Yahoo! Don't have to wear a nursing cap for grad pics!!

[Alice b.]

Just had to share. A group of us at our school who are graduating in May

(yeah!!) really did not want to have to wear a nursing cap in our graduation picture. These pictures adorn the long hallway in our nursing school and go back a few decades. In every single picture, every single woman is wearing a nursing cap, even last year. So we banded together, called on the staff to support us and called for a vote. It was heated but we won the right to choose.

Now before you get all fired up, I'm not trying to start a big fight... I know people get wildly passionate about this topic. I would like to say that I fully support the right of those people for whom wearing the cap in the picture is meaningful. I do not happen to be one of them.

This year for the first time ever some of the students will wear the cap and some will not (about 1/2 and 1/2) in the end.

CHANGE IS GOOD!!

Would be interested to know if this is an issue at any other schools.

[LilRedRN1973]

We had a big disagreement in our class about caps. The younger generation that was graduating wanted to wear them and the older generation (above 30-something) did not. I really wanted to wear a cap in my photo because without the cap, we were basically in our clinical uniform. The cap makes it a bit more "official" and I loved how the photo turned out. We did NOT have to wear them during pinning, graduation, etc. The caps were ONLY for our individual photos. Truth be told, we had about 4 or 5 caps and just took pics in groups, trading off caps as we went...LOL!

The class finally agreed that it would look stupid for some of us to have on a cap and some of us not. They put all of our pictures on one frame and even those who did not want to wear the caps agreed that it might look silly for half the class to have headgear and the other half not. All in all, everyone was pleased with their photos and in the end, I don't think the naysayers minded wearing theirs! I worked damn hard for my degree and was overjoyed to don the cap (although I would NEVER want to have to wear it while working....lol).

Melanie = )

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Wow. One of the reasons i looked forward to graduation was just the day to wear the cap.

(And the couple hours the day before when i wore it for the sepia-style pictures)

[Sheri257]

We did have to wear caps and, at first, I thought it was stupid but ... I have to admit after looking at the pictures, it did look good. The instructors had to wear caps for yearbook pictures and the ceremony also.

Although the guys didn't have to wear caps ... some guys took some graduation pics with the caps as a joke. It was pretty funny.

:typing

[NoWaNrN, ASN, RN]

For our class pictures we had to wear our caps, for clincials we did not have to. One of my clinical instructors was a very classy lady and told me of when she was a unit manager on a med-surg unit she always wore white and she always wore her nursing cap. She said if she was standing at the nurses station 99% of the people who came to the nurses desk with questions always came to her. She said she truely believed because she looked like a nurse and looked professional. She continued to tell me that if I stop and think Firefighter, police officers ect. all still wear their hats, why do nurses want to take part of there own respect away now just to be more comfortable? I am very proud to be a nurse, and some times I do feel a little weired knowing that I can wear whatever color scrubs I want and you cant tell the difference between housekeeping, dietary or nursing staff unless someone has a stethoscope around their neck.