When did nursing caps go extinct in the wild?

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I wore a cap for my first year of nursing in the mid 1990's. By then only the occasional student wore caps.

I last saw a working nurse wear a cap in 1995. She was an older lady who worked night shift on one of my clinical units.

When did you last see a nurse (not a student) wearing the cap?

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I used to wear mine on Halloween up until 1994.

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I have a cap and just had photos made with my daughter who is a new nurse. She wore a cap and so did I. It was fun for the photos and everyone that saw us commented on how nice it was to see a "professional nurse". I was surprised at how many young kids came up and said "wow, you are a real nurse"! Many older nurses stopped us and said how they missed their caps. Don't know why they are gone but it makes a great photo prop! We were in a busy mall and had placed our caps on before going in because we wanted to see if they would really stay on.

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They don't even have caps for graduate nurse pictures anymore! I just graduated in Dec and was disappointed that we didn't get them. I would have liked to have a pic of myself with a cap so I could frame it with my mother's graduate pic from the late 60s. I even asked around at work to see if I could borrow one but nobody had theirs anymore.

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

Last night. One of our ICU nurses always wears it.

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Every shift that I work. A couple still wear them daily.

On nurses week a couple more wear them.

They are easy to obtain from companies that do mail order/online uniforms.

Caps run around $15.

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I've never in my life seen a nurse in a cap. I had to wear one for mandatory school pics, but I didn't go to graduation, so I didn't buy one. I have one I got for Halloween that I wear occasionally.

But the real deal, in a real setting? Never. I'm in my 40s, by the way, so it's not like I'm a spring chicken.

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Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.

I've yet to wear one, and never will: unlike the rules for women, which allow hat wearing almost any place, western sartorial practice for men is to never wear hats in one's office/workplace, except when safety requires it (hard hat on a construction site, etc.). It simply wouldn't be appropriate for me to wear one.

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well,I almost forgot those caps existed..hehe

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When did they go extinct? Not soon enough! Haha. I am just kidding they are kind of cute, I cannot imagine having to wear one though.

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

I think it was in 1999 when I was a student. There was a nurse in the ICU at that facility that wore her cap. They look good in pictures. They just aren't practical.

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I worked in LTC in the early/mid 90's and the nurses had to wear caps (our uniform HAD to be all white, head to toe, NO such creature as scrubs then). And not only did we wear all white, but many CNA's and nurses wore skirts or dresses.

Last time I saw a nursing cap, I actually saw many, many, many nurses in all whites and caps last week in the hospital due to Nurses Week.

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