Go to any modern hospital in this day and age and it's hardto tell the nurse from the technicians from the assistants and cafeteriaworkers. They all wear scrubs! Some hospitals assign different color or patternof scrubs so patients can readily identify the professional or what they do,but others just require scrubs and practical shoes. This certainly isn't theway nurses began.
Florence Nightingale
The first nurses were nuns in the middle ages who assistedphysicians (often priests) and helped the sick and dying through the auspicesof the church. They wore traditional robes and nun's habits as they tended thesick. When Florence Nightingale clarified nursing as a medical professional in 1851 she wanted a uniform that honored the nuns who had established the ideal.Nursing uniforms because a white robe with a blue cap and a white cap to honorthe nuns head wear. This nursing standard would be in effect until World War I.
Nurses in Battle
During World War I the American Red Cross supplied most of thebattlefield nurses and clothed them in the uniform of the Red Cross - a whiteblouse and skirt and smaller cap that was more able to allow the nurse to workwithout concern for her clothing. The cape was discarded as it made it harderfor the nurses to work in tight quarters and in the field. The blouse had thetraditional Red Cross on the back and was tucked into the skirt. After the warwhen nurses went back to clinics and hospitals, they took the new uniform stylewith them and started a look that would be in effect until the 1960's.
Equal Rights Hits Nursing
The white cap with the red stripe (to honor the Red Crossand its efforts for the nursing profession) along with a pure white dress orwhite blouse and skirt had been the standard for almost 40 years when women'sliberation and the equality movement found its way into health care.
Some nurses felt the cap made them feel inferior to othermedical staff - particularly doctors. Others felt it honored a valuable pastand wanted to keep it. Nursing han changed from being a bedpan and hand holding profession to a highly technical skill involving IV's, drug administration andfirst line of care duties. Nurses began to feel that the cap and dress was notappropriate for professionals.
By 1980, the cap was optional, although each nurse was givenone upon graduation. In the 1990's the nursing dress/skirt also became optionaland by 1995 had been replaced almost entirely by scrubs.
The Fun
Nurses found scrubs easier to move in, work in it and made themfeel less like a sex symbol and more like a medical professional. Coloredscrubs began to be used when it was discovered patients responded positively tothe soothing colors and fun prints, and now nursing scrubs come in many shapes,sizes and styles.
From an army of women who all looked the same to theindividuality of cartoon printed scrubs, nursing uniforms have come a long wayas well as the professionals who wore them.
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