Discussion of the history and images of nurses' caps.
The Art of Nursing
The Art of Nursing
Saturday, July 16, 2011
So well said
In my constant search for information about nurses' caps I came across an article and I just loved the closing quote . Bonnie Miller, an RN at the Sandra and Malcolm Berman Brain & Spine Institute: “I may never wear [my cap], but I earned it.”
So well stated - it certainly was something one could only acquire legitimately by a lot of devotion, studying, and much hard work! Yes, you could - and still can - purchase them from several sources, even now, but just buying one (or a hundred) doesn't make them really "yours". They must be earned in order to be truly your own. I have mine, and yes, I earned that bit of stiff, white, "PermaStarched" cotton blend fabric, held together not just by two white plastic cap tacks, but also dreams, determination, and hard work. The light blue velvet band across the left corner of my cap is an additional sign of more hard work, many hours in class, in clinicals working with real patients, and in libraries, studying out of actual books, nursing and medical journals, medical encyclopedias, dictionaries (every Nurse knows - or should know - Tabers! My husband, bless his heart, bought me my very own copy of that venerable resource, out of his pocket for my birthday the first year I was in school, and I still have it, and we were far from well-to-do then) and other sources of knowledge. No computers,😱 no Internet,😣 no electronic anything back then. Even my typewriter wasn't electric - it is a gray, office sized manual machine, and weighs a TON! Many reports and projects were the end result of putting all those things together! (That, and WiteOut, carbon paper, and lots of typing paper!) And from them, the grades that kept that beautiful white cap on my head, and added the blue band later on. If you're not from the times of all whites, nurses caps, hose, and spotless, polished Clinics or other brands and styles of "all white, leather Nurses shoes ONLY" - (NO "sneakers" or athletics allowed!) somehow I don't think you'll ever quite "get it" where those things are concerned. A few do, and seem to long for those things, as others seem to long for "The Good Old Days" but most don't really see how very important those things were to the rest of us, and most are grateful they don't have to "deal with" all their inconveniences, but it's just what we did, because it's a small part of what made the profession what it was at the time. Every era and every profession has its inconveniences, but if you're truly meant to be part of it, you deal with them so you can continue being a part of it.
So well stated - it certainly was something one could only acquire legitimately by a lot of devotion, studying, and much hard work!
ReplyDeleteYes, you could - and still can - purchase them from several sources, even now, but just buying one (or a hundred) doesn't make them really "yours". They must be earned in order to be truly your own.
I have mine, and yes, I earned that bit of stiff, white, "PermaStarched" cotton blend fabric, held together not just by two white plastic cap tacks, but also dreams, determination, and hard work. The light blue velvet band across the left corner of my cap is an additional sign of more hard work, many hours in class, in clinicals working with real patients, and in libraries, studying out of actual books, nursing and medical journals, medical encyclopedias, dictionaries (every Nurse knows - or should know - Tabers! My husband, bless his heart, bought me my very own copy of that venerable resource, out of his pocket for my birthday the first year I was in school, and I still have it, and we were far from well-to-do then) and other sources of knowledge. No computers,😱 no Internet,😣 no electronic anything back then. Even my typewriter wasn't electric - it is a gray, office sized manual machine, and weighs a TON! Many reports and projects were the end result of putting all those things together! (That, and WiteOut, carbon paper, and lots of typing paper!) And from them, the grades that kept that beautiful white cap on my head, and added the blue band later on.
If you're not from the times of all whites, nurses caps, hose, and spotless, polished Clinics or other brands and styles of "all white, leather Nurses shoes ONLY" - (NO "sneakers" or athletics allowed!) somehow I don't think you'll ever quite "get it" where those things are concerned. A few do, and seem to long for those things, as others seem to long for "The Good Old Days" but most don't really see how very important those things were to the rest of us, and most are grateful they don't have to "deal with" all their inconveniences, but it's just what we did, because it's a small part of what made the profession what it was at the time. Every era and every profession has its inconveniences, but if you're truly meant to be part of it, you deal with them so you can continue being a part of it.