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

[Ethilrist]

@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?)