Just interested. Does anyone still wear their caps? I have been an LPN for 20 years. Initially we of course had to wear them, then it was personal choice. Now, obsolete. I still choose to wear mine. Before working the medical floor I am on now, I was told to remove it. I checked the dress codes and there was no stipulation re: caps. Since being on the medical floor one other nurse wears hers, she is an RN, and our clinical co-ordinator. I guess I should admit I wear white pantyhose too, and white uniforms.Quite a few nursing staff wear street clothes to work.Patients seem to really like the cap, though I do get teased from staff members. I guess at 42 yrs of age, I am still a rebel.Mind you, if I had a quarter for every compliment I received from wearing it from patients and family members, I could take a nice vacation.
Specializes in obstetrics(high risk antepartum, L/D,etc.
I received a cap at 6 months of school, and a stripe at the beginning of my senior year. My pin was awarded at graduation, and these are so very valuable. However, when Florence (Nightengale) and I graduated, I went to work in LD and in that hospital, nurses were expected to wear a cap in the labor room and a scrub TURBAN in the delivery room (I'm telling my age, but good!) After a busy shift, my arms were falling off, just changing head covering!
we dont wear caps in the ik anymore unless its a really posh hospital because some nurses researched it and it did go back to be maids/servants inthe days of our flo (nightingale) it was to do with going into service and as nurses dont see themselves as hand maidens to doctors anymore we got rid of them using the excuse of infection control.
I went to see my son in law in the hospital last night and saw a nurse with a cap on. Haven't seen a nurse with a cap on in years!!!!
I could tell she was an LPN from a fairly local school by the cap and it's colors. Just amazed that people still wear them!!!! I had to wear mine to my first job 19 years ago, but haven't since. Don't think I even still have one.
They were a symbol of instant identification, but a pain in the butt to put on, keep on and keep clean. I'm glad mine's gone!!!
Specializes in OB, Telephone Triage, Chart Review/Code.
In nursing school, we were required to get a cap. Only wore it for one day (graduation). I have saved it though. It is in a plastic tote which I keep on my desk as a souvenier. I think caps are impractable for nursing now. But in one long term care center where I worked, they were required. (Logic being that the older residents felt more comfortable with a nurse with a cap on...from their earlier days). I didn't argue. I wore my cap out of respect for them.
I've never wore a cap but here's is another view on the cap thing.....weren't caps wore for the most part during a time when we nurses were considered handmaidens and had to stand when a doctor entered a room and call him sir. It seems to me that maids and waitresses and other female service oriented jobs also wore some sort of head dress. I can't at this time think of any profession especially with a lot of men, that wear any type of hat....unless you count Burger King, and thats not a profession. I think nursing caps are great for nostalgia purposes but lets pull nursing to a professional level without making us one of man's best fantasies with the cap. OH and their not practical and have no purpose...just one more thing to have to get up and put on in the morning and fight to keep on the rest of the day....we have more than enough important things to do. I suggest wearing your RN or LPN status in large letters on your body somewhere.
If I had to always wear white...I'd not work where it's required.
I've never wore a cap but here's is another view on the cap thing.....weren't caps wore for the most part during a time when we nurses were considered handmaidens and had to stand when a doctor entered a room and call him sir. It seems to me that maids and waitresses and other female service oriented jobs also wore some sort of head dress. I can't at this time think of any profession especially with a lot of men, that wear any type of hat....unless you count Burger King, and thats not a profession. I think nursing caps are great for nostalgia purposes but lets pull nursing to a professional level without making us one of man's best fantasies with the cap. OH and their not practical and have no purpose...just one more thing to have to get up and put on in the morning and fight to keep on the rest of the day....we have more than enough important things to do. I suggest wearing your RN or LPN status in large letters on your body somewhere.
If I had to always wear white...I'd not work where it's required.
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I was very proud when I was "capped" and quite mortified when the damn thing fell off into the sterile field in the ED. Haven't worn one since.