Caps anyone??

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  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?

The caps are actually unsanitary if you are looking at them from an infection control point of view. If you wore a cap, would you actually wash it once a week? Patients sneeze and cough, even if you have a mask and goggles on, what about it going to your hair and cap? Plus they can fall off into a sterile field, a bedpan full of poop, etc..............

All of the nurses in Thailand wear caps, and many just throw them out every three months when they look dirty and purchase a new one. My only student who washes hers once a week is the one who works as an epidemiologist at her hospital.

like I said we don't have to wear them in the hosptal but the tradition of receiveing them would be nice.

And the ties that the doctors wear and taht flop all over the place picking up the natural flora on the skin of all the patients they see and then spreading it all over. We were talkign about this in Microbiology the other day. Those ties need to either go or some of the docs need to tuck them in. Plus the lab coats the docs wear opened up and flying in the wind. That too is unsanitary.

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.

lol, that's cute. My grandfather said he would like to see it again. But like someone said it could get unsanitary. But still it was a nice thought. :p
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
That is great. The famillies filled with pride. My grandmother who was not able to finish her senior yr of nursing school 50 years ago because she got married and then pregnant, wnats me to finsh for her and She woudl love to see me in a cap at graduation. Plus I would like a photo (grad) to put next to her jr. year pic with her cap as well as next to my other grandmothers grad pic with her cap.

If you look at my little picture under my name. It is a picture of my grandmother who could not finish school. She is the one still alive. This picture is when she was a JR. She had a cap and a dark band on it. The dark band was a band taht the sr's gave to one JR. taht they thought would be the best nurse out of the JR. class. My grandmother got it. :) I think tha:) t is neat. notice too she wore an apron. I think they got to ear something other than the arpon during SR. yr.

OPh and yeah, for the guys, I do think it would look silly for you to waer caps. :chuckle but the girls could wera them. :p

Specializes in LTC/Peds/ICU/PACU/CDI.
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.
my lpn school had the whole cap/pinning/candle light ceremony but my bsn program only had the pinning ceremony. they long since did away with the cap/candle lighting ceremonies due to how they were looked upon (antiquated). shame too...i looked forward to receiving a cap from there as well. sadly...that wasn't the case.

cheers!

moe

I work on an ortho floor and do a lot of patient transfers. I wouldn't wear a cap because it would be too hard to keep it propped on my head, and my graduation pin would simply injure my patients. Back in the good 'ole days when we had enough CNAs that was a good idea, but not in the real world today.

Specializes in Telemetry/Med Surg.
my lpn school had the whole cap/pinning/candle light ceremony but my bsn program only had the pinning ceremony. they long since did away with the cap/candle lighting ceremonies due to how they were looked upon (antiquated). shame too...i looked forward to receiving a cap from there as well. sadly...that wasn't the case.

cheers!

moe

forgot, during our capping/striping ceremony every january, we also get nightingale lamps. mine is in my study room on a shelf. it was such a nice tradition. my girlfriend and i, being president & vp of the freshman class at the time, had to light all the lamps for the juniors and seniors. it was quite funny actually cos my friend could never get any of the wicks in the candles lit and we just kept giggling about it. this year was the first they used nightingale lamps--used candles previously but just got too messy.

Specializes in Neurology, Neurosurgerical & Trauma ICU.

Actually, I had to wear a cap all through clinicals (except during OB and Peds). Everyone at the hospital loved them, but I HATED them! I didn't graduate that long ago either.

As soon as pinning was over, I tried to burn mine in the parking lot! :rotfl:

I still agree that it would have been nice to have had a capping ceremony to carry on the tradition. Wouldn't wear the thing around patients, but it's still nice to have. I've heard that some schools are doing away with it all...caps, lamps, pins. We got pins, at least.

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

We had caps for graduation, and that's the only day i wore it. It's now on the top shelf of my desk, collecting dust.

We had caps for graduation, and that's the only day i wore it. It's now on the top shelf of my desk, collecting dust.
It may collect dust but at least it is there. You could pass it down to your child or grandchild someday. I was sopposed to get my grandmothers (the one who died) but it was given to another girl who was a freind of the family cuz she was in nursing school at the time and I was not in nursing school yet. I was bummed but it is something I wasnt to be able to pass on to my kids. My DH is 3.5 and my DS is 4.5 and they both tell me they want to be doctors. That is so funny. I did not at all put the ideas in thier heads. I keep telling my daughter that she can be anything she wanst but if she wanst to be home with her kids a lot like mommy(me) as she always tells me, then she should be a nurse. She told me today that she wanst to be a nurse/doctor. She is so sweet. I will not discourage her if she wanst to be a doctor . Maybe someday she will see how much dedication and time it takes and make her descision then. I will support her in whatever she decides. My DS says he wants to be a doctor and a builder (my DH is a builder) SO I was laughing tonight with my husband and said maybe he will be a surgeon cuz he can work with the power tools and rebuild things in the OR. lol
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Had no cap for graduation in 1997. Did not feel I missed a single thing. That 14k gold pin was the brass ring, so to speak, I was after those two years of hell I endured in nursing school.

I agree with no cap at work but a capping ceremony would still be special and I like the pin for the guys! I am so blessed that we had it all cap, lamp and pin back in the days. It doesn't make you a great nurse but it would be a momento!

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