Who wears a nursing cap?

AgentBeast, BSN, RN · Jun 10, 2011

Lol!! I just noticed you're a dude!

They are able to do a lot with makeup these days.

Fiona59 · Jun 10, 2011

What is going to be on the cap that isn't on the hair or the scrubs or anywhere else for that matter?

My point exactly. We have left off a part of our tradition. Yet other nations nurses seem to manage just fine.

FF-PHRN · Jun 10, 2011

.......and all the guys are gonna wear ....um....what? I catch enough grief from the guys at the firehouse. I have heard every gaylord focker joke known to man. For the sake of the profession, can't we just let the nurse cap go away?

diva rn, BSN, RN · Jun 10, 2011

.......and all the guys are gonna wear ....um....what? I catch enough grief from the guys at the firehouse. I have heard every gaylord focker joke known to man. For the sake of the profession, can't we just let the nurse cap go away?

Hey, Gaylord...I'm not a dude, but I'm with you.

I would rather go to work in swim fins than wear a cap.

Sorry, I happily wear solid colored scrubs with a white jacket. The patients know I am the nurse, the doctors know I am the nurse, the visitors know, the auxillary workers know and I know I am the nurse. It has never been an issue.

I don't need a cap to prove my professionalism. With so many males in the profession these days, what do you all propose they wear?

Wouldn't that be discriminatory?

Don't yell at me.....just my opinion:)

OhioCCRN, MSN, NP · Jun 10, 2011

I think it looks cute with the 'whites'

would i want to be forced to wear it every day?

Heck no! :cool:

Fiona59 · Jun 10, 2011

The guys in my class each recieved a white cap with ribbons and the lecture on how to fold them. They then asked us all to sign their caps to keep as mementos. We wanted to get them white baseball caps for the grad picture and they were willing to wear them. The College told us no way.

JSlovex2 · Jun 10, 2011

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Hey, Gaylord...I'm not a dude, but I'm with you.
I would rather go to work in swim fins than wear a cap.
Sorry, I happily wear solid colored scrubs with a white jacket. The patients know I am the nurse, the doctors know I am the nurse, the visitors know, the auxillary workers know and I know I am the nurse. It has never been an issue.
I don't need a cap to prove my professionalism. With so many males in the profession these days, what do you all propose they wear?
Wouldn't that be discriminatory?
Don't yell at me.....just my opinion:)

you're exactly right! i worked at a restaurant when i was younger and the boss made all of the females wear a corsage on mother's day. i'm sure he thought it was a nice gesture, but i was not a mother and i had NO DESIRE (and i mean ZERO) to wear a flower on my bosom. i pointed out to him that it wasn't fair that i (along with the other females) had to wear the flower while our male counterparts did not. i wasn't being silly. i was dead serious. if the males didn't have to wear the flowers because it made them uncomfortable, why should the females who were uncomfortable have to wear them? i have a feeling if caps were mandatory there would be similar issues and rightfully so.

MMARN, BSN, RN · Jun 10, 2011

Honestly, I don't even know if caps are uniform-approved in my hospital. I'm not sure how they would be received by the patients these days. Many of the younger population would find it a joke, or some sort of sexual garb because that's what society has decreased part of the nursing profession to, in my honest opinion. The only time I've worn a nursing cap was for pinning, and it was one of my proudest moments ever. :)

raincitynurse · Jun 10, 2011

i certainly am not for anyone being required to wear a cap! that would make it perfectly awful.

there is nothing like telling someone the have to do some thing to make them not want to do it!

Jasmijn · Dec 12, 2011

I'm with you, Raincitynurse! I don't think they should be required any more but for those who want to reflect the tradition of this proud career, it should be allowed. My mother worked as a coder in a hospital in the greater Los Angeles area until recently, and the nurses on one floor wear all whites with caps once a week because the response from the patients is so positive and it makes them feel proud to show that they are nurses, not NAs or techs or even janitorial staff in scrubs.

(Ironic that people associated the cap w/ maids, btw, when now it's the lack of something like caps that makes us look just like the NAs and janitors in scrubs in many hospitals...)

I'm one of about 50% of the women in our graduating class (in Los Angeles) who chose to order our school's unique caps to wear at our ceremony. I don't think any of us are planning to wear them on the floor once we start working as RNs, but we are all very proud to have them.

BTW, one of the guys bought one, too, stripe and all! (for us, black velvet stripe along the brim means graduate nurse; short horizontal ones at the edges denoted what year you were in school, but the caps are optional now and nobody's worn one as a student in many years).

allthesmallthings · Dec 12, 2011

i have to say.. i really want to wear a nurses cap! maybe not all the time, and of course i would have to acquire one first (sadly not part of my schools tradition).
not that i get mistaken for other people who wear scrubs: house keeping, the desk clerks, dietary workers, veterinarians, transporters, nurses assistants, hair dressers or walmart employees, pharmacy techs, prisoners, dental techs, receptionists... (i mean, i do have a stethoscope around my neck )
anyone out there wear a nurses cap? would you like to?
i think i'm going to order one online, strap it down with hair pins, and hope it's not too windy out!
who's with me?

kudos for going against the crowd (and the century), but dude, you're on your own. wear it with pride (yes, we will laugh at you up and down the hall, in front of your back and behind it, too). :)

Dixielee, BSN, RN · Dec 12, 2011

I think it is great if someone wants to wear a cap, but please don't work to make it mandatory! I was very happy when the caps were phased out. I will pass along a little nostalgic info to those youngsters who were not around when they were popular.

Each school had a unique cap, so you could recognize where someone had gone to school without asking. We also wore our school pin proudly. I was crushed when I lost mine!

Each cap came flat when new and sometimes had a complicated set of instructions to fold it. Ours was white initially and got a stripe for each year of school. Everyone had little plastic cap holders, and as someone else said, you never wore your cap outside of the hospital. Your cap when into the carrying case at the end of the shift and only taken out when you were back at work.

If it became soiled, you unfolded it, laid it flat on a towel and cleaned it with a toothbrush dipped in a paste of baking soda :) Some of us remember starch...a little spray starch on the cap when it was clean, dry thoroughly and then carefully re-fold when dry.

To keep it on your head, bobby pin a cotton ball to the top of your head (at the peak so your cap ended up in the right place). Another bobby pin goes in the little flap attached to the inside of the front of the cap. Line the cap up correctly and pin the cap to the cotton ball. Add another bobby pin to each side of the cap to secure it. Be prepared to have a quasi permanent bald spot where the cotton ball goes!

While you were cleaning your cap, you might as well give your white "clinics" (clod hopper shoes) and good cleaning and polishing and make sure your white support hose didn't have any runs in them.

Make sure you have your pocket protector filled with the tri color ink pen (black for day shift, green for evenings and red for nights), stainless steel bandage scissors and hemostats.

Since you have the starch out anyway, might as well hit the white dresses with it and break out the ironing board. No self respecting nurse would have any wrinkles in the dress!

I knew a few "older" nurses who wore a white apron with pockets to hold tape, bandage supplies, pads of paper for reminder notes, etc. I secretly wanted one because they were so useful, but we laughed at the nurses who wore them, so I couldn't bring myself to get one :)

OK, that ends my trip down memory lane. I'm very thankful that I can wear my New Balance shoes, white or colored socks and permanent press, light weight scrubs!