What Happened to the Nurse's Cap?
For generations, it topped off nurses' uniforms -- a symbol of pride and accomplishment for a new healer.
But infection control dictated that nurses stop wearing caps in the 1980s, according to Lynn Brock, nurse manager at Hackley Hospital and a 1975 graduate of the hospital's nursing school.
"It was one of the rites of passage to get your first stripe (on the cap)," Brock said. "As a senior, you earned two stripes."
Louanne Utzinger, coordinator of Early On for the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District and a 1969 graduate of Hackley School of Nursing, recalled that her capping exercise was held at First Congregational Church.
"Getting the cap and pin was quite an honor," she said.
The pin symbolizes Florence Nightingale and depicts a ceramic lamp with a candle.
Participants in the capping ceremony also received a small white Bible from the Gideons, according to Utzinger. The Bible was especially meaningful to Utzinger, whose grandparents were Gideons.
"My grandmother was ill with cancer but gave me the Bible at home," Utzinger said. "I carried it on my wedding day -- I was very proud to do that."
For Utzinger, the small Bible was representative of the tenets of nursing: mind, body, soul and spirit.
The cap also was an important symbol. It was so dear to her that she has a tiny nurse's cap and an RN charm on her bracelet.
"You worked very hard for that cap," said Darlene Smith, a 1960 graduate of Hackley School of Nursing. "It was really something to get it."
Reprinted with permission from the Muskegon Chronicle
