All Wedding Dresses

By Shaun Parker

Nursing in the past was just an extra chore given to women and there was no proper uniform, by the 19th century, most nurse uniforms were a simple servants uniform. Most wore a white cap and a long dress with a white apron. Wealthier people were able to afford a nurse for their household but a lot of the nursing business was just managed on the streets. This meant that the whole profession was not that respected but this eventually changed.

The nurse’s tunic has changed throughout history, when nurses gradually got recognised for their work their servant uniform evolved and became more feminine than just the regular servant uniform. It became apparent that a proper uniform needed to be designed for nurses so that they could be recognised for when they were needed. This uniform evolved to a cloak and a hat, which would change indoors to a smaller hat and a white apron.

Florence Nightingale had a massive impact on the nursing profession and she devised the idea of a training scheme for nurses and ones that attended were expected to wear a uniform to separate them from women that had never had training. This brought a hat and band scheme which separated nurses depending on how much training they had been given. In terms of the uniform a nurse would not even be given a hat until she had completed three months of training. Yet it was also used as a form of discipline, as a nurse that misbehaved would have her hat confiscated.

The need for a nurse’s uniform to be both functional came from the war, a heavy apron that got in the way was not practical. A skirt was easier for movement and sleeves needed to either be short or rolled up so that they were not in the way for any medical procedures. The want for both function and a lady-like image created the most impact on the design of a nurse’s uniform historically. When considering a nurse stereotype this image of a post-war nurse is commonly seen.

It was during the world wars that the nurse’s uniform evolved the most to the nurse’s tunics we recognise today in hospitals. The nursing profession became almost trendy and a popular job for females at that particular time. Nursing was seen as a safe job to go for as there was guaranteed work and the good clothes were seen a bonus too.

By the end of the seventies the hat on the nurse and nearly disappeared completely from their uniform. Uniforms began to look more like a doctor’s coat and scrubs became available for male nurses. Nurses did not wish to look like they were wearing uniform as within the hospitals voluntary untrained helpers were asked to wear a uniform and they wished to be more distinguished.

Today, nurses, doctors and hospital staff are mainly all in the same uniform, the only difference usually being their name tag. Within American hospitals most staff wear scrubs to stop the spreading of illnesses. In the UK however, the nursing uniform does still exist and doctors tend to wear their own clothes with a white jacket over the top. Nurse’s often wear trousers with a nurse’s tunic over the top to create a professional and clean uniform within the health service.

About The Author

Shaun Parker is a fashion expert with many years of experience in uniforms. Find out more about nurses tunics at http://www.matrixuniforms.co.uk