White Coat Ceremony for Nurses

Nurses General Nursing

Updated:   Published

It used to be a capping ceremony, now it's a white coat ceremony like physicians. What do you think of this?

https://news.vcu.edu/article/Nursing_students_savor_schools_first_white_coat_ceremony

Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.
DoGoodThenGo said:
Another bonus round question: What is the best way to dry a just washed cap so it is flat and looks as if it were starched and ironed?

Stick the wet cap to a mirror!!!!

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Stick the wet cap to a mirror!!!!

Ding, Ding, Ding!

We have a winner!

Actually mirror, side of Fridge, bathroom tile, or a marble slab (if you bake lots of pastry, *LOL*), any smooth surface will do.

Slap that wet cap on, peel off when dry then proceed to fold and put away in case. No muss, no fuss.

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Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.

Can you tell I wore a cap?! Hee hee!!

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BostonFNP said:
Not to get all scientific on you all, but Wikipedia actually has a pretty good article on this ;)

This one? Nurse's cap - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Specializes in retired LTC.

Is it only MY observation that it seems to be that nurses who are most adamant AGAINST caps are newer nurses who didn't have the privilege of wearing their school cap (as in the old days). It seems we who are 'PRO' caps are of the older guard. It was a matter of pride to wear one's school cap.

I do agree with another poster that the religious overtones of some graduation ceremonies were quite a bit hokey.

As much as you newbies rail against caps, you've missed out on the experience of the respect that a cap earned from the public.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

When I finished my LVN we had a pinning ceremony and wore white scrub dresses + the caps.

When I completed my bridge program we were allowed to wear business clothes with a white lab coat and got pinned. I didn't attend that one though.

As cheesy as the white scrub dresses + caps were to me at the time, they made for some really neat photos. It was kind of fun "dressing up" although kind of crummy to spend money on a uniform that we would never wear again.

I'm a sentimental person (usually) but had no real emotional investment/opinion in whatever we wore.

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I think the white coat ceremony is fine for advanced practice nurses. Every other advanced practice profession has them and it's become well established and a respected event. I've never heard of non advanced practice doing I had only heard of the pinning and I think that the pinning ceremony is well established and respected as well. But for nurses and not advanced care. As far as wearing a hat, let's not.

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amoLucia said:
Is it only MY observation that it seems to be that nurses who are most adamant AGAINST caps are newer nurses who didn't have the privilege of wearing their school cap (as in the old days). It seems we who are 'PRO' caps are of the older guard. It was a matter of pride to wear one's school cap.

I do agree with another poster that the religious overtones of some graduation ceremonies were quite a bit hokey.

As much as you newbies rail against caps, you've missed out on the experience of the respect that a cap earned from the public.

I'll wear a cap only if the men have to wear a cap too.

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Specializes in retired LTC.
wooh said:
I'll wear a cap only if the men have to wear a cap too.

By history, we all know that nursing was traditionally a 'female only' profession. There were no males in nursing way back when cap-wearing was not unusual. There would have been no need for something for men to symbolically wear like the females.

Caps/hats/head-coverings were everyday requirements for women into the mid-1960's or so. I noticed this the other night watching some old movies and then a Perry Mason rerun. Even men wore hats when going outdoors way back then. Even today, the military still wear their hats!

Way back, maybe, there SHOULD HAVE BEEN some type of clothing like a tie or something, that would have designated a male as a nurse.

Something has been lost ...

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amoLucia said:
By history, we all know that nursing was traditionally a 'female only' profession. There were no males in nursing way back when cap-wearing was not unusual. There would have been no need for something for men to symbolically wear like the females.

Caps/hats/head-coverings were everyday requirements for women into the mid-1960's or so. I noticed this the other night watching some old movies and then a Perry Mason rerun. Even men wore hats when going outdoors way back then. Even today, the military still wear their hats!

Way back, maybe, there SHOULD HAVE BEEN some type of clothing like a tie or something, that would have designated a male as a nurse.

Something has been lost ...

"..And looking grim because they have been sitting choosing a hat... does anyone still wear a hat?

That famous line from the song "Ladies Who Lunch" in the Steven Sondheim musical Company was a query by Joanne to the ladies in the group (and audience) of 1970.

The 1950's was the last era when most females still wore hats (and gloves for that matter) out of doors as a matter of routine. By the 1960's hats were on the way out and since the musical is set in mid to late 1960's what caused this change? In two words "Big Hair". Hats just were not practical with the bouffant hair styles that came into fashion during the 1960's. I mean after one has spent hours roller setting, sitting under a dryer, combing out, teasing and otherwise creating poufy hair the last thing you'd want is to cram a hat on top of your head.

Being as this may some women still wore hats for fashion and or at least for formal occasions such as religious services (until Vatican II it was required for entering RC churches), but basically once "rat's nest" hair took over that was the end for hats.

Even prior to all this by the Edwardian era females on both sides of the pond mostly ceased wearing head coverings indoors. Older women may still have clung to the fashion and of course servants but if you watch period shows like Downton Abbey none of the women are covering their heads indoors who are not maidservants.

Perry Mason started in the 1950's and ran through the mid-1960's. At least in the early years (1950's) no decent woman would leave her house without a hat no more than she would without wearing a girdle.

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wooh said:
I'll wear a cap only if the men have to wear a cap too.

That is the one saving grace for the anti-cap camp. Between today's "equality" movement and federal/local anti-discrimination laws gender based dress codes for both schools and employment will not fly. Well they can but only if meeting previous case law tests. Not sure if simply saying "only female nurses wore caps historically" will be enough to keep a hospital or nursing school from restricting any such requirement to women only. As it is at least one nursing program one knows of is in hot water with the federal government over a transgender student and gender roles, so not sure how many places would want to fly that flag up the mast. For you know as sure as night follows day if any facility implemented a dress code that required caps for nursing staff at least one male sooner or later is going to report for duty wearing one.

It was because of Title IX and other federal anti-discrimination laws that dress codes restricting nurses to dresses went by the way side beginning in the 1970's (IIRC) Lots of nurses went into pantsuits and never looked back. *LOL*

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Nurses should have something unique to them, not copy someone else's tradition. I liked the lamp ceremony they had at my school.

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