HX of the Cap, Pin and Lamp......

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Hi y'all,

Need info on the origins of the nursing cap, pin and lamp. Can only relate to the lamp with Florence Nightingale. Appreciate any help.

Atina

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Both the Cap and pin are unique to the school one graduated from.

Suebird :p

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Specializes in Med Surg, ICU, Infection, Home Health, and LTC.
hi y'all,

need info on the origins of the nursing cap, pin and lamp. can only relate to the lamp with florence nightingale. appreciate any help.

atina

here a few sites on the history of fn. hope they help.

http://gardenofpraise.com/ibdnight.htm

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/crimea/florrie.html

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Specializes in CVICU.

THE PINNING CEREMONY

Dr. Susan Opas, a professor at UCLA's School of Nursing in Los Angeles, provides a rich historical report of the nursing pin and the pinning ceremony in an article from December 1999 RN magazine. Dr. Opas reports that the earliest badges given to those who tended the sick were presented to members of the Knights of the Order of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, a religious order who tended to the ill and wounded Crusaders in the 12th Century.

The tradition of the nursing pin and the ceremonial pinning we know today, actually originated in the 1860's at the Nightingale School of Nursing at St. Thomas Hospital in London. Having been recently awarded The Red Cross of St. George for her selfless service to the injured and dying in the Crimean War, Florence chose to extend this honor to her most outstanding graduate nurses by presenting each of them with a medal for excellence.

The Wolverton Royal Hospital in England initiated the tradition of presenting all graduates with a badge. The first pin was presented to the graduating class of 1880 at the Bellevue Hospital of Nursing in New York City. The pin presented to graduates was both beautiful and symbolic. It featured a crane in the center for vigilance, encircled with a band of blue for constancy, and an outer band of red for mercy and relief of suffering. Dr. Opas reports that by 1916 the practice of pinning new nurses was common in schools throughout the United Kingdom and North America.

CANDLE LIGHTING

When the nursing pinning ceremony was first initiated in the 1860's, the lamp was a symbol of the care and devotion the nurse administers to the sick and injured in the practice of nursing. After nurses were pinned, Nightingale would light a lamp and pass the flame to each nurse as they said the Pledge:

Original Nightingale Pledge

"I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly:

To pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully;

I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous and will not take

or knowingly administer any harmful drug;

I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession

and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all

family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling;

With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work and devote myself

to the welfare of those committed to my care."

The lamp further represents Nightingale's famous 'Rounds At Night', and is symbolic of her dedication.

CAPPING

What I know about caps is a black stripe was meant to memorialize the death of Florence, and signifies 'expert nurse'. In years past students would wear a plain cap, and upon graduation would receive a colored stripe unique to the the school or school colors. Capping was once a very important ceremony along with the lamp lighting, pinning, and Nightingale pledge. Many schools are bringing back the capping ceremony due to it's historical and professional significance. Although our student body voted down an actual ceremony, any graduate who wanted one was presented a cap during the pinning. We researched the original school cap, and had them made at Kay's Caps.

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Specializes in Telemetry/Med Surg.

My school still does all of the above.

Capping ceremony: freshmen get their caps, juniors get 1 stripe added, seniors have 2 stripes. Candles or miniature Nightingale lamps are lit and pledge is said.

Graduation: seniors have 1 single stripe all the way around the cap and are pinned with the school pin. I wear mine everyday to work.

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Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.

We are not doing students any good when we spoonfeed them answers to questions. Surely the OP knows how to do a Google search or other search function.

Students need to learn how to research. I fear that the newer generations of nurses are not going to learn how to look for answers themselves. Not a slam on the OP, but students do this all the time here, and I am always amazed at people who so readily give them the answers.

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With all respect, does anyone find the Nightingale pledge a little demeaning and outdated? Is there a discussion forum on this somewhere else?

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Specializes in Anesthesia and Critical Care.

But we also need to stop "eating our young." One of the biggest complaints of students and recent graduates is how rude, uncaring, and unhelpful more experienced RNs are to them when they need help. I agree that spoonfeeding is not the answer, but research shows that mentoring is a great way to develop great new practitioners. Let's "help" not "hinder" our future. I teach in a BSN program and practice anesthesia fulltime...I have seen both sides.

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Specializes in Anesthesia and Critical Care.

Nope...it is a tradition. It is no more outdated than the Hippocratic Oath taken by physicians. I personally like the tradition of the Nightingale Pledge...it is uniquely ours as nurses. It is not a binding legality, but a mere tradition of graduation for most schools. If you're referring to the "endeavor to aid the physician in his work" phrase...like it or not, that is a part of Nursing...even though there is much, much more to the profession. Just don't say that part if it greatly bothers you.

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CANDLE LIGHTING

When the nursing pinning ceremony was first initiated in the 1860's, the lamp was a symbol of the care and devotion the nurse administers to the sick and injured in the practice of nursing. After nurses were pinned, Nightingale would light a lamp and pass the flame to each nurse as they said the Pledge:

Original Nightingale Pledge

"I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly:

To pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully;

I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous and will not take

or knowingly administer any harmful drug;

I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession

and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all

family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling;

With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work and devote myself

to the welfare of those committed to my care."

The lamp further represents Nightingale's famous 'Rounds At Night', and is symbolic of her dedication.

One correction -- the "Nightingale Pledge" was named for Flo but was definitely not written by her (I have a hard time imagining her ever subscribing to such sentimental, mawkish claptrap). It was written by a nursing instructor in Detroit (MI) in 1893. By that time, Flo was a homebound invalid (had been for quite some time), so she certainly never led her students in a recitation of the pledge at a graduation ceremony. I don't even have any idea if the pledge has ever "caught on" in the UK as it had for many years in the US -- maybe one of our UK members here could let us know about that?

http://www.countryjoe.com/nightingale/pledge.htm

Interesting (I think it's interesting :)) footnote -- the lamp Flo actually carried in the hospital at Scutari looked nothing like the "genie in the lamp" porcelain lamps that seem to be universally used in US nursing ceremonies now. The lamp she carried was a traditional Turkish style that looked like this:

http://www.primaryschoolstars.co.uk/resources/fck_images/Florencelantern.jpg

CAPPING

What I know about caps is a black stripe was meant to memorialize the death of Florence, and signifies 'expert nurse'. In years past students would wear a plain cap, and upon graduation would receive a colored stripe unique to the the school or school colors.

That's not true of all schools. At the excellent diploma school I attended in the early '80s (a school with a long and proud history), students wore colored ribbons on our caps (the different colors indicated which year student you were -- I still have my little velvet ribbons that I temporarily wore on my cap as a student), and graduates wore (wear) a plain cap with no ribbon. I've seen many different caps over the years (worn by non-students) that had no ribbon. There has always been a great deal of variety among caps of different schools.

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