Putting a Cap on It

Early in our nurse’s training, we were assigned practical hands-on learning classes in a nearby nursing home. We were required to correctly change bed linens, give patient care, pass medications, and properly chart. Why does nursing education start with the elderly? Do they think that if a student nurse should make a mistake… well they’re old, right?

After we were there for several weeks and the routine became more comfortable, one of the nurses allowed her mind to wander and asked me, “Where is your nursing cap?’

Female nurses were required to wear caps. You could distinguish from which school a nurse graduated by the cap she wore. Men weren’t required to wear the cumbersome caps.

I replied, “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask the dean of nursing.”

She didn’t say a word, but disappeared only to return a few minutes later. She’d gone to the kitchen and returned with an institutional sized coffee filter, and used several white bobby pins to secure it to my hair. Yes, I had hair then.

It was nearing the end of the shift. The other students and the nursing home’s residents thought that it was funny, so I kept the “cap” on my head until the end of class. It wasn’t a big deal and if it brightened the elderly residents’ day while keeping the female students from fussing at me to a minimum, it was worth it. If I would have complained and made a big deal out of wearing my “nursing cap,” I would have quickly become the target of harassment from the female students. From my hitch in the Navy, I learned that it was always easier to laugh and go along with the joke than making a big stink and complain about it.

At the next class session in the nursing home, I arrived bare headed. Immediately I was confronted by the female students, “Where is your nursing cap?”

Thinking quickly, I replied, “You know, it got dirty. I washed it last night and it fell apart.”

They laughed and shook their heads at my wise crack, then walked away.

I’d dodged the bullet. By using a bit of humor, I escaped being teased about not wearing a coffee filter for a second day.