Is your workplace haunted?

[wooh]

In the spirit of Halloween, wondering if anyone else works on a haunted unit?

I've been told we have a ghost in the wall of a room that weans oxygen. By morning, patient is no longer on O2, but neither the nurse, the respiratory therapist, or the family/patient did it.

We also have a door that rattles. People try to tell me that it's just air currents going around the hallway that does it, but that story isn't nearly as fun as the thought that ghosts are doing it.

And after a patient died, all the computer hard drives on our floor started going bad one by one. There are theories that his ghost went from computer to computer...

[RNMeg]

We had a crazy occurrence in my ICU. We have windows between our patient rooms so that, if we are in patient #1's room, we can see the patient and monitor in room #2. All nurses are familiar, I assume, with the practice of opening a window after someone passes so their spirit can escape the room? And sometimes we open them early to "encourage" patients whose bodies are done but their spirits hold on? Well, we had one such patient.. but we neglected to open his window. He passed late one night, and at the moment of his passing, the glass between his room and the next shattered. We never forget to open windows anymore.

[artsmom, BSN, LPN]

At my current place, there is no room 13. It hours 12, 12s, 14.

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

In regards to room superstitions...we have a room 13, but it's rooms 14, 19 and 20 that are the ones to avoid...for whatever reason those rooms have all of the crazy patients, or the patients who will code on you.

Our workplace is supposedly haunted. We have employees who have seen a black figure with glowing red eyes...and also a white figure with glowing red eyes. Patients have seen these figures, too. I haven't seen anything...only witnessed TVs coming on and call lights randomly going off in unoccupied rooms...

[LakeEmerald]

Hello,

I did med/surg clinicals at a medium-sized rural hospital in GA during my 2nd semester of nursing school. I was assessing a middle-aged female pt, can't recall her diagnosis now, but she was in a private room. During the assessment, which was going fine, the patient suddenly looked off to the side and said, "Can you hear him? He's whispering in my ear. Can you hear him?" Thinking she was "off" (which she probably was), I asked, "which ear?" She indicated her left ear and said and kept insisting, "Can you hear him? Can you hear him?"

I stood up, and stated, "Maybe your BP is up. Let's check it." (Swishing in ear - could have sounded like whispering?) I started toward the rolling monitor. There was a sudden slam. The nearby 6 ft cabinet, which is used to hold pt property and hang clothes, had opened about 2 inches and slammed shut. I immediately approached the cabinet and opened the door. It was empty. Pt stared at me. We had both heard it. I said something about construction going on in the hospital (didn't say it was in the far opposite wing), took the BP (it was fine) and sat back down to finish the assessment. Pt remained quiet about voices. My clinical mind wrote the incident off to the construction, and I suppose that was the cause, but I sometimes still wonder about that door...

[itsnowornever, BSN, RN]

Right after having my son (I was 23) I developed a very severe case of pneumonia and was placed in ICU. I spent most of the week sleeping (of course) but would have horrible night mares every night. One night I was AWAKE just relaxing and I saw a man walk in, turn off my oxygen (without it I couldn't breathe) look at me, say goodbye, and walk out of the room. I started pounding the call light and of course began to panic. The nurse rushed in, looked at my oxygen and asked why I had turned it off, turned it back on made sure it was fitting right and asked if I was ok (she could see I was freaking out). I told her that an old man had walked in, turned it off said goodbye and walked out---by this point I was in TEARS. I felt more assaulted than anything and panicked that some stranger could walk in, turn off my O2 and no one saw!!!! She was shocked, and said NO ONE had come into my room, she was watching it while charting. I was insisting that had happened, I knew what I saw. I described the man to her and her face turned white. She told him a man who looked like that had passed a few nights ago in the room next to mine.

[mindyfromcali]

In my first place I worked at it was haunted for sure. I never actually saw a ghost, but I could feel a presence in one of the bathrooms of a room. I'd worked all three shifts at one time or another (CNA here) and was doing rounds as usual, but for the first time on night shift in this one particular room. I'm getting water to change an incontinent patient, and all of a sudden as I turn the water on I can feel the walls closing in on me. I went to a different room and got the water after disinfecting the faucet. Went back to the nurses' station and asked some people how they feel about that room at night and I'm not alone.

Now I work at a facility across the street from that one, and one of the nurses used to work at the same place in the above story. She said she quit and moved to the one we're at now because her friends were dying off one each year, three years in a row, all nurses. She told me about a dark hooded figure that had been seen going into the bathroom inside the breakroom during night shift, and that's why no one eats in there past a certain hour. I've heard that story too, never seen it myself, but kind of weird hearing it more than once after a few years. Apparently, the figure goes into the bathroom and never comes out. People go in there looking for it and it's gone.

Happy Halloween :)

[BelindaOKretired]

I travellled with several Nurses from Oklahoma to a small KansasHospital when I first started as an LPN. We were there 6 weeks, and had rooms available there so I picked a room downstairs in the basement, had a shower across the hall and an activity room next to it, so I could work a large puzzle I had bought for all of us.

The Hospital was originally a Catholic Hospital,ran by Nuns..but now was just a small community hospital with at most sometimes up to 6 patients IF we were busy, so we had 12 hour shifts on two to three days then off two to three days. Needless to say a lot of spare time.

Well I never felt comfortable in the basement, it was as if someone was always watching me, even in the wee hours as I wrorked on the puzzle,..I had started to listen to music with headphones but continuously had to throw them off because I kept hearing loud groans and other noises, so I moved up stairs after just two nights.

The laundry facilities were downstairs, past the activity room, and down a very long hall with lots of doors on the left, which out of habit my friend would always turn the knobs of each one as we went towards the laundry to make sure they were all locked.( she refused to go down there alone so we always did our laundry together)

Well, we finished folding and started back through the long hall and she was laughing nervously and carryin on and checking the door knobs and I asked her "what would you do if one opened" and she said "oh, I know they're all locked we just checked them", and about that time sure enough the next door the knob turn as she checked it and the door opened...she screamed, threw her laundry up into the air and RAN screaming ahead of me..I couldn't stop laughing as the chills ran through me inside and out..I was frozen there for a minute.. and she called out "HURRY UP YOU IDIOT!"

Later she swore I did it and I had to explain to her "No because I have NO keys and you know it" We both ended up sharing a room upstairs before the 6 weeks were over because of all the rattling, footsteps, and shadows we saw up and down stairs,..we couldn't wait to get home!

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

I worked in a very old LTC once. Three "halls". The sickest/oldest/heaviest care residents were always placed on the south hall. The rooms were darker. The corridor was darker. More death occurred there than any other part of the building.

The linen closet for the entire building was at the end of that hall.

Late at night, when the lights were out, I hated to walk down that hall. Dreaded it. I felt like the air was heavy, and I was being watched by something I couldn't see.

I never saw a ghost. I never heard anything that led me to believe there were ghosts. I just FELT them.

[Poochiewoochie]

What happens if the rooms don't have windows you can open-what happens to the spirits-do they stay in the hospitals? I say this because the hospital I was in earlier this year had ones that didn't open-it was climate controlled.

Pretty good stories-it would be pretty obvious that hospitals, LTC and NH would be haunted because of the deaths that occur in them.

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

An elderly, completely bedbound woman was brought into our hospital from the nursing home. She was contracted, and had been living at the nursing home for many years. She was also aphasic. This old woman, who had not spoken or sat up by herself for years, suddenly sat bolt upright in the bed and started screaming "Fire! Fire!." She then died, but no effort was made to resusitate her as we had made her a DNR. When we recounted this episode to the nursing home staff, we were told that many years ago this woman had been accused of murdering her child, but it couldn't be proven. (This really isn't a ghost story, but thought I'd share it.)

[BlueDevil,DNP, DNP, RN]

I don't believe in any of that. I believe in science. So my answer is no.

[Poochiewoochie]

I don't believe in any of that. I believe in science. So my answer is no.

There are some things science can't explain. Everyone who sees a ghost is not crazy as non believers believe.

There is an old saying-for those who believe no explanation is necessary and for those who don't believe no explanation is possible.