How do you feel about wearing the nursing caps for pinning?

[MnemonicFanatic]

Here's a little background on my dilemma.

I am in my fourth semester, and the pinning ceremony is in December. The ceremony is traditional in that the female students wear the white cap, we'll light our 'lamps', and we will be 'pinned' by the professors who taught fourth semester. Students are required to wear white, and the school allows a little leeway- white tops/pants paired with white shoes (or white dresses or tops/skirts if the women prefer) are all acceptable for the ceremony.

This fall, however, there has been quite a bit of grumbling among some of the students about having to wear the caps. They feel it is ridiculous to pay the fee (ours is only $20) to purchase a cap they feel they will never wear again. This has caused such an uproar that it was put to a vote. While we are waiting for the final tally, I am disgusted at their attitudes towards wearing the caps. For the record, it isn't about coming up with the money for buying the caps- fund raising and 'loaning' of caps from previous graduates of the program have all been suggested as options for those unable to provide the funds. It is a few students having a fit because they feel they are being forced to come up with even more money to put into a program they've already paid 'too much for' to begin with.

I feel that Nursing isn't just a job, its also a tradition, and the cap is one of the symbols of the profession- a badge of sorts. Generations of nurses before me have all worn the cap, both on the job and at their pinning, and there are thousands of pictures hanging on walls or in photo albums of women who have completed their training. I have worked very hard to finish the program, and I feel that being able to wear the hat (even if only for the two hours at pinning and never again) is an honor. I am part of something that has endured, that is respected, and is more than just a big paycheck.

I would like to find out what others have to say about wearing the caps...what it meant or will mean to them to wear the cap, and how you feel about a school throwing away a vital part of a tradition.

Thanks!

[Bortaz, MSN, RN]

I'm always surprised by how much drama there is concerning these silly ceremonies.

I'm greatly looking forward to graduating, and I understand that the historical aspects of these ceremonies are important to some people.

I'm not particularly interested in attending either pinning or graduation, but I will be there with bells (or white clothes) on, if it's what I need to do to graduate and go to work. I'd wear a pink mumu if I had to.

Why is this always so dramatic? It's a couple of hours of your life. Wear the silly hat, get your license, and go on with your life, people!

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

Had the same problem when I was in school and close to graduation. We were required to wear white tops, pants and shoes (they were supposed to be all nursing type clothing and shoes..no sandels, no heels, no white jeans etc). We also had the voting of cap vs no cap.

My class voted no cap (I was disappointed about that. I have long yearned to have that cap on my head if only one time! I grew up admiring nurses and their uniforms. I see it as tradition, not as a sign of when nurses were subservant to docs). More of the previously graduating class wore caps than not in my school.

I resigned myself to no caps but at least the all white part whould still have a bit of play in the tradition. Most of the class were up in arms that they were required to wear white and voiced that the management had no right to dictate what they could wear to their graduation, I kind of laughed about that since they dictated to me that I couldn't wear a cap!

Several of the girls had on high heeled white shoes, quite a few had the high wedge type sandel, there were several with some very tight and very revealing white tops on, and even more with very low rise white pants and jeans. I was mortified! One actually looked like she was going to a club instead of her nursing school graduation ceremony!

I was upset about the no cap vote. Like you OP, I wanted that tradition. To me looking at my graduation pictures, you can't tell if I graduated from nursing school, sailor boot camp or a CNA class! I wanted that cap to distinguish me as a nurse!

To add insult to injury, the cap vote was very close, I think the no cap vote won by a difference of two or three people who leaned the vote to no caps. What really irked me was a big majority of the "no cap" voters didn't even show up for the graduation ceremony!!! If they had no plans on going why not just bow out of the voting??

[ladyash]

I went to a 4 year university and my school does not even hold a pinning ceremony anymore or offer to us to buy a cap. If we wanted to we were able to buy a pin. Some of the people in my class bought pins and pinned them to their gowns on graduation day.

I would have liked to have a pinning ceremony at school because I have been to others that were very nice. Besides graduation, it is just another accomplishment that we should recieve after the hard work of nursing school.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

I would have been thrilled to wear the cap. I also wore a skirt to my pinning, the only one in my class.

Put it into a case like you'd use for a floral arrangement on top of the graduation program. It will be a nice memory.

[Noryn]

I think it is an outdated tradition to be honest. I graduated 10+ years ago and we did not have a pinning ceremony.

I think the caps should be optional for the ones who want to wear them though.

[BinkieRN, BSN, RN]

I was proud to wear mine and have cherished it since. Not that I want to wear one everyday because I don't but let's face it, the cap, is the classic image of a nurse.

What Happened to the Nurse's Cap?

For generations, it topped off nurses' uniforms -- a symbol of pride and accomplishment for a new healer.

But infection control dictated that nurses stop wearing caps in the 1980s, according to Lynn Brock, nurse manager at Hackley Hospital and a 1975 graduate of the hospital's nursing school.

"It was one of the rites of passage to get your first stripe (on the cap)," Brock said. "As a senior, you earned two stripes."

Louanne Utzinger, coordinator of Early On for the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District and a 1969 graduate of Hackley School of Nursing, recalled that her capping exercise was held at First Congregational Church.

"Getting the cap and pin was quite an honor," she said.

The cap also was an important symbol. It was so dear to her that she has a tiny nurse's cap and an RN charm on her bracelet.

"You worked very hard for that cap," said Darlene Smith, a 1960 graduate of Hackley School of Nursing. "It was really something to get it."

Reprinted with permission from the Muskegon Chronicle

http://www.hackley.org/about/history/nurses_cap.php

[Smurfette752, BSN]

I think it is a nice traditon.

I am all for tradition, it isn't like you have to wear it all the time for work, etc...it is just a ceremony. Geez...come on. Why is this always so dramatic? It's a couple of hours of your life. Wear the silly hat, get your license, and go on with your life, people! Here here!

I can't wait to wear mine!!!!!

[SugarNSpiceX2]

For my graduation next August, I am going to have to wear the whole traditional nurses' uniform...the white dress, the white stockings, white shoes and the nurse's cap.

And we have to pay over $100 for this uniform....a uniform that I know I will only wear at graduation and never again.

Does that bother me? Heck no.

I will be so proud to graduate and finally call myself a nurse, I'd wear a paper bag over my head if they wanted me to.

[DeadHeadRN, BSN, RN]

i graduated this past may and we were not allowed to wear caps. the chairperson of our nursing department felt that nursing is now a profession and that the caps are antiquated and portray nurses in a negative "handmaiden" sort of way. many of the graduates (myself included) felt that this was just silly. nursing caps are a tradition and in graduation photos, in my mind at least, the cap say "i am a nurse and i am following in the footsteps of many great women (and men) who went before me." our nursing school has it's own cap (or did anyway), and we were not allowed to wear them for pinning or in our individual graduation photos.

we did everything we could think of, we got a petition together and almost all the graduates signed it, we pleaded with our professors, and even with the chairperson herself, to no avail. my photos for graduation and from pinning are sadly capless. i say if given the opportunity, wear the cap and wear it with pride.

capless in ny :sniff:

[DroogieRN]

Wellllll...

I am a first-year student and we have to wear all-white AND the caps now, anytime we are on the clinical site. I know we are one of the few programs that still require that. I really balked at first. I mean, really. I even considered going to a different school a few miles away that did not have that requirement, and the only thing that stopped me was that it was too expensive. I dreaded it like the plague, because I typically hate having anything on my head. I don't wear hats in the winter and keep my hair short because I can't stand a ponytail. Plus, I felt it was a little sexist: the men in my program aren't required to put that silly little cap on their heads (that was my attitude in August and even up to just a few weeks ago).

But you know what? Once it's on, I don't even notice it. It's kind of cute (at least, my husband says it is:loveya:). The residents at the nursing home where we've done our first clinicals absolutely light up when we walk in wearing our whites with the caps on (they think the real nurses have arrived!). I'm actually pleased that my school is still so steeped in that tradition, and silly enough, I am really proud to wear it. There is a banquet in the fall that the first-year students attend to see the second-year students receive their caps with the stripes, and I feel like it is such an honor and can't wait to have stripes on mine.

So I think the cap is lovely. If not during school, then at least at graduation. I am sure I will never wear it again afterward, but I'm happy to wear it now.

Just my .

[mel2009]

I have to say I am super excited to wear my cap & have fun visions of wearing the white nursing dress at my pinning this May. It is a symbol to me that represents my rite of passage of transitioning from a NS to a RN. I love that we will have a lantern ceremony where we say the pledge. I was lucky enough to witness last May's ceremony and I must say it brought a tear to my eye b/c of how moving it was. So, I say to caps & the pinning ceremony.