Registered Nurse

Registered Nurse (RN) is the U.S. term for a licensed professional nurse. In hospitals where nurses wear uniforms with caps, an R.N. is recognizable by the fact that the cap has two black stripes.

See also nurse, nursing.

Ha! That photo must be at least 30 years old! Allow me to clarify: 1) Nurses in the U.S. do not wear caps any longer (much less short white dresses and stockings). Caps tended to fall off at inopportune moments (as when doing CPR) and were difficult to clean. They quickly became yellowed and unpleasant-appearing if one did not spend an inordinate amount of time bleaching and starching. 2) When caps were standard, each school had different practices with regard to the color and number of stripes. Some used blue stripes, other black, and others dark purple. In some cases, stripes were not applied until after graduation, in other cases, one stripe was used as a student, and a second applied after graduation.

Consider the above a history lesson.