Many, but not all, nurses' caps had
coloured bands which indicated level of training. At the Hamilton
and District Regional School of Nursing, for example, first year
students wore white bands
(1999.267.35), second year
students, pink bands
(1999.267.37),
and graduates, black bands
(1999.267.36).
Black invariably indicated the
graduate nurse, while other colours were used to indicate the
first and second year of training. Some say that the black band
was introduced as a memorial to Florence Nightingale. The use of
bands may also have had its origin in the bands or stripes on
military uniforms, and certainly the graduate black had a military
look. But interestingly, undergraduate colours such as pink,
turquoise or yellow were more traditionally feminine.
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