Are you required to wear nursing cap for graduation??

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there is a big old stink going on in my class about us having to wear our nursing cap when we graduate. personally i love the fact that we get caps and will proudly wear mine. other people are having an absolute fit that we have to wear them. i am however, opposed to wearing a dress. i hate dresses and never wear them, but we voted as a class on what we would wear and unfortuntley the dress won. so....i have to suck it up and wear the dress! our instructor was telling us that the state bon was actually considering bringing back the cap and making nurses wear them while working because nowadays it is to hard to distinquish who is a nurse and who isn't. some students in my class say that if that happened they would not work as a nurse! i have only seen 2 nurses in the all hospitals and ltc facilities that i have worked in that still wear the cap.

just wondering what your thoughts are about this subject and if you are required to wear your cap for graduation.:nurse:

Specializes in Med-Surg.

In our class we do wear caps and dresses at graduation. We also have a capping ceremony (next month) we have 3 men in our class and when one of the female classmates asked what happens to them at the capping ceremony it was told that they get a chevron?? So they get chevroned! We attended the outgoing classes graduation last year and the male student (only 1) wore his clinical whites and the females wore dresses and caps. It was very beautiful. Like someone else above said it SCREAMS nurse and it is something I look forward to.

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But could I wear the dress?

LOL, I would love to be there to see it! :)

My school's graduates are only required to wear a white uniform, of ANY type: usual scrubs (new, of course), any combination of white uniform top and pants or skirt, or full-out graduation dress. Heels, white hose, nude hose, Rockers, they don't care. Wear something you'll be wearing at work, or something you'll never wear again, it's our choice!

On the cap, I remember a student at graduation last year (I attended) saying that they had voted to not have the caps; I can't remember the last graduation photo I saw that HAD them in caps (ok, I think one from the late 70's??). One student wore her grandmother's cap. It wasn't a capping ceremony, just a pinning, which is what ours will be.

I would vote against the cap, personally, if we ARE going through the motions of voting. Unless the men get capped, too, I'm not doing it. And, personally, I'm planning on buying a spiffy new white uniform dress/jacket combo, heels and all, that I will never wear again (unless I am a guest speaker at a health conference!!).

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We are also supposed to wear caps and some of the younger "hipper" girls are complaining. We have to vote on it and I really hope the caps win. I wouldn't want to wear it to work everyday but I think it will make for a nice picture. We also wear white but it can be whatever white you want, dresses, pants.

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We are also supposed to wear caps and some of the younger "hipper" girls are complaining. We have to vote on it and I really hope the caps win. I wouldn't want to wear it to work everyday but I think it will make for a nice picture. We also wear white but it can be whatever white you want, dresses, pants.

Had to smile at the "younger,'hipper' girls" comment :)

I'm forty and I doubt my kids would consider me hip, lol....but I still would prefer not to wear the cap--would not go well with my hair ;)

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Just graduated and, yes, we wore caps and matching uniform dresses. We actually wore them throughout the program in clinicals except for psych and ICU. The guys wore white buttoned uniforms and are banded on their sleeves. (They looked more like pharmacists if you ask me)

I really didn't mind wearing the caps except for catching my stethoscope on it. It really seemed to comfort a great number of patients. In this day and age, it's tough to tell who is a nurse and who is a member of the maintenance team.

There is a big stink going on at one of the hospitals here - they are mandating that CNAs wear one color, nurses another so to distinguish them from each other. Some of the nurses are griping that if they are going to mandate specific colors or styles, the hospital should pay for them. My thought is - What other professions pay for your wardrobe? In my former career, I was expected to wear suits, etc. It never occured to me to ask that they be paid for.

I think we all work very hard to earn respect and we should stand out in some way. Only doctors get to wear white coats, right? And everyone gives them due respect. Nurses should be easily recognized and respected as well. Caps, color-specific uniforms, RN embroidered on our chests? Not sure what the answer is, but as long as we are bitching about silly things we'll never be taken seriously.

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There's been some consternation in my school this year over "striping," up until last year there were caps and the freshman got stripes at the same time that the seniors got pinned (it is an AD program). Then our new dean decided to do away with striping. We were told that we were the only school left in NY state that still did striping and that we don't wear caps so we don't need stripes. As a freshman (and club president) this has been a big problem for me. Many of us looked forward to getting our stripes. I always wanted to wear the cap (for a picture at least). AND funny thing, during clinical at a local hospital, we saw an RN wearing white dress and cap! She did look to be in her 60s maybe.

Dee

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DeeSki:I'm in NY too, can't say I've ever seen an actual cap/dress combo (or even a cap, ever) on a working nurse. Must have been quite a topic of discussion afterward!

I think it boils down to whatever you're used to, in whatever region of the country you're in. Some places people expect to see caps, others might think it was Costume Day! After a couple of years (one or two graduations) without stripes or caps or whatever, I'd bet it would be the expected norm (and students would probably fight to NOT have to wear them!). And, I suppose, if my school reinstituted the practice, another couple of graduations later and the students would not want to discontinue it. We all get comfortable with whatever we've been recently doing, I think.

I don't really give a hoot what my class decides as a whole, I guess: there's no way on earth that my local hospital nurses would want to wear those caps in the workplace, and I personally don't care if I am asked to wear a certain color (providing, of course, I look good in it!!).

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Specializes in Telemetry/Med Surg.

We're certainly not expected to wear our caps on clinicals--in fact we're not allowed to.

It's just a tradition. My school has been in operation over 100 years. The ceremony is beautiful and I haven't heard any of the students complain about it (getting capped/striped).

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Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.
We're certainly not expected to wear our caps on clinicals--in fact we're not allowed to.

It's just a tradition. My school has been in operation over 100 years. The ceremony is beautiful and I haven't heard any of the students complain about it (getting capped/striped).

How neat!.................I'd love to get capped and pinned :lol2:

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Specializes in Case Manager, Home Health.
i think we all work very hard to earn respect and we should stand out in some way...not sure what the answer is, but as long as we are bitching about silly things we'll never be taken seriously.

the exact thing i was thinking as i read this thread.

i am [or will be when i earn my license] a professional. i want to be treated in a professional manner. i must act in a professional manner, too. concern about pins, stripes, caps, etc means nothing to me in the least.

what i am working toward is "rn" behind my name. i am focused on learning: physiology, pathology, pharmacology, anatomy, skills, procedures and techniques all while "thinking critically."

my 2ยข

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

Thank goodness I am a guy !!!!:lol2:

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Back in 1991 I loved wearing my cap too. However, as time went by, it got in the way, coming loose, curtains in a pt room hitting it, falling off, and one also had to keep it clean and starched.

We were required to wear it for Graduation, as its' design was also a symbol of what Nursing school we represented at the time.

I found however, that the Dr.'s were less respectful of us in that originally the cap was a symbol of subservience to the Dr., In other words, historically, we were the handmaids of the profession, not colleauges.

Many nurses, particularly older ones don't care for them for that reason. Nowadays nurses have greater demands placed on them in the line of duty, and more knowledge. Many of us now find the caps demeaning.

Your badge should say whether you are a RN or LPN or CNA, etc. Hats, while nostalgic, shouldn't be the deciding factor. Good question to discuss! Well done! And congrats on graduating!!!! We need you!

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