next. I know hardly anyone anymore, although the contractor who sold us our house knew my great-grandfather. Everyone went to Jersey, where they are c/o the islanders, so everyone spread out even more....

    I'm in a way rural area now and this reminds me a lot of SI back in the pre-bridge day. Everyone know everyone. Everyone is related in some way. There was a big crime scare at work - some local kids were breaking into cars so we had to LOCK THEM.
  3. Mar 16, '10 by
    My school had a ceremony where we got our first stethescopes, instead of caps. It was still special to mark the beginning of our clinical experience. :redpinkhe
    SuesquatchRN likes this.
  4. Mar 16, '10 by
    Has anybody seen the Caledonian Hospital (Brooklyn, iirc) student uniforms? I have a 1960 National Geographic with a picture - tartan shirtwaist dress, plaid apron, cap that looks like a Glengarry bonnet with plaid trim.
  5. Mar 16, '10 by
    She appears to be a dedicated and knowledgeable professional.


    I wore the cap when I was in school. It marked us as student nurses and it sent the men into a tizzy. Of course I was in my late teens/early twenties and I was a size 5 back then so that might have had a little to do with it but mostly it was that darn cap.

    When I still worked acute care, I wore all white. I felt more professional in my whites but the cap would not work for me...ever.
    SuesquatchRN and Fiona59 like this.
  6. Mar 16, '10 by
    I wore one for two or three months while I was on orientation at my hospital. My patients and their families loved it -- as did people from transport, lab, etc. I stopped when I realized that this was my nursing school cap and that I had no way of getting another one or even disinfecting this one -- ewwww.

    Months later, I got snagged by coworkers asking why I stopped. Some smug, but a few were actually disappointed.

    It was a good experience and fun for a while, but to be quite frank, I was always fixing it when I got in and out of the car, when I got my stethoscope on and off my neck, and whenever I bumped my head, lol. It made me like a foot taller and I was constantly bumping my head and jarring it.

    Not to mention, I'm told that I look a little young for age and I was constantly being mistaken for a nursing student. Fresh out of nursing school, that was really the last thing I wanted to hear.
  7. Mar 16, '10 by
    Quote from kcochrane
    Yes....males nurses existed in the 1400's. Here's some good reading for anyone interested:
    http://www.malenursemagazine.com/history.html

    And in case anyone wants to read up on the history of the nursing cap:
    http://i.nursegroups.com/nursing-art...urses-cap.html
    Thanks for the links!
  8. Mar 16, '10 by
    Seriously people??!! This isn't 1952. Instead of wearing ridiculously outdated hats that were worn when nursing was a dead-end job, we should continue to strive for progress in the nursing profession. Lets do away with the hats, and focus on getting members of our profession a higher salary, better benefits, and most importantly..RESPECT.
    Not_A_Hat_Person and CapeCodMermaid like this.
  9. Mar 16, '10 by
    ProgressiveThinking -- we wear pajamas to work. lol. I don't know that our current choice in uniform really instills much patient respect. At least not any more than the caps did.

    I think that the caps were given up more for the fact that they really aren't that practical. I know. I've tried it. Never again. lol.

    The patients who saw me wear the cap respected me just fine. It was me as a nurse -- as a kind presence, as a person with a gentle word or knowledgeable explanation, as a professional who would do anything to help them or ask help to be able to do so -- that they respected. As long as we are neat and clean, polls at my hospital show that patients really don't care what we wear.

    It may be different in your area, but that is what my experience has shown.
    RetRN77, nursel56, VegetasGRL03RN, and 3 others like this.
  10. Mar 17, '10 by
    Quote from SaraO'Hara
    Has anybody seen the Caledonian Hospital (Brooklyn, iirc) student uniforms? I have a 1960 National Geographic with a picture - tartan shirtwaist dress, plaid apron, cap that looks like a Glengarry bonnet with plaid trim.
    that sounds amazing-any chance of getting a look at it?

    Helen
    who wore a starched cotton organza veil at graduation, and a paper veil on the wards (1974), and again in 1982, caps would have been so much easier but that is what we wore when we were training (starched cotton).
    SuesquatchRN likes this.