When did you last see a nurse wearing the old school garb?

[DesiDani]

Cap, white stockings, and all. Do you have one?

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

I still have my cap from 1982. It was one of the last years that caps were required.

Nursing caps signify subservience to doctors. I sometimes wear mine on Halloween.

I do remember a nurse wearing her cap. on duty , about 1995.. she stood out like a sore thumb.

Why do you ask?

[Shagce1]

I did clinicals at a hospital last year that had a nurse who wore her cap, but none of the other garb. Regular scrubs. Just the cap.

[DesiDani]

Just popped up in my head. An older lpn wore the whole set up, skirt and all.

[elkpark]

I still have whites, including my cap, although I've worked in psych nearly all of my career, so I've been wearing street clothes. I've never heard anyone seriously suggest that the cap is a symbol of "subservience to doctors." I worked for several years as a hospital surveyor for my state and CMS, and, in nearly every hospital we surveyed, I would see at least one nurse still wearing "real" whites (not scrubs) with white hose and cap. The hospital at which I currently work has one nurse who does. On the occasions over my career in which I've worked in a uniform rather than street clothes, I've always worn "real" whites and my cap. I would do so now, if I worked in a uniform rather than street clothes.

[Hygiene Queen]

I have a cap. I wear it on Halloween with uniform dress, white hose and navy blue sweater. I wear it to my elderly day care job. The old folks love it! My coworkers (that are not nurses) tell me I look intimidating in this, lol. Not sure why.

[sevensonnets]

I wore white dresses, hose, white shoes and cap at the beginning of my career in 1979. It's much easier to get dressed now! I lost my cap somehow. There is a nursing supervisor at my hospital who still wears whites, including the cap, which looks like an ice cream cone went splat upside down on top of her head!

[elkpark]

My coworkers (that are not nurses) tell me I look intimidating in this, lol. Not sure why.

Because you look like a professional who takes herself seriously and needs to be taken seriously by others, not someone who came to work in her pajamas.

[Anonymous865]

From a purely patient perspective - I miss the days where nurses wore white uniforms and a cap. A patient knew immediately who was a nurse. They knew from the cap whether the person was an RN or an LPN. If you were knowledgeable, you could even tell where they went to school just from their cap.

Now the patient has no idea whether the person who just came into their room wearing scrubs is a Dr, nurse, CNA, housekeeping, dietary, transporter, phlebotomist, student, etc. That white uniform and cap proclaimed that the person wearing it was a trained, licensed, medical professional.

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

I wore them in 1989-1990ish. I had to throw my cap away because it had turned yellow from other nurse's cigarette smoke in the break room. I didn't smoke, but back then both the staff and the patients could smoke in the hospital. Where I work now, we don't even have a breakroom, and nobody can smoke on campus, thank goodness.

[NurseCard, ADN]

Used to work with a nurse 10-11 years ago who wore the little white dress and white shoes. No white cap though, and I can't remember what color stockings she wore.

Around the same time, worked with a couple of nurses who always wore all white, even though it wasn't required.

A couple of years prior to THAT, worked with a nurse who always wore a nurse's cap. She wore it because "I earned it".

It's been at least ten years since I've worked with anyone who dressed even remotely in

traditional garb.

[VANurse2010]

I've seen a couple nurses who wear caps, but never worked with any who wear the entire traditional whites.