I graduate tonight. We didn't wear caps during school but we do have to wear them to graduation. The order was late getting in so we couldn't pick them up until this morning. How do I wear this thing? Does it sit back on my head? Towards the fromt? I have no clue and I'm short on time. Help! Also, how the heck do I keep it on? I have images of it sliding off my head as I'm walking across the stage in my head.
I just went to orientation for this fall and on our uniform list is a cap we are required to buy. They told us one of the clinical facilities we will be going to still requires the staff to wear caps so we must as well. UGH. I am looking forward to capping and pinning ceremonies, but to try to actually work while wearing it, that's a whole other thing. I truly admire those of you that wore them all the time for work. Can't even imagine the work that goes into cleaning and starching this cap. Guess I need to go add starch and an iron to my list of school supplies now :chuckle
We wore caps at our graduation. In no way do I think they're sexist. I might have a different opinion if we still had to wear them. Going to our pinning ceremony, wearing my white dress, white hose, white shoes, and my cap was too cool for me. My neighbor, a nurse, saw me, and knew exactly what I was doing. -Andrea
My mother speaks proudly and wistfully of her old cap and pin. She went to Norfolk General's diploma school in 1953. She did say that working in it was a disaster, but GOSH, what a powerful symbol it was.
Someone said they watched the caps as a way of picking their school. Mama often says she really wanted to go to DePaul, because apparently their caps were absolutely gorgeous! She says hers was awful (she said it used to come back from the laundry as a flat piece of fabric, and you had to fold it together and it stayed that way with the help of pins), but you can tell she was so proud of it. I'd love to find an old NGH cap and pin for her.
I, too, get nostalgic and a bit misty when I think about the pics of my mom and classmates in their new caps, white dresses, and white stockings. I would love to have her pin me someday. I wouldn't want to wear a cap now just based on practicality, but I'd get a real sense of pride and tradition at a ceremony.
My father was a Navy corpsman. I plan on wearing a cadeuceus in his memory (he died in April). If he were still alive, I'd want him to pin me. Though not a nurse directly, in combat he was everything his squadron had - nurse, doctor, sometimes even doing simple patch and go surgery.
I guess being raised a Navy brat, and having spent time in the military, I get wrapped up in tradition very easily. A capping/pinning ceremony, to me, is reminiscent of a sword on a dress uniform - not needed now, but serving a reminder of times past (if indeed the cap goes back to keeping hair out of one's eyes). I used to know all the stuff that remains on uniforms and in ceremonies in the military as a nod to those gone before us.
Your picture looks exactly like the caps we wore when we graduated in May.
Our teacher had us line up and she put them on our head with white bobbypins.
Two things:
1. It's not good if you have fine, thin hair because it's harder to get the rascal to stay.
2. This one I learned the hard way. Don't be last in line.
Our teacher would kind of mold the caps so they would fit nicer around the head. Well, she ran out out of time with me since I was last and said "That'sgonna have to do." Great!
Everyone else had time to go and look at themselves one last time for touch ups. Not me. I didn't see what I looked like until afterwards and my cap was too big for my small head and it didn't get molded to fit my head--
thosecorners were sticking out so huge, I looked worse than if I was the flying nun!! :rotfl:
Carolina: contact Kay's caps: they may have the pattern and you could have it made for your mom. http://www.kayscaps.com I think.
I believe RN magazine had a huge collection of nursing school pins. If they do, and NGH is in it, you might be able to trace where it was made, etc. That will probably be more $$ than the cap.
I'm well aware of how useless caps are in current practice. I'm the sentimental type, was also raised as a Navy brat (there are 3 swords in my dad's old den), and those caps are up in my closet, probably for good!!
I went to school in the mid-60's--caps were still a big thing. When I was looking into schools, one of my criteria was what the cap looked like--if it was ugly, forget it.
Times have changed--for the better. I can't even imagine wearing a cap under a radiant warmer--Having your head catch fire would not be fun!!!
I never imagined my head catching fire under the rad. warmer! That's a hoot. Imagine the workmen's comp lawyers are sorry those caps are gone! :chuckle
Gee, when I graduated from my nursing class we didnt have any caps. We did get pins though. I didnt think they made caps anymore due to the inability of keeping it "clean and sterile". WOW, an antiquated thing still used to "DEFINE" our nursing roles......hmmm, maybe there should be caps for the males.
I graduate tonight. We didn't wear caps during school but we do have to wear them to graduation. The order was late getting in so we couldn't pick them up until this morning. How do I wear this thing? Does it sit back on my head? Towards the fromt? I have no clue and I'm short on time. Help! Also, how the heck do I keep it on? I have images of it sliding off my head as I'm walking across the stage in my head.
The cap looks almost exactly like this:
Males who graduate from nursing school don't have to wear those too on greduation day do they? : ) Now that would be funny, wouldn't it?
I just went to orientation for this fall and on our uniform list is a cap we are required to buy. They told us one of the clinical facilities we will be going to still requires the staff to wear caps so we must as well. UGH. I am looking forward to capping and pinning ceremonies, but to try to actually work while wearing it, that's a whole other thing. I truly admire those of you that wore them all the time for work. Can't even imagine the work that goes into cleaning and starching this cap. Guess I need to go add starch and an iron to my list of school supplies now :chuckle
Don't worry, caps now are easy to take care of! Soak in hot sudsy water, rinse and lay on a flat surface to dry. I did use a warm iron sometimes just to speed up the drying. Now if I had to dry mine (can't wear it in either of my jobs) I'd probably put it in the dryer since we have a stationary delicates rack.
Something in a white, torso, body armor, with the "six pack" and "man-boob" muscles formed into it. Oh and the ball cap for good measure,... um a batman utility belt, white boots(military spec. of course)...Hey lets face it folks nurses are super-heros, why not dress like it?!
I already have the utility belt :chuckle
When I was a student I found that, even if I didn't have a clue how to help the qualified nurse in a task, the very least I could do was act as a walking supply room for them... So I ended up carrying around virtually anything you could ever need in my pockets... tourniquet, tounge depressor, IV caps and a replacement dressing or 2, bandage/straight and Tuf-cut scissors, non-toothed clamp, tweezers, penlight, gloves, tape measure, little plastic thingy to remove the tops from the glass ampules, stethoscope, fold-out pocket mask (for mouth to mouth) and a pocket PC that not only had a wealth of medical and drug information on it, but also every single telephone number and bleep number in the whole hospital... Just try putting ALL THAT in your pockets, so I have a pouch riding on my right hip (from which I can do the fastest ever quick-draw with the scissors), and the pocket PC in an internal pocket, while on the other hip I have my stethescope riding in a hip-clip (also fast draw use)
Yes, we are super-heros but no capes. They would get in the way during a code. Although they would look coll as you were running down the hall...
As for the capes... you could use a plastic apron and just put in on the wrong way round, and if it gets in the way, one tug and it pulls away to be thrown in the bin... Not that i've given it much thought or ever done it myself... :rotfl:
One of our RTs had a "utility belt", too. He had everything he needed, including a wrench for O2 tanks (on the transport units), assorted tapes, scissors. Once he put his tool belt on, he was working!
Forcemaster, you have a great idea! I bet you were very popular w/the nurses!
I graduated from school in 1979 and never was I more proud than to have my new cap placed on my head! I have never felt it as a symbol of sexism or any other negative connotation!. I am probably one of the very very few that still wishes we could wear them. I honestly don't buy this crap about it being a source of infection... if that is the major concern, then why are so many STILL wearing artificial nails... whole other post... Sure sometimes it was a bother... getting caught up in curtains, having your head hurt from the "brain patch". BUT my patients knew who was the nurse and who was the housekeeper!!! My patient's family's also knew who to seek out for info. My cap, for me... a source of pride and fond memories!
I graduated in 1987 and wore my cap for the first 5 years I practiced. Only when I became a supervisor and had to go in and out of the delivery room did I stop wearing it. My most favorite instructor told us our cap was "our dignity" and I felt wonderful wearing it. And believe me, no one ever mistook me for the housekeeper. And the little old ladies loved it!!!
But even better than that, I was respected in the workplace. I guess I never listened to the negative, as I am proud to be an RN and always feel dignified and worthy of respect. We all work hard to get to wear that cap, pin, or graduation gown and deserve the respect it brings.
Nursing is all you make it. Be proud, be careful, and most of all be humble, because we are human and we all make mistakes, it is how we take responsibility for them that counts.
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WickedRedRN, BSN, RN
609 Posts
I just went to orientation for this fall and on our uniform list is a cap we are required to buy. They told us one of the clinical facilities we will be going to still requires the staff to wear caps so we must as well. UGH. I am looking forward to capping and pinning ceremonies, but to try to actually work while wearing it, that's a whole other thing. I truly admire those of you that wore them all the time for work. Can't even imagine the work that goes into cleaning and starching this cap. Guess I need to go add starch and an iron to my list of school supplies now :chuckle