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Discussion

Nurses Capes (not caps)

I have seen older photos of nurses in long capes. I wonder if anyone here actually wore them, were they really warm, practical etc. It is part of nursing of the past, but they look so interesting, I was just wondering if anyone has any personal experiences with them.

Thank you.

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I still got one!! It's at least 20 to 25 years old and we found it as our nursingschool was closing and we went up cleaning out the cellars. We found a lot of real old stuff there! Had great fun doing that.

I kept the cape, had it drycleaned and wore it inside the hospitalgrounds a few times. My collegues refuse to walk next to me though, cause they say I look ridiculous!

I don't care about that.

Yes the cape is warm, in this case it is made of pure Loden, that's the real expensive real wool, you wear here in Germany and Austria in winter and it's dark blue.

I like it!

Take care, Renee

In the UK capes used to be part of a nurses uniform, allthough like caps, and seperate cuffs they are no longer worn at the majority of hospitals Allthough soem private hospitals and military hospitals still make female nurses where capes.

I have worn a cape once, the ward I was just on, (as a student on placement) had a cape, which was generally worn by memebers of staff to nip outside and smoke in. Quite a lot of wards have capes for the self same reason! I borrowed the cape to go over to ICU to get some blood results, as I didn't have time to get my coat out of my car.

Wearing the cape got me some strange looks, but it was really warm and didn't mark my uniform, with crinkles like coats do. Also the hood was huge so there was no chance of me getting wet. It was snowing really heavily, and I never felt the cold, it could have done with pockets but it was very practicle apart from that.:)

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I had a cape, navy blue w/ a lighter blue lining, our initials in the back in an elegant script; it was very warm, esp when worn w/ the light blue cardigan we also had. I don't know how it would have been if we'd been in a colder part of the country; we were in New Jersey. We didn't buy all this stuff separately--it all came together in our uniform pkg that we had sent in measuremnts for when we were accepted.

I went to a hospital school of nursing from 1965-68; all 33 months of tuition, room, board, books, uniforms cost my father in the neighborhood of $850! Of course, there was the slave labor aspect of the deal, but overall, I think it was a fairly good deal!!

Ever since I watched Pearl Harbor, I have been fascinated with them....I would love to have one. I get sooooooo cold.

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I know it's not a cape, but perhaps you could try a poncho?

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USC did away with the cape the year before I started thare-waaaaaaay back in the 60's. They had instead the most hideous navy gabardine coat with a sky blue lining......ewwwwwww. And that was over a yellow cotton uniform with a big white apron.

Soooo about a year ago I was looking on E-BAY and found a CAPE!!! Navy wool with red wool lining. It is wonderful. It has the school's initials on the stand up collar, and I don't know where that school was...but it's a CAPE!!! And it's neat. Oh I think I paid like $20 for it....(thats about 12 pounds Whisper :) )

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I have noticed that the long capes have two red straps (?) that crisscross the chest. Can someone tell me how they are connected, presumably inside the cape?

Never had any interest in wearing a cap, but those cool nursing capes, now that's another story. I would love to own one!

Thanks for the conversion P_RN, I have enough trouble rembering that you are in a different time zone to me, without bringing in the different currencies as well:)

And as for how the cloaks fastened, the one I wore had two red straps, that crossed over at the front, and clipped onto your belt at the back, however I don't own a belt, but one of the auxillaries lent me hers, as she felt sorry for the poor little student sent out in the cold. I think those guys will miss me, because they will be the ones that get to run the blood over now!

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My cape had buttons for the straps.

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Look on ebay.com right now.

There's one just like the one I got. It's up for bid til Dec. 30. I missed the cutoff on mine but found the seller's email and got her to sell it to me anyway. I'm telling you, it is WARM!! and COOL!!!!

Those are cool! I want one! How long are they? They look to be about hip length.

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