Don't nurse students get to wear the old nurses ...

It is rumored that they became passe. Like the dodo and the McRib.

People don't take pride in their professions anymore, possibly because most employers don't provide workplaces that one can warm up to and develop any feelings of belonging.  Nowadays, it's more important to be comfortable than to wear a stuffy uniform.  Of course, it's not real reassuring for the patients, when the nurses look like a bunch of casual-Friday slobs.

Male nurses are a large part of the profession now.  The hats were for the "women only" generation.

John is correct in that nursing caps are no longer worn due to the increasing   presence of men in nursing. Men used to wear "shoulder boards" - epaulettes which fastened to the shoulder seams of their uniforms and carried the same black ribbon horizontally as the caps did. These were dropped as appearing "too military" back in the 70's. Caps went out of use shortly after, partly because of more advanced equipment and the increasing use of multiple IV lines in which the caps became tangled. In addition, many nurses did not remove their caps when leaving the hospital for lunch. The caps became another source of infection when a nurse would bend over a patient to change a dressing, for example. In the 1950's nursing uniforms were often worm several times, hung separately from other clothing. Caps were not usually washed, and were worn until they required replacing. In an effort to contain the arising "super infections', easily washable clothing (permanent press, not cotton or linen which required ironing and starching to maintian a crisp appearance and which was worn up until the mid-60's) led to the adoption of scrubs as an inexpensive, gender-neutral, comfortable and  modest uniform. I shudder when remembering attempting to do CPR in a skirt up on a stretcher with the world able to see my slip, etc. Give me scrubs any day. Nursing has changed, and what we wear must allow us to focus on the patients, not ourselves, and to protect them from infectious agents by being easily washable. When I lecture at our local senior center, I wear a white uniform with a skirt and my cap. Those who are elderly remember it as a powerful symbol and love it. But in my office or instructing on the Trauma Unit of our local medical center, I wear scrubs and no cap at all. It's safer for the patients. As for "everyone wears scrubs', I clearly identify myself as a nurse practitioner and professor. And when I have been a patient, I ask just as clearly for the title of anyone who cares for me if they do not offer it. Caps are romantic and I love them - still have mine! - but they have no place in a modern hospital