Recently, 107 nurses in Zhongshan Nanlang Hospital took off their dovetail caps and donned new nurse uniforms to welcome the New Year with a brand-new look and attitude.

In 1928, at the 9th National Nurses' Congress, Ms Lin Sixin, who graduated from Beiping Union Senior Nursing School, was the first person to propose that nurses should wear the same uniforms. As a result, the dovetail cap became the official nurse cap in China.

"At present, it has become a trend at home and abroad for nurses to work without caps." Huang Lijuan, director of the Nursing Department of Nanlang Branch, said that there were many disadvantages of wearing a dovetail cap during the actual work. For example, if the caps cannot be cleaned frequently, it is easy for them to get dirty, thus increasing the risk of disease transmission.

Huang Lijuan said that nurses in the hospital have taken off their dovetail caps and put on hairnets instead. And the original pink nurse skirts have also been changed into separated uniforms with white lapels.

At present, nurses in half of the 28 public hospitals in Zhongshan have already taken off their dovetail caps. However, in some intensive care units and other special departments, nurses are still required to wear disposable medical caps when performing traumatic examination and surgical assistance on patients.