| If you ask a first grade class to describe a nurse, | | | | to shoes. |
| they'll almost invariably describe a lady wearing a | | | | The nurses cap has a unique history of its own. |
| white uniform and a 'nurses' hat'. White dresses and | | | | Beginning as a modified nun's coif, it was both |
| starched caps are still an icon, even after thirty years | | | | functional and symbolic - functional in that it kept hair |
| of nurses turning to less distinctive and more | | | | out of the way, and symbolic of the status of the |
| comfortable, functional clothing. | | | | nurse as an 'Angel of Mercy'. As time went on, |
| In the earliest days of nursing, there was no uniform. | | | | however, many hospitals began to modify the nurses |
| Florence Nightingale, who was greatly responsible for | | | | cap into fanciful shapes and folded patterns. The |
| defining the profession of nursing in the 1800s, is | | | | white cap was often decorated with a colored stripe |
| often credited with having established the importance | | | | to indicate a nurse's level of training and position |
| of nurses wearing uniforms. When she headed the | | | | within the hospital hierarchy. |
| nursing units during the Crimean War, her nurses | | | | In the 1970s, nurses began to demand a voice in the |
| wore dark gray, full-length dresses covered by white | | | | clothing that they wore to work. Starched caps and |
| aprons to distinguish them from other female camp | | | | white dresses and hose were impractical and difficult |
| followers. | | | | to work in, many complained. White dresses gave |
| Most nursing uniforms of the 1800s seem to have | | | | way to white tunics and pants, and eventually to |
| been based on the attire worn by most female | | | | colored uniforms and nurses scrubs. According to |
| household servants - modest dresses covered with | | | | many critics, the move away from white nurses' |
| aprons. It was not until the late 1800s, with their | | | | uniforms is confusing for patients and makes it |
| emphasis on sterility and cleanliness, that white | | | | difficult to pick out the nurses from other hospital |
| became the color of choice for nurses uniforms. And | | | | staff. Many hospitals are reinstating all white nurses |
| while we often think of 'nurses uniforms' as being - | | | | uniforms - and turning to designers to come up with |
| well, uniform - the truth is that nearly every hospital | | | | stylish, functional and comfortable designs. For lovers |
| designed its own nursing uniforms, from starched cap | | | | of nurses uniforms, that's great news! |