nursing caps

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I'm in a RN program and it is required for us to wear our caps.

We hate it What do you think?

Did you have to wear one? and What year was it?

Specializes in CST in general surgery, LDRs, & podiatry.
:p i really want to wear a cap at work, seriously!

but i have a teensy little problem: i don't know how to put it on!

i bought a school cap for pinning in Dec 10, but i still don't know how to put it on.

does the edge with the strips go against the hair or up?

geez :p i haven't asked anyone cuz i think i'd sound stupid :p

There's no such thing as a stupid question - if you don't know, then you don't know, and you won't until you ask!

If you do a quick web search using "nursing caps" as your search term, you'll come up with TONS of old pictures and current references to show you how caps are worn. The "hollow" part goes down on your head, (like turning a teacup upside down and sticking it on top of your head,) with the stripe UP if your cap has a cuff, or turned up side - unless you have those upside down "cupcake" style caps that are pleated around the outside and have the stripe at the bottom edge - then it goes DOWN against the head. Go to Kayscaps.com and check out their online catalog to see all the different styles they carry as stock. You'll see the ones I mean.

Good luck with it! Feel free to write back if you want more information.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Graduated in 1968. Wore a cap for many years. Liked being able to tell where nurses went to school by the caps they wore. Didn't mind wearing them. Don't mind not wearing them. Don't understand why nursing schools would still want you to waste your money on one for a one day exercise. There is really no point in it. Is it an infection control issue? I don't know but we have a lot more virulent bugs around now than we had in 1968 so if it is an infection control issue it is a good thing they are gone.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Adult ICU/PICU/NICU.
Graduated in 1968. Wore a cap for many years. Liked being able to tell where nurses went to school by the caps they wore. Didn't mind wearing them. Don't mind not wearing them. Don't understand why nursing schools would still want you to waste your money on one for a one day exercise. There is really no point in it. Is it an infection control issue? I don't know but we have a lot more virulent bugs around now than we had in 1968 so if it is an infection control issue it is a good thing they are gone.

To my knolwedge, there has never been a peer reviewed study published on nursing caps spreading infection.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Just saw a local news program piece on the H1N1 flu here in New York, and they showed a nurse at a flu shot clinic. She had on a floral print top, white pants, and a CAP! Couldn't make out the school, but it did have black bands (two), and *think* could see a banner for "St. Francis" in the background, so guess that was where the clinic was located. The footage was from last year, so.......

As for caps being a potential source of infection, think most can agree the things were rarely laundered, at least towards the waning days of the "modern nurse". Indeed the latest incarnations of Kay's caps (the perma-starch models), cannot be laundered much less ironed, so one can imagine who dirty caps were. As I've always said, one could walk into any nurse's locker-room and find caps littered all over the place.

Can understand items that might come into contact with a patient such as a doctor's tie, a lab coat or even long sleeves, but cannot understand how something on top of a nurse's head could lead to infection. Suppose if one stood over a patient and shook one's head, or after touching the cap went to a patient without handwashing or wearing gloves.......

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Women's health & post-partum.

Can understand items that might come into contact with a patient such as a doctor's tie, a lab coat or even long sleeves, but cannot understand how something on top of a nurse's head could lead to infection. Suppose if one stood over a patient and shook one's head, or after touching the cap went to a patient without handwashing or wearing gloves.......

Or if it falls off, which mine did with some regularity (I have fine, thin hair and our caps were the kind that perch on the top of the head, held on with a couple of bobby pins). It never fell into a wound or onto a contaminated surface, but I consider that to be just luck.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment