Nursing Uniforms Through History

Until recently, uniform colors reflected the nurse’s level of skill and experience. Young volunteers, of course, often wore red-and-white “candy striper” uniforms. A graduate nurse might have a subtle stripe across the cuff or hem or else sport a solid-color rather than striped apron. Darker colors, or black, signified seniority, usually indicating a supervisor.

Wartime Wear

Early nurses’ uniforms demonstrated now-archaic notions of disease control. Florence Nightingale recognized the need for cleanliness, but not for gloves or masks. Nightingale thought that aprons, tight cuffs and high collars would protect against wafting “miasmic emanations,” a popular 19th century concept of infectious disease prior to the acceptance of germ theory and the discovery of viruses.

These fashions also coincided with contemporary ideals of womanly virtue, which kept nurses’ collars closed and their skirts sweeping the floor until the mid-20th century.

The demands of military nursing drove many later changes in nurses’ uniforms. Army and Navy nurses required easily laundered clothing that would allow them to work in conditions far less tidy and organized than the average urban hospital.

A need for greater flexibility combined with wartime material shortages led to shorter, less voluminous uniforms and sometimes even trousers. Nurses aboard a hospital ship or working in a permanent clinic wore traditional white, but in the field, military nurses’ uniforms were often closer to a soldier’s fatigues than a nun’s habit. Big pockets remained, but military nurses’ boots were anything but ladylike!

A Cap for Each College

Although the veil persisted well into the 20th century in some countries, here in America, nurses never depended on veils to protect their hair or keep it out of the patient’s bed. Instead, tight buns and caps corralled locks somewhere out of harm’s way.

The cap was held in place by white bobby pins — that is, until an IV pole or curtain rod unceremoniously knocked it off.

The various caps told the story of where the nurse had trained. Each school had its own style: a frilly little muffin cup known as the “Bellevue fluff”; the unforgettable winged caps of the Sisters of Charity; or the face-framing bonnets of the Sisters of Bon Secours. Capping ceremonies marked a young nurse’s achievement and entry into the profession.

White Shoes and Stockings

White silk stockings or nylons were also part of the look — and were sure to snag or run within the first few wearings. Until the advent of the running shoe as professional attire, most nurses endured stiff leather footwear with unyielding hard soles. Usually, white Clinic-brand shoes completed the nurse’s ensemble.

Nurses could spend an entire break period in conversations about how to keep those shoes white. Should you use Hollywood Sani-White or snow-white Shu-Milk shoe polish? Chlorine bleach or peroxide for the laces? Today’s colorful clogs and Crocs were far in the future and would have been unacceptable in most hospitals.

Oh So Practical Modern Scrubs

By the 1960s, many things had changed. Uniforms began to follow more closely the trends in popular civilian clothing. Nurses’ uniforms were now cute, figure-flattering and typically of a nurse’s own choosing (so long as they were white).

Hats had disappeared for the most part by the mid-1970s. Around the same time, above-the-knee skirts took hold. Also in the ‘70s, increasing male participation in the profession helped boost a brief vogue for pantsuits.

The now-familiar scrubs began to appear in the ‘80s and gradually became more common throughout the ‘90s. Today, they’re ubiquitous and offer many advantages. Scrubs are gender-neutral, comfortable in every setting, machine-washable and available in a wide array of styles and colors.

One downside: Everyone looks alike, from kitchen worker to doctor, with only color or perhaps lab coats to distinguish departments and levels of hierarchy. Few of us would ever want to go back to the uncomfortable, cumbersome white uniforms of my grandmother’s era, but they did have one thing to recommend them: Back then, you could recognize nurses by something other than their ID badges.

ELIZABETH HANINK, RN, BSN, PHN, is a Working Nurse staff writer with extensive hospital and community-based nursing experience.

In this Article: Historical Nurses