Feb 04
Since the nursing profession grew to become a lot more established, around 150 years back, these wonderful women and men who commit themselves to assisting other folks have been viewed in very high reverence. Whenever we are unfortunate enough to be admitted to a healthcare facility somewhere we’re really grateful for everything that they are doing. There is something quite calming if you see your health worker sporting that recognisable uniform. These days, these types of uniforms are functional and made for a particular intention and most of the time individuals who have to wear them do not mind so much. Yet, it’s not always been like that and if we take a look back through history we can start to ponder to ourselves – just what were they thinking about?
Authorities must have had some kind of motivation or system when they designed health care uniforms in decades gone by. But, for example, we wonder what the motivation was when it comes to the muffin cap? In the turn of the twentieth century nurses were required to wear these types of caps which they despised greatly, evidently. They were meant to support the nurse’s hair together at the top of the head and needed to be located precariously on top. About the very same time nurses uniforms were far more elaborate and presumptuous as compared to these days. The nurse needed to wear a really complex petticoat as well as an apron on top of the dress and quite often needed to wear a pointed hat, as well.
It was not until the 1940s and fifties that uniforms seemed to become more sensible and functional. All those heavy aprons faded away in preference to the earlier version of the uniform dresses we may even see nowadays.
Nowadays we pay special attention to effective hygiene and cleanliness and understand how important it is any time a nurse needs to care for many different patients at a time. These days, nurses tunics are designed above all to ensure safety, whilst also being functional and comfortable when you have to use them, frequently for fairly long work days. We can be certain that quite a few “modern day” nurses, any time looking back through history, are pleased that progress has been made!