Could a modern nurse choose to wear a classic vintage nurse outfit like this if she chose to?

[astro]

As in this picture.


and this

or would modern regulations not allow it for some reason?

[Joey P]

I'm not sure about the cape, but at the L&D floor at one of the hospitals in my area there's a nurse that still wears one of those hats. I don't remember if she had a button down dress like that though.
My (now ex) FIL works there and said that she's been wearing that hat forever, or at least as long as he can remember. I'm willing to bet she's probably been wearing it since the time when all nurses wore them.
So at the very least I can say that this hospital will allow that nurse to wear part of the uniform.

Though I'd guess that if someone wanted to wear the entire thing, cape and all, they'd probably say no. OTOH, I have to wonder if the cape was just for going outdoors (making house calls) and I doubt the hospital/doctors office would be all that worried about what they wore when they punched out. Beyond that, if would be up to whoever sets the rules.

[Silvorange]

It would just depend on the dress code where they worked. I doubt most people would find it practical.

[WhyNot]

Most hospitals would not allow, of all things, the shoes in the second picture. Open heels or strapped heels are a violation for safety reasons; the shoe must cover the entire foot. Of course, lots and lots of nurses wear Crocs with open backs. But most of the time, they're breaking the rules in doing so.

Most places have specific dress codes which specify scrubs, or a specific color of scrubs This is a new old trend; nurses in one color, respiratory therapists in another, physical therapists in another - the idea is that the color coding helps the patient know who is walking into the room, but I've noticed most patients don't get it. "Whites" are often allowed as an alternate, or informally, especially for Registry ("substitute") nurses. Hardly anyone does wear them, though. I noticed two during my time in nursing school, both older Filipino nurses.

Nursing homes/rehabilitation centers are another matter. Those tend to encourage/require something closer to the classic Whites, perhaps because the older patients find it more comfortable. Still, you don't see skirts much; they really aren't practical. But I do know several nursing/rehab places with white slacks and fitted white button up shirts with princess seams.

The cape isn't something I associate with nursing. It would certainly get in the way in a modern medical setting, not to mention being hotter than the dickens.

I've never seen a cap in the wild. Shame. I don't think they're disallowed so much as simply Not Done. Very few schools have capping as part of the traditional ceremonies anymore, but there's still an understanding that a nurse wouldn't wear any style of cap other than her school's cap, preferably the one given her as a sophomore by the senior class members. The photographer who took our graduation pictures brought one to the photo shoot, and we took turns wearing it if we wanted - about half the people in the final composite chose a shot with the cap; the others are bareheaded. My SO bought me a vintage cap for Christmas, because he knows I love them so. I'll probably never have the nerve to wear it at work, though.

If you're interested in the history of the nursing uniform, especially the caps, there's a fascinating series on Medscape about it: http://www.medscape.com/features/nurse-caps

[Joey P]

Originally Posted by WhyNot

If you're interested in the history of the nursing uniform, especially the caps, there's a fascinating series on Medscape about it: http://www.medscape.com/features/nurse-caps

Needs a login/password.

ETA bugmenot has one that works.

ETA2, that looks long, I'll read it later.

[WhyNot]

Originally Posted by Joey P

Needs a login/password.

ETA bugmenot has one that works.

ETA2, that looks long, I'll read it later.

It is long, yes. Several parts of long.

[D-bear]

I had such a crush on Julie London when I was just a young'un. She ruined me for all women. If anyone tells my husband, that's my story and I'm sticking to it...

[Senegoid]

Now, what about nurses in a physician's office (not at a hospital)? They often wear printed shirts (scrubs?) with little pictures all over them -- little flowers, teddy bears, etc. Some examples that I could find:
http://www.amegamall.com/759stork.jpg
http://www.caregiverscrubs.com/assets/images/2.gif
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Gmu0breaP5...ies+Scrubs.jpg

I used to go to doc's office regularly for blood pressure check (which any one of the nurses did). One of them had a shirt like that decorated with little pictures of all kinds of hypodermic needles. And they wondered why my blood pressure always shot up when I went there for my blood pressure check.

[Cub Mistress]

In the hospital in which I worked, several nurses wore their dress whites complete with cap and white hose to celebrate Med-Surg Nurses's Week. White dresses (long sleeved for RNs and short sleeves for LPNs) would certainly be allowed but aren't as practical. Caps fell out of favor for hospital wear because they are germ catchers. The style I have has to be hand washed and starched heavily, dried flat and refolded. I have seen nurses wear their dress whites to funerals of their fellow nurses.

I'm in home health now. I could wear a white dress, but some of the places I go are filthy. White wouldn't stay white long. Some of my patients would love to see it, though.

they are still selling them

[ralph124c]

I'd like to see a return to white uniforms-the "Nurse Ratched" look was cool.

[HeyHomie]

Originally Posted by astro

and this

Giggity

[Bridget Burke]

Strolling through Houston's Methodist Hospital a few years ago, I saw a nurse in full nursie drag. That hospital has some luxury suites for the monied ill; she might have been a private duty nurse. Most hospitals have codes for their employees & the old outfit is uncomfortable & impractical.

The head nurse at the facility where my mother lived out her last months wore practical, washable white slacks & top. But she also wore a nursing cap. Some of the patients were rather far gone, but the cap probably helped them recognize her as A Nurse....

[WhyNot]

And that:

Originally Posted by HeyHomie

Giggity

Is why I often wear this:

They often wear printed shirts (scrubs?) with little pictures all over them -- little flowers, teddy bears, etc.

Especially because I, too, am a home health nurse, I want my work clothes to be as desexualized as possible, for my own safety.

[Darth Panda]

Originally Posted by Silvorange

It would just depend on the dress code where they worked. I doubt most people would find it practical.

What could be more practical than a cape?

[MC$E]

Originally Posted by ralph124c

I'd like to see a return to white uniforms-the "Nurse Ratched" look was cool.

Or Nurse Diesel.

http://whiskeyfire.typepad.com/whisk...2/dieselme.jpg

[Ferret Herder]

Originally Posted by WhyNot

Especially because I, too, am a home health nurse, I want my work clothes to be as desexualized as possible, for my own safety.

Plus the printed ones are especially popular with techs who work with kids, because they're cute and non-threatening.

[aruvqan]

My mom-in-law Jane trained for nursing back in the mid 60s, I vaguely remember her mentioning a pin and getting a hat at some point. Her scrubs are provided by the hospital she works in, but she might still have the formal white dress and cape somewhere.

[Lamia]

I used to live in Japan (close to 10 years ago now), and at least at the time nurses there did still typically wear fairly traditional dresses and caps in either white or pink. The particular style varied depending on where they were working, so I assume different hospitals and clinics had their own uniforms.

[Robot Arm]

Originally Posted by astro

and this

It's Nurseferatu!

[DrDeth]

The capes were a little like the Hogwarts ties and what not. Each nursing school had their own colors, etc. The cape identified you as a student of that school, and afterwards it was liek wearing a "old school tie".

I'll also point out those little capes are two layers of wool, and thus very practical. They also could be whisked out of the way in a trice if you were about to get icky.

(My Grandmother had one of those, found it in a trunk along with her pictures and stuff)

[DrDeth]

Originally Posted by WhyNot

And that:
Is why I often wear this:

Especially because I, too, am a home health nurse, I want my work clothes to be as desexualized as possible, for my own safety.

Not everyone is a moron. I apologize for that.

And everything can be sexualized.

Mind you, yes there is a highly sexualized "Naughty Nurses" costume, but it's very far from reality. (Once, in the hospital I saw a very attractive nurse walk by, one I had never seen, with a outfit that was only a step or two away from "Naughty Nurse", it was too short, too tight, heels were too high and yes, she had white stockings with lines up the back... I goggled, turned to my MD who shrugged and said "Private practice". So, I guess if you have enough money......)

[jabiru]

I've worked at my present hospital, off and on, since 1980. I still have my uniform from then and I doubt I'd be allowed to wear it now; I'm expected to wear the current, provided uniform.

Posters who think that capes are practical clearly have never worn one mid-winter at 6:00am. They are not at all good at keeping the wearer warm.

ETA: Capes were for wearing outdoors only. No long sleeves or woolen garments on the ward.

[Nava]

Originally Posted by WhyNot

Especially because I, too, am a home health nurse, I want my work clothes to be as desexualized as possible, for my own safety.

The Opus Dei-owned hospital in Pamplona used to require all female personnel to wear "just below the knee skirts". Shorter was inmodest; longer was hippy.

I say used because the policy changed after one too many old patients fell off the bed whilte trying to look up a female worker's skirt. Slacks are now acceptable; there's bets on whether jeans will become acceptable within this century or it will be next one.

[HeyHomie]

I meant no offense, WhyNot.

[WhyNot]

Originally Posted by HeyHomie

I meant no offense, WhyNot.

I know. We're cool. No one does mean offense, it's just one of those things that gets tiresome when it's your job to deal with it.

Honestly, I appreciate a good sexy nurse porn as much as the next gal in my off hours. But your post gave me the perfect opportunity to demonstrate why a grown woman would voluntarily wear a teddy bear shirt to work.

[Fear Itself]

Back in the day, the different styles of nurses' caps corresponded to the school the nurse graduated from; each had its own style, and probies were presented with them at a "capping" ceremony.

http://www.lifebridgeblogs.org/2012/...he-nurses-cap/

My mother graduated from Mass. General nursing school in the 1940's, and she said the cap there was meant to represent a woman's uterus. I don't see it, but that was the folklore.

[CrazyCatLady]

Originally Posted by WhyNot

But your post gave me the perfect opportunity to demonstrate why a grown woman would voluntarily wear a teddy bear shirt to work.

Indeed. And it's not just home-health where you wind up with the pervs, either--a former coworker more than once had to elbow a guy who was standing behind her with his dick pressed up against her ass on the pretext of helping her hold his dog.

Then, too, a print is awfully useful for camouflaging blood/pee/vomit spots that didn't completely rinse out in the sink when you're having that sort of shift.

[Ca3799]

I know a several of nurses who wear hats or head coverings- one is Jewish, one Muslim and the others like scrub hats for fashion and hair management reasons. We have at least one other Jewish employee but she does not dress differently from average. I have not seen any 'nurse hats' in my years of nursing.

I know a couple of nurses who wear dresses- one is Jewish and the other seems to be a Pentacost or Jehova Witness or something. A third one I know that wears a dress just likes them.

I don't know any person who wears a cape except the lady at the Dude Ranch last summer, and she was just flamboyant.

[urban1a]

I don't know whether they do it or not, but there used to be one day or week each year where nurses would wear the cap (any maybe uniform) which was unique to the school from which they graduated.

like the others, I suspect that modern health restrictions would prohibit wearing the white dresses and I'm not sure where you would find a cape.

Others in the hospital used to wear all white uniforms too; doctors, for instance.

Bob

[Elendil's Heir]

Here's a bevy of British nurses in Atonement, set in the early days of WWII:
http://500.the400club.org/wp-content...nap-170435.png

Originally Posted by DrDeth

...I goggled, turned to my MD who shrugged and said "Private practice". So, I guess if you have enough money......)

An old, crude joke, for which I apologize up front:

SPOILER:

A man is diagnosed with a rare, potentially fatal prostate disease and told by his doctor that he'll have to jerk off twice a day or he'll explode. As he's leaving the office, he sees, through a slightly open door, another patient getting a blowjob from a beautiful nurse.

He tells his doctor, who shrugs and says, "Same diagnosis; better medical plan."

[alphaboi867]

Originally Posted by Fear Itself

...My mother graduated from Mass. General nursing school in the 1940's, and she said the cap there was meant to represent a woman's uterus. I don't see it, but that was the folklore.

I'm pretty sure it's just a relic of the days when a "decent woman" always covered her hair in public. Plus nurses's uniforms were originally based on nuns' habits (this is really obvious in older British nurse uniforms).


The school nurse at my high school used to show up in a vintage uniform like in the OP (no cape though) to circumvent the district's ban on Halloween costumes.

[Fear Itself]

Originally Posted by alphaboi867

I'm pretty sure it's just a relic of the days when a "decent woman" always covered her hair in public. Plus nurses's uniforms were originally based on nuns' habits (this is really obvious in older British nurse uniforms).

All I can say is, according to Mom, the way the Mass General cap was folded, if you looked at it from the top, there was a vaguely pear-shaped fold, which, according to tradition, represented a uterus.

[drachillix]

When Cyn was still working the floor once a year they had "old time nurse day" and everyone busted out the white dresses. I made a pattern for a cardstock version of the little hats that worked pretty slick and we printed out a dozen or so of them, prefolded them and they were quite well recieved.

[outlierrn]

Some of my coworkers rock a scrub dress, not usually white, though.

[jabiru]

Originally Posted by alphaboi867

Plus nurses's uniforms were originally based on nuns' habits (this is really obvious in older British nurse uniforms).

I can't speak about the nurses' uniforms worn in the US but ours (in Australia) were more like the UK uniforms and looked like turn-of-the-century servants' uniforms - hair tucked in under an all-encompassing cap, starched striped or checked blue dress with white collar/cuff combo, starched white apron, black stockings and shoes.

I have to say I have a fondness for the old uniforms but they were a bugger to work in.

[Lynn Bodoni]

Speaking from experience, capes are not as warm as coats and jackets, but they are easier to take off or put on (especially without assistance), and don't need to be sized very accurately. If you're going to hand out a cape, you don't have to worry about if the wearer is a size 4 or a size 16, it's likely to fit the wearer. Can't do that with a coat or jacket. It's also easier to drive and get into and out of cars in a cape.

I don't wear a nurse's cape, but I do wear other sorts of capes and shawls and ruanas.

[MarcusF]

Originally Posted by Fear Itself

My mother graduated from Mass. General nursing school in the 1940's, and she said the cap there was meant to represent a woman's uterus. I don't see it, but that was the folklore.

Hey! I didn't realise Princess Eugenie was a nurse...

[WhyNot]

Originally Posted by alphaboi867

I'm pretty sure it's just a relic of the days when a "decent woman" always covered her hair in public. Plus nurses's uniforms were originally based on nuns' habits (this is really obvious in older British nurse uniforms).

Not a relic at all, at least until the 20th century. It was hygiene. Before women washed their hair every day (which didn't happen until my mother was a teenager - my grandmother still "gets her hair done" once a week) hair was the dirtiest part of a person. Florence Nightingale (who seems like a total beeeeyotch if you read her biography) made her nurses wear caps to prevent infection, not as a fashion statement.

The different styles of cap became tradition at each school, but the original nursing caps covered the hair more or less completely because hair was (correctly) recognized as filthy stuff back before indoor plumbing and cheap shampoo.

[Elendil's Heir]

Here's Briony, another character from Atonement, in WWII nursing garb:

http://theowlofderision.files.wordpr...ony-tallis.jpg
http://im.glogster.com/media/4/29/77/58/29775849.jpg
http://ripley.cc/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/briony2.jpg
http://s3.vidimg.popscreen.com/origi...ement-2007.jpg

[Mr. Kobayashi]

After hanging around a few NHS hospitals lately I can tell you that the outfit linked in the OP would never be allowed. There are loads of signs around the place reminding staff that you should be naked from the elbows down, with reason.
"
Our clinical staff are now required to be "naked from the elbow down" when examining patients so that they can hand wash - and wrist wash - more effectively without cuffs and watches getting in the way. That means that a well-dressed doctor no longer wears a jacket and tie or white coat, but has his/her shirt sleeves rolled up. See also: Infection Control."
http://www.sdhct.nhs.uk/choosetorbay...saferpatients/

[Ethilrist]

Originally Posted by Lynn Bodoni

Speaking from experience, capes are not as warm as coats and jackets, but they are easier to take off or put on (especially without assistance), and don't need to be sized very accurately. If you're going to hand out a cape, you don't have to worry about if the wearer is a size 4 or a size 16, it's likely to fit the wearer. Can't do that with a coat or jacket. It's also easier to drive and get into and out of cars in a cape.

I don't wear a nurse's cape, but I do wear other sorts of capes and shawls and ruanas.

You would also not have to worry about getting them caught in revolving doors or jet engines.

I am all in favor of nurses wearing capes. They are heroes, after all.

[Bridget Burke]

Vera Brittain's memoir of nursing in WWI, Testament of Youth, is being made into a film starring Saoirse Ronan. This article uses a picture from the excellent 1979 BBC series.

Country Joe McDonald served in the Navy before psychedelia hit. Since those days, he's been a veterans' advocate--not always a popular cause in Berkeley. He's also become interested in military nursing--then just nursing. Here's his collection of nurse dolls!

(He's an interesting guy. Did you know that 2012 is the Woody Guthrie Centennial?)