The Cap.......

Nurses General Nursing

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Saw a post about new scrubs. But I was wondering how many of us had to wear THE CAP. Went to LPN school 16 years ago and we had to wear the nursing cap to clinical. I remember I had the long puffy late 80's style hair and had to get all of that under that cap and off the shoulders. It was so funny because my hair was mid back and before the last day of clinicals I had it cut to my shoulders. So here we were sitting around the table telling about our last day of clinicals and I pull the cap off and let my hair fall and a big gasp was heard. Everyone just looked at me with open mouths and said "You cut your hair." But it was so weird because for the two days of clinical no one knew because it was all shoved under that cap.

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Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

i am in school now, and we have to wear the cap.. and omg is it ugly.

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I still have my cap. Its in the closet in a box. My son saw it one day and said "What is that?" so I explained. He just laughed.

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Specializes in Critical care, neuroscience, telemetry,.

We wore a cap to clinicals when I was in school....along with the always attractive Sears Roebuck uniform and sturdy ortho-nightmare shoes.

We got a "junior stripe" after the successful completion of our first semester of clinicals, and then a "senior stripe" as we entered our senior year. The senior stripe was what we graduated with, and presumably, what we wore as we started our fledgling careers.

I made sure to secure employment at a hospital that did not require caps.....and did allow Reeboks.

Talked to a nurse the other day who said that she knew a nurse who still wore her cap. I myself haven't seen anyone wearing one in years, and I can't help but wonder why anyone in this day and age would wear one. Any ideas?

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I remember my school cap. I looked pretty good in the cap. One of these halloweens I will wear my white dress, hose and cap and go to work dressed like a nurse.

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No cap wearing here. We get our caps on the night of our pinning ceremony and then we are photographed, professionally, with them. I am GLAD we don't wear them all the time. Not that they don't look really great, yeah right, or the fact that EVERYONE wants one, only for graduation, just the simple fact that it means I completed school.

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Specializes in community health, LTC, SNF, Tele-Health.

LOL!! I only had to wear it the day I graduated. It looked like a dixie cup on top of my head. I hated it! I kept it though, and put it on every once in a while to make my Fiance laugh. I did do a rotation with a class from another LPN school and they had to wear the cap, the white dresses and navy blue CAPES. I'm all set with the capes.

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Talked to a nurse the other day who said that she knew a nurse who still wore her cap. I myself haven't seen anyone wearing one in years, and I can't help but wonder why anyone in this day and age would wear one. Any ideas?

My dear aunt still wore hers at work, but she passed away in the early 80's. Caps were probably not as uncommon 20-some years ago.

A hospital in Colorado Springs used to have (and maybe still does) a really huge display of the cutest little miniature caps you ever saw. It was on a wall near the lobby and probably eight feet by eight feet. It contained actual teeny little caps, not just photos of them. They were utterly adorable. They had a representation of different nursing school caps from around the country. Many of them were very classy looking. A couple looked like milkmaid bonnets. ;-)

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I'm curious, did the male nurses have caps to wear?

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This is a Canadian website, but very interesting! It gives some great history on the cap. (And according to this website, men never had to wear them. Too bad. I love the mental image.) ;-)

As you scroll through it, mouse over the pictures of caps and it'll give you more info.

http://www.civilization.ca/hist/infirm/inint01e.html

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Thanks Penny,

I didn't think that they did, but was not sure. My mom used to wear hers, but stopped wearing it when I was 12-13 yo ( I'm 40 now). I have only seen one nurse wearing a cap in the last few years, and it was one of my ex-wifes nursing instructors.

At my nursing school,they have the graduating class pictures from 1972 to the present and I think that only the first 6 or 7 photos show the students wearing caps.

Allen

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No caps- I have never in my life seen a nurse wear a cap except in old movies and I am 36.

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