Nurse's cap

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Nurses wearing their caps.

A nurse's cap or nursing cap is part of the female nurse's uniform, introduced early in the history of the profession. The cap's original purpose was to keep the nurse's hair neatly in place and present a modest appearance. Male nurses do not wear caps.

In some schools, a capping ceremony presents new nursing students their caps before beginning their clinical (hospital) training.

1 History
2 Advantages
3 Disadvantages
4 Nurse's Caps Since the 1980's
5 References
6 Related pages
7 External links

[edit] History

The nurse's cap was derived from the nun's habit and developed over time into two types:

A long cap, that covers much of the nurse's hair, and
A short cap, that sits atop the nurse's hair (common in the United Kingdom).

[edit] Advantages

Nurses care for a patient wearing a uniform that includes a nursing cap.

The nursing cap is a nearly universally recognized symbol of nursing. It allows patients to quickly identify a nurse in the hospital.

[edit] Disadvantages

Some claim the cap is a potential carrier of bacteria and other disease-causing pathogens that could then be transmitted from patient to patient.^[1] However, such incidents can be prevented when infection control procedures are followed.

[edit] Nurse's Caps Since the 1980's

The use of nurse's caps in the medical facilities of the United States (as well as many other nations) all but disappeared by the late 1980's with the near universal adoption of "scrubs." Also, the rapid growth of the number of men in nursing also necessitated a unisex uniform. However, nurse's caps can still be found in many developing nations, as well as some countries where women still make up the overwhelming majority of nurses.