What are nurses headdress called?

Answer 1

The headgear worn by nurses back in Florence Nightingale's day and still today is called a cap, or nurses' cap.

Nurses' caps were originally designed to keep the hair in place; famous illustrations from Nightingale's time, in the 1800s show nurses wearing these caps. The origin of the style came from nuns' habits, nuns of course being traditionally the earliest leaders of the nursing profession, and the entire nurses' uniform, including the cap, was intended to represent professionalism (not previously altogether evident among lay nurses until Nightingale's time) and also for ease of laundering.

Up until the mid-to-late twentieth century, nurses' caps were a very visible part of the hierarchy in the profession, with junior students starting off with a plain style which became increasingly elaborate or more highly-styled as the student progressed from one level to the next, in a similar way to the status shown by the habit worn by each particular level of nun. The particular level a nurse had attained was instantly identifiable by the headgear.

Caps have remained widely in use, but in many areas were more or less discontinued by the 1990s for reasons, it was said, of hygiene, which appears illogical; more probably for fashion and status reasons. Nurses' caps have remained in continual use by the military of many countries.

With the increase in the proportion of men entering the profession, the nurses' cap also came to be considered somewhat redundant, and the entire uniform was in some places replaced by theatre-style scrubs.

More traditional nurses' caps have been and are being reintroduced in some hospitals, mainly for women and for identification purposes, but also because they are considered to look smart and attractive as part of a uniform.