Caps anyone??

Published

  1. Would you like to receive a cap at graduation?

    • 64
      yes
    • 24
      no

88 members have participated

I finally get to nursing school after waiting my whole life(literally since I was 2 yrs old I wanted to be a nurse) to get the hard earned cap and I found out the other day that they do not give out caps anymore.:o Just pins(and that is after you buy your pin) My grandma was a nurse and she used to make me a cap and draw a red cross on it and then bobby pin it to my head. I felt so special with taht on. I used to go around with my "cap" and my grandmas stethascope and play nurse. My grandma told me that someday I woudl earn my own cap. Now I find out taht they are oing away with the caps as no one wears them anymore. Well I say bring the cap back! (I would wear it. :) ) but even if no one wears them at least bring them back as the symbol of the hard earned trophy. ya know?

We had pinning and wore caps for our LPN pinning ceremony and we will be having the same as we graduate with our RN. We do not wear them in clinicals but it is part of the ceremony and one thing I discovered was the families at the ceremony were filled with pride as well as ourselves wearing the cap at ceremony. When we finished our ceremony we had everyone sign our caps for a keepsake. We thought that was kinda kewl............................anyway wearing a cap in ceremony is very acceptable IMHO

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We will only wear our caps for our pinning ceremony, but that's it. No caps for clinicals.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, LTC.
Thanks for the link.

A question for you two who bought caps. Did you choose one that looks like your schools or did you just pick one you liked? Did you get stripes?

I bought mine through the school, so it has their colors on it. It has a velvet ribbons in the colors of blue and silver.

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Specializes in ICU, CM, Geriatrics, Management.

Just casting my vote. :)

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On the stepdown unit where I work, I wear surgical-style scrubs with the top tucked in. I just can't imagine wearing a uniform, especially a cap, to work.

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Specializes in Telemetry/Med Surg.
Just casting my vote. :)

ahhh come on Larry--I bet you'd look ever-so-cute with one! :)

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Specializes in Happily semi-retired; excited for the whole whammy.

I always thought a capping ceremony would have been nice, and I was a little disappointed when I got to college and found out they were long gone (and I graduated in 1984!) I agree with you, when I was growing up, that cap symbolizes all I wanted to be!

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Specializes in PICU, Peds Ambulatory, Peds LTC.

Me wear a cap? NOOOOOOOOOOO way Jose........ I'd rather barf.10_2_5.gif

I agree 100% with Larry.

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Trophies belong on a shelf - not on your head.

They are in the way and the vast majority of nurses do not wish to wear them (those that do are free to purchase from a place like kayscaps.com or the like).

This has come up many times on the board - try a search if you want to see pages and pages of opinions and debates

As for myself - Never worn one...never will.

ok, sorry, for lack of a better word I said "trophy" It really is a symbol of times past when to have the cap you had to earn it as well as the stripes on it. I have 2 grandmothers who went to nursing school and told me the stories and the honors of the stripes and the caps. I just think it would be nice ot keep up the tradition even if no one will wera them. :p
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My school does not even pin anymore. When I asked one of teachers why she said " it was a LPN thing anyway". I was suprised to she how little she knew about the nursing history. The pin was one of the first steps in seperating nurse from hookers that posed as nurse. Later it served as a way of spliting the educated from the non-educated (doctors wifes)

I am a guy so I do not really want a pin but I understand how many in my class feel when they say they want them.

My grandmother had a pin from school as well as the red cross for being a volenteer for many years. When this randmother died, my grandfather had to give the pin back(at least he thought he had to) as it had a special number on it assigned to my grandmother. He thought that they reused the number after a perosn with the pin dies. Anyway, It was a neat thing to see the pins and stuff my gramdmothers earned through thier service and education
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My school still caps but we don't wear them on clinical. They have a nice ceremony in a church and the freshmen get capped, the juniors get a stripe on their caps and seniors get 2 stripes. At graduation, the seniors get a thick stripe around the cap and get pinned. It's all in the long tradition of the school. We wear our caps for ceremonies only..not in clinical.
see, this is what I wish all school still did. Even if you did not wera them in clinical, you still get the cpas and the stripes and the ceremony. Where has all ths gone? and why has it gone?
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We wore caps for our offical photos that were sent to the state nursing board with our paperwork for the NCLEX, and wore them again for graduation.

I actually wore mine to work once during nurses week; I didn't have a problem with it falling off (lots of bobby pinning!) but it did get tangled in the curtains dividing the semi-private rooms a few times. My older patients LOVED seeing the hat again, though some of my co-workers thought I'd lost my mind! :chuckle

Now it has a place of honor atop my tall jaguar cat statue at home.

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