A history of nursing uniforms
Before the 19th century, nursing was just another chore or daily duty for women. Whether at home or on the streets, women have always used their nurturing dispositions and instinctive nursing and healing skills to comfort and, in some cases, heal the sick and injured.
At home, women cared for their own children and attended the births of other children. In a time before hospitals, everyone could benefit from some knowledge of first aid and midwifery.
On the streets, single women often traveled through poor districts where families could not afford a doctor’s visit at home and provided services free of charge on behalf of the local or city health center.
In the 19th century, these nurses wore a servant’s uniform, with a white ruffled or banded cap and a long patterned gown with a white apron. Some nurses began working for wealthy households, but most nurses, as a profession, still hit the streets. Therefore, nursing was not highly respected for some time. The nurses of the time contributed quite a bit to their own bad reputation. Without families, they often spent nights in their quarters or on hospital grounds drinking and partying.
By the 1840s, district nurses had become more common and began to gain some respect. Somewhat skilled nurses working for the local or city board of health wore a more feminine and sometimes matronly version of a maid’s outfit.
Since it was important for these newly trained nurses to be recognized on the street, a system of indoor and outdoor uniforms was devised. When nurses walked the streets (or rode motorcycles!) in the slums, they wore warm capes, coats, and hats, and changed into their pretty white “indoor” hats and aprons.
By 1880, the work of Florence Nightingale had made nursing a more reputable occupation and established an educational system for nurses. They had to have different uniforms to separate them from the common untrained women who acted as helpers for the military or in the few hospitals.
A hat and sash system was devised to identify nurses of different ranks. Depending on the school, a nurse would start with bands of pink, blue, or another type of pastel ribbon, and work her way up to a band of black ribbon. One trainee didn’t even have a hat until she had undergone three months of training. And even then, her hat could be revoked for bad behavior, like smoking in the hospital. In the future, this rank system would help take the hats out of the elegance of the uniform. The practice of using them for discipline would eventually be considered cruel.
By the turn of the century, the uniform began to be further differentiated from servants’ clothing. The dress’s chest and neckline were given more detail (pockets, button-down style bodice, pointed collars), a bib draped over the torso and was gathered at the waist with an apron underneath. The main dress fabric was solid. This new tailored look was in stark contrast to the shapeless apron and dress worn by the common servant.
The hats begin to show the influence of the nuns’ coifs, which gave the nursing uniform a borrowed look of respectability. However, the two professions were sometimes conflated, and the sisters/nurses actually had some of the most amazingly designed and staggeringly large nursing hats ever seen.
At the start of World War I, functionality became the most important feature of the nurse’s uniform. The war brought untold numbers of casualties to the nurses’ tents, and care had to be fast and efficient. Bulky aprons sometimes disappeared altogether, and the neatness of the appearance faded away. Shorter skirts for better mobility and short or rolled-up sleeves became the norm.
The combination of this need for functionality and the desire to maintain a feminine appearance in the uniform produced, after the wars, the best known, and probably the most attractive and useful nurse uniform in history, that we think of when we imagine a nurse. .
Between the world wars and the brief period of prosperity of the 1930s, nursing fashion began to imitate fashion in general. Nursing was a popular profession for women at the time, and magazines and newspapers were constantly calling for new recruits. Women had recently entered the workforce in significant numbers, and for a young woman, nursing was an attractive and exciting option compared to, say, typing or sewing. It was a steady job, and what nice clothes he wore!
In the 1950s, hats as ranking identifiers began to lose importance, as the system was believed to lower morale among pupils. The hat was also considered feminine, and by no longer requiring it, hospitals hope to attract more male trainees. Uniforms became less starchy and even less complex: bigger hospitals meant more patients and faster paces and the laundry couldn’t keep up. Simple folded hats and paper hats replaced crown-shaped caps, and more comfortable, less-fitting designs for dresses appeared. Everything had to be washed and used.
By the end of the 1970s, the hat had almost completely disappeared in the US. The new trend in nursing fashion, scrubs, comes on the scene (for men anyway). The uniforms began to look more like regular clothing, or in some cases, like doctor’s coats. Hospitals had begun employing aids and candy scrapers, and nursing staff did not wish to appear in uniform as these untrained employees were required to do.
Today the differentiation between nurses, doctors, staff, etc. it is only denoted by accessories and identification tags. In most US hospitals, scrubs are worn by everyone at all times to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Doctors wear scrubs, nurses can sometimes wear a warm-up jacket, but mostly men and women, doctors and support staff alike, wear some shade or pattern of loose drawstring pants and V-neck T-shirts. In Britain, uniforms are more widely used in nursing, and doctors still wear their own clothing outside of the operating room.
Today’s scrubs are available in hundreds of styles, colors, and designs. Whether you’re a woman who wants a fitted look, a nurse who prefers a darker-colored wardrobe than what your hospital has to offer, or a nurse who wants to brighten a patient’s day with a whimsical pattern, the vast resources of nursing clothes available on the internet today are sure to offer even the most fashionable nurses everything they need to create the perfect nursing wardrobe.