Nurse Stereotypes and the White Cap...

What's funny is that I initially went into nursing school, I believe, because I was this self-less, people-pushover who endlessly was willing to give everything I had for everyone else. I let people walk all over me like a rug, didn't know what to do about it, and then figured that nursing would be a perfect career choice for me because I knew how to "be an angel." Thanks to the media AND the nurse recruiters who try to persuade you to be in their programs, internships, etc.

But thankfully I did toughen up, and I'm not as easy to let people walk all over me like a rug. I know what I need to do for myself before I can give to others, and how to take care of myself before I can take care of others. It worried me that I no longer would fit the expected "role" of the nurse that our society cracks it up to be. However, I think I'm realizing that through these posts that I still have the right personality to be a nurse. Just because I've grown up and learned to be a little more assertive does not mean I'm not a compassionate or empathetic person who will take care of my patients.

This might go a little off topic...but I want to add one more thing. Even for as immature I was when I initially started my 4-year program, I never went into nursing school because it was a "calling" or "an act of duty." I wonder if this sometimes goes hand-in-hand with the portrayal of a nurse being some kind of an angel. People would try to rationalize that I did (ha! go figure), but I simply went into the profession because I want to help other people, and have an appreciation for health and medicine.

Erika

I agree with Theresa Brown, R.N., who recently wrote this in the New York Times blog "Well":

"My husband was working recently on a New York Times crossword puzzle when he called me over. “Hey, look at this one.” "The clue was “White-cap wearer” and the answer was . . . Nurse.
"What?! There may be nurses in the hinterlands who still wear white caps, but no nurse I trained with or work with would be caught on the floor in a “nurse’s cap.” The outdated suggestion of wearing a cap raises the hackles of every nurse I know."


The entire blog post is available at http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0...q=nurse&st=cse

Anyway, I was about to sign off from allnurses.com today when I noticed that the "icon" that you can post with your message is a nurse wearing...a white cap. (see example above)

It seems if you want to post an icon of a nurse on allnurses.com, you're limited to posting a icon of a stereotypical nurse wearing a white cap.

Is this just one more way the old stereotype of a nurse is perpetuated? Or is it no big deal?

Tell me what you think.

Mark

No big deal ... catholic nuns and sisters are still depicted in the habit, too.

The cap evolved from the veil worn by women working at the bedside to keep long hair contained. (Still happens to be a good idea ... skeeves me out to see nurses at the bedside with locks flying).

Caps and pins eventually became mostly symbolic of the school an individual attended ... the MGH cap is modeled on the mask used to deliver anesthetic ether ... first performed at MGH.

Impractical and essentially meaningless, IMHO. Who has time to fool with the thing ... better use the time to clean my shoes and launder the scrubs.

IOW, this too shall pass.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0...q=nurse&st=cse

No big deal.

No big deal. I sort of like the all white nurse thing...complete with cap. Wouldn't wear it, mind you...but it's nice symbolically.

me too, me too.
i love my whites.

leslie

I don't understand why so many nurses now get freaked out about caps. I still wear mine (on the rare occasions when I'm in whites -- I'm in a specialty where I work in street clothes) and am proud of it and what it symbolizes (of the profession in general, and my school specifically). The public loves them. I've even had numerous physicians ask me why nurses don't want to wear their caps anymore, and comment that if they (the physicians) had anything as cool as a cap to wear, they'd wear it every day.

I realize I'm distinctly in the minority these days, however.

Its not like its some big huge deal. Its a flippin cap for gosh sakes. we have a nurse that wears hers on a daily basis and i know she is respected for it. times change, but its not like they are extinct.

-H-RN

When I told my former creepy boss that I was planning on going to nursing school...
Boss: "oh, just to make sure you'll like it, why don't you wear a nurses' uniform to work here?"
Me: "Uhhh, you mean, I can wear scrubs at the office?"
Boss: "no no no, the little white hat and the little dress..." (then trails off as his coworkers and I give him a look that could kill).

I now get a little skeeved out when people joke about the whites.