What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?

Nurses General Nursing Nursing Q/A

Nursing is a profession that often involves long lonely night shifts in eerie hospital wards. It's a perfect breeding ground for ghost stories. These stories often involve sightings of apparitions, strange noises, and unexplained events that are said to have taken place in hospitals, hospices, and other healthcare settings. Some of these stories are believed to be based on true events, while others are purely fictional. Regardless, they continue to captivate and intrigue both nurses and non-nurses alike - providing a spooky glimpse into the world of healthcare after dark.

I know you have seen and heard freaky things. Share your nursing ghost stories...

This isn't nursing realted, but it is something that happened to a friend of mine. A few years ago, we had a baby in town that was murdered by her father. She was crying and he kicked her in the head until she stopped...about 15 minutes later she died. The father was sentenced to life in prison and the mother was sentenced to five years because she did nothing to prevent the abuse (the father had been abusive several times before). Anyway...my friend is the mother's cousin and she agreed to store all of the mother's things until she gets out of prison (she has a HUGE basement). For several months afterward, she and her husband would hear a baby crying at night...the crying would get really loud around 4:00 AM, which is around the time the baby died. They ended up having a priest come over to bless the house and the mother's things and the crying stopped.

I have a story from last Friday... my first nursing ghost story! Weird things were happening all day. A voice yelled "Excuse me!". I turned around to look at the people at the desk, they turned to look at me (each thinking it was the other party). No one said anything... and the patients nearby were all on vents.

Then our big tele monitor that has all the patients' EKGs turned off by itself. It's never off. NEVER. To turn it off you have to really press the button. Why would any of us do that? Pretty weird...

But the kicker was, a few hours later my patient (a very sane & appropriate gentleman), asked me "are you a spiritual person?". I was like, yeah, so he told me, "I see people." I laughed. "So do I!!!" ;). No, he said, DEAD PEOPLE. He asked, "have people died in this room? I can feel them." All of a sudden the room got very cold. I got goosebumps. It was seriously creeping me out. He told me that he was seeing people who have died in the Burn Unit... they were coming in and out of his room and mouthing words/gesturing to him. He didn't seem to be afraid. It was this matter of fact sorta thing. Makes me wonder if my patient will die. I've never had anyone talk with me about something like that with such seriousness. Made me a believer!!! Needless to say... when I got home that night I was scared of the dark!!!!

Specializes in LTC, Subacute Rehab.
:sofahider i had an encouter the other day after reading this thread. i looked at the floor by my door and happened to notice someone walking in front of it. I was the only one awake in my house.

That happens to me at least once every evening with the door from the house into the garage! I'll look over and see, for all I can tell, blurry legs walking right through.

I am a nursing student so I haven't experienced anything paranormal in a clinical setting as yet. But I do have a personal story about loved ones being with us. A former Pastor of our church was like a grandfather to me. I called him Pop Pop and he called me Doodlebug. One Saturday morning about 6 years after his death, I was really missing him for some reason. Sitting on the edge of my bed, I said out loud, "I miss you, Pop Pop!" And as audible and clear as I'm hearing my tv right now, I heard him reply is his sweet precious voice, "Oh Doodlebug! I miss you, too!" Needless to say, my eyes swelled with tears. I still cry when I think about it. I know he watches over me. And sometimes I can smell his cologne in the house.

We had moved to a new unit and a particlar room was said to be haunted. A patietn I had cared for had passed away ( another nurse was taking care of him when he passed on nights ). I went in to the room and saw that she had left him naked on the bed , with the O2 still on, arms hanging off the bed. I thought this was very very disrespectful.:devil:

I covered him up, took his O2 off and made him look comfortable. I came back to the desk and sat down. Next thing, she came running out of the room wanting to knwo if anyone had been in the patients room. We all denied it. I never told her what I did. I bet she will never leave a deceased patient like that again.

Specializes in Med/Surg.
A little off topic but true...........When I was 10 years old, I was abused by my stepfather. He was a very evil, mean & cruel man. Full of hatred and always said that he was going to kill me one day. I was so afraid of him that I used to run and try to hide from him whenever he came home and I always prayed and asked God to protect me from him. One day I was sitting on my bed alone in my bedroom coloring in a coloring book. All of the sudden, I looked up from my coloring book and I saw an angel in the doorway to my bedroom. He was very tall and so beautiful with blond curly hair and wore a white robe with a gold belt that looked like rope. He was so tall, I estimate at least 7 or 8 feet, he had to bend down a little under the door frame to look at me. He also had huge white wings. I was very scared but I knew that what I was looking at was an angel. He did not speak to me but just looked at me in a very peaceful and knowing way. I was so scared that I could not speak. I just looked down at my coloring book and when I looked up again, he was gone. I'm 47 now and I have never seen him again but there has never been a day that has passed that I have not thought of him. I always have wondered my whole life why he came to me and the only thing that I can think of is that he was there to reassure and protect me. I never told anyone about this until I became an adult. Shortly after I saw this angel, my mother left this abusive man and we moved away. I never saw my stepfather again. I have also almost died several times. I almost drowned twice at age 11 and again at age 12. I was hit by a car and coded after surgery as an adult. I have many times felt a "presence" with me. I know angels are real and I belive they are here to protect us and they are messengers from God. I have taken care of many dying patients in my 20 years as a nurse. I have had a few patients tell me that they could hear beautiful voices singing just before they died. I believe those are angels.

I saw an angel in my dreams one time. Shortly after I left my abusive husband I was feeling very low and alone. I had a very bad day and I was within a few days of having to see him again to press charges for hurting me. My father and his girlfriend were harping on me to find a job, and do more around the house, even though they didn't seem to understand i couldnt even concentrait long enough to read a piece of paper. All I did all day was cry. That night in my dream, I saw this very tall, very young man standing there. we were outside, and it was summer time, a very bright sunny day. He looked to be about 19 tall, slender, blue eyes, curly blonde hair, and a big smile. He opened his arms to me and I ran into them, and he wrapped me up in them tight, and I didn't want to wake up. I still tear up thinking about it. all while i was in teh court room during both trials, and whenever i am scared i can feel a warm presense next to me.

I saw an angel in my dreams one time. Shortly after I left my abusive husband I was feeling very low and alone. I had a very bad day and I was within a few days of having to see him again to press charges for hurting me. My father and his girlfriend were harping on me to find a job, and do more around the house, even though they didn't seem to understand i couldnt even concentrait long enough to read a piece of paper. All I did all day was cry. That night in my dream, I saw this very tall, very young man standing there. we were outside, and it was summer time, a very bright sunny day. He looked to be about 19 tall, slender, blue eyes, curly blonde hair, and a big smile. He opened his arms to me and I ran into them, and he wrapped me up in them tight, and I didn't want to wake up. I still tear up thinking about it. all while i was in teh court room during both trials, and whenever i am scared i can feel a warm presense next to me.

Dear Jess1983,

Thank you for sharing that. It was very beautiful and touching. It is amazing how similar our stories and angels are!

:-)

When I was in 7th grade a girl in my class had a seizure right after we had out yearbook pictures taken. She was transported to the hospital by EMS and was diagnosed with some sort of cancer in her brain and was given six months to live. Her parents decided not to do chemo, radiation, etc...they weren't big on modern medicine and they didn't want to make her suffer through the treatments since her prognosis was so poor...they told everyone they were putting it in God's hands. When the pictures came back from the photographer, there was a profile of Jesus (or at least the image that a lot of people have of Jesus) in the light reflecting in her hair...and there was a cross reflecting off her glasses. Now, she is a doctor...last I knew she was practicing with a missonary group in Africa.

We had moved to a new unit and a particlar room was said to be haunted. A patietn I had cared for had passed away ( another nurse was taking care of him when he passed on nights ). I went in to the room and saw that she had left him naked on the bed , with the O2 still on, arms hanging off the bed. I thought this was very very disrespectful.:devil:

I covered him up, took his O2 off and made him look comfortable. I came back to the desk and sat down. Next thing, she came running out of the room wanting to knwo if anyone had been in the patients room. We all denied it. I never told her what I did. I bet she will never leave a deceased patient like that again.

Wow, that would have struck a chord of fear in me... I betcha she never did that again!!! Good job.

Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.

Ok I finally have a ghost story to add. My aunt died about a year or two ago. Her adult daughter (my cousin) and granddaughter live in her home. They just called my mom last week at 4 o'clock in the morning to say that they just saw my aunt floating around the house. They talked to my mom for a while and said that while sitting on the couch late at night the remote to the tv would start changing channels and they knew it was my aunt. In life she would lay on the couch and flick the channels like that. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and it didn't take that long for her to die but she was at home.

Specializes in tele- 7 yrs, Pyxis- 3 yrs, med/surg 4.

I havent read all the replies--65 pages!, but I can relate an experience about 9 years ago. I was working on a tele unit in New Orleans East (destroyed by katrina and mold) on the night shift (dosen't it seem always on nights?). I was in our lounge when a cna walked in white as a sheet (she is black). It seems that in this particular room we admited a patient who was desperatly ill- I can't remember why- but anyway, we stabilzed him, sent him to surgery, and he came back, doing relatively well, that is untill several days later when he arrested suddenly and died (embolus?). Anyway, the cna tells me that the patient presently in the room asked had someone died in this room as she began to exactly describe the gentlman perfectly, and that he was walking back and forth in the room, as if he was looking for something. Now I am not given to "ghost stories", but I have no explanation for this event. Mabye there are things beyond our understanding.

Creapy huh!:uhoh3:

This is loosely medical-related, though not exactly nursing...

My brother & his wife and kids moved into a rental house out in a rural area back in the early 90's. While they were unpacking (in the summer) the furnace kept turning on. They also kept hearing a voice coming through the vents and thought the kids were outside yelling; but the kids were playing quietly. When my sister-in-law was unpacking in the bedroom, she found a metal assistive-bar (like you'd put in the tub or next to the toilet) in the closet and a bunch of orange specks in the carpet by the window. She said it creeped her out for some reason. After they settled in, she said whenever she would turn the t.v. off and go to bed, she'd hear what soundling like somebody shuffling across the carpet. My brother worked early mornings, so he was always asleep and, therefore, didn't believe her. This went on for months. One day she was babysitting her niece who was about 2 or 3. Sis-in-law was in the bedroom folding laundry and the niece was standing at the door and would not come in the room. When my sis-in-law said, "Come on in, Jessie.", her niece shook her head, pointed across the room and said, "No, that man over there." Needless to say my sister-in-law decided she had to find out what was going on. We had a spiritual channeler come to a relative's house a few months later. When asked if there was a ghost in my sister-in-law's house, the spirit, through the channeler said there was. She said he was a very athletic man who developed a very crippling disease and he couldn't take it, so he shot himself in the head while lying in bed. He also said to tell the spirit he doesn't belong there anymore and that he should move on. My sister-in-law went back to the realtor who had rented the house to them and he finally confirmed the story. The man had been an athlete, developed some crippling disease (assitive bar in the closet) and could barely walk across the room (hence, the shuffling sounds). He asked his wife to go out for orange juice one day and shot himself while she was gone. After a few more encounters, they were able to get through to the spirit by telling him that his wife had moved and he didn't belong there anymore. My brother, by the way, did end up witnessing some events over the course of the year this went on - but he still says, "There must be some explantation other than a ghost." haha

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