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...

i don't know if i have ever posted this before..didn't happen to me but to a nurse i know

we had worked together on 6p to 6a - i had moved on to another facility and was working evening shift and she was working that night with a 20 something guy i knew him he ws a real nice fellow

anyway she woke me up one morning - she was shaking and crying, asked me if she could stay with me for the day

at the place where we had worked together about 2a after we had made rounds one of us would run out to an all night diner and pick up something to eat

she said that he left to get something, a while later he came back to the nursing station and asked her to check on one of his patients, ami said that she was wondering why he would ask her to check on his patient and why he didn't have the foood with him but she went on in and found the pt on the floor, after she got the patient back in bed she went back to the ns and their were some emts there..they had the other nurses id badge he had been hit by a truck when he was coming out of the cafe parking lot

ami swore that she saw him and talked to him..she would have had to reason to go into the patients room because she had not been buzzed and they had made rounds before he left

anyway she spend the day because she didn't want to go to her apartment

alone..i don't think she ever went to sleep, she just kept crying and repeating the story

Ok, you asked for it so here goes....

It wasn't long after this event that Mom was asked to go to the basement. Yeah, the basement. I guess gran used to do laundry down there, to make a long story short, there is an old painting that my gran refuses to have in the house, except to be stored in the basement. My grandfather wanted to keep it as it is a family member from over a hundred years ago. I want to say it is a civil war era painting. Quite large, and yes I have seen it.

Now, Mom was sent downstairs to gather the clean dry laundry and bring it upstairs. She no sooner gets down there than she feels like she is being watched. She had forgotten all about the portrait as she had only seen it once before, and had quickly forgotten it.

She tries to ignore the feeling of dread that seems to crawl out of every crack in the old concrete walls. But, she has the terrible sense that she is being watched and she finally turns toward the side where she feels the presence. There hangs the portrait. Now, the person in the portrait is not ugly in fact, I would say he is quite distinguished and handesome.

Mom said it just stared at her and if she moved she felt like it moved with her. She ran out of the basement right into grans arms, who knew instantly what had happened and nonchalantly told my mom, "Now you know why I don't want anything to do with that thing..." and left the room.

How can anybody read these and say that it's our imagination????

Specializes in Education, Administration, Magnet.

I used to work in retail and my manager had a niece that was dying. She was in the hospital when they celebrated her 3rd birthday. There were only 3 people in that room, her mom, my manager and the little girl. Couple of days after the b-day she had passed away. The real shocker came after the photos were developed. There were 3 men in the picture that were not there in the room at all. 2 were standing behind the girl and one was leaning on the TV :eek: . My manager showed everyone the picture and to this day people come to her office to look at it.

speaking of ghosts in pictures...has anyone seen the movie "three men and a baby"? and/or heard the story of the ghost (a little boy who died in the location a particular scene was filmed)...I saw the movie and in the scene, you can see a little boy in the background, but I'm not true sure how true the story is, thought (or hoped) maybe it is a cardboard cutout that acidently was captured in the movie...anyone else know what I am talking about?

Editing: decided to do a search and found this online, so I guess I was right (maybe):

http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/3menbaby.asp

Yeah, Snopes says nay

It's always easy for Skeptics to Poo-Poo the Paranormal accountings that others have had. But some of the more memorable encounters I have had, occurred in the presence of other Staff Members. We all experienced these occurrences. And no we were not sharing in a mass hallucination either.

well, my two experiences arent related to nursing technically, but I'll tell them anyway.

first, my pap had went into a bout of CHF one morning in October 06. He lived alone, in a town about 2 hours away from myself and my parents. He called an ambulance and was taken to the hospital. Over the next few months, things just eventually went down hill, so we transferred him to a hospice facility here in our city. Well, one afternoon I went in to see my pap, and he was pretty morphined - up....he had not been alert/oriented for several days now. So, being that my brother (who had just came in from out of the country to say his goodbyes) had been in to talk to pap a few times already, I told my pap that it was ok to let go if he wanted to. I said my goodbye and got my things to leave the hospice. Later that night my mom called to say he had passed. Not really a ghost story, I know, but i thought it fell into the category sort of.

second, this is a story that still gets my choked up. We live in a ranch style house, with very steep steps leading to the basement/game room. My son was about 6 or 7 months I think...right at that stage where they dont quit crawl but they can sort of inch themselves along. We had a gate at the top of the steps, but apparently i had forgot to shut it, and then we left for the store. We came home, and I sat my son down in living room, on the floor and went into the kitchen to get his bottle....completely forgetting that i had left the gate at the top of those steps open. I was in the kitchen when I heard him sort of whimpering, and i realized that the gate wasnt shut, so i ran over. He was face-first on his stomach on the third step from the top...and it was almost like something or someone was holding him in place there until I got him. I mean, I have no idea how he could just stop in the position he was in without falling the rest of the way down those steps. I grabbed him as fast as i could and just said 'thank you...thank you so much' to whatever held him there until i could get to him. I still am really mad at myself for being so stupid and clumbsy to forget to close that gate that day, but i honestly believe someone held him there and kept him from falling down those stairs.

Specializes in L&D, Family Practice, HHA, IM.

This is sort of a "guardian ghost" story. When I was in college the first time, one of my new acquaintances had a friend whose mother was psychic and who had many ghosts come and "visit" her, much in the manner of Whoopi Goldberg in "Ghost", channeling them and helping them out.

Anyway, one of the ghosts decided to stick around the family and one day, during a power outage, candles were lit all over the house and my acquaintance told me that shortly thereafter, while she was alone in a room, she leaned over a candle and set herself on fire.

Out of nowhere, an arm came and "brushed" the fire off of her sweater, leaving no singes or burn marks in its place. She said that ever since then, she's always been comfortable with ghosts, save the evil and malevolent ones.

Thought this might make a good addition to our thread!

I am really weary of ghost stories. My husband is a funeral director and he's never had a body sit up in a casket or anything in the least bit weird like that. And if anyone was going to see a ghost, I would imagine it would be him. So I don't know what to make of what happened one day.

I admitted a patient with an AMI who was a DNR. He had a history of Alzheimer's Disease and his wife was at his side with him. He was agitated and complaining of chest pain. He received Ativan and Morphine. He kept trying to climb out of the bed. He was insistent that he needed to "Go with Momma." He would say to his wife, "Do you see her, honey?" And she would tell him to calm down and lie in the bed.

I was pushing more morphine when he looked up at the ceiling, put out his hand, and gasped. His color changed from pink to ashen. I listened for an apical pulse and pronounced him a few minutes later. I don't believe in God or heaven, so it was a real surprise to me. It made me stop and think.

As a student nurse/nursing assistant, was caring for a 103 year old lady on an oncology unit. She was A&Ox3. Passing the room , saw her talking out loud, noone was there.

When I entered the room, I asked her to tell me what she needed. She told me "Tell them to leave me alone. They want me to go with them, but I dont want to." I asked her who? She said the two ladies standing right next to you."

I looked again to both sides of me, noone there, that I could see. I asked her if she knew who these people were. She said, "They're old neighbors of mine from along time ago." She said they are looking at you and smiling.

I told the pt. and the unseen guests, "OK, this young lady would like to get some sleep right now, so let her be." The pt. went to sleep.

The next night on returning to the unit, I found out that this patient had passed.

This has happened many, many other times in my career.

Several years ago I lived in a small lake Cottage on Spring Lake, in Cherokee, Iowa.

At times I would take advantage of the paved walking trail that surrounds the Lake.

I must admit I am a very huge guy. I'm 6'8" tall and weigh over 400 lbs.. So I take up a good chunk of the width of the path. So when I encountered other walkers on the trail, I would out of courteousness to them step to the far side of the path, to allow the others to pass without having to walk off the edge of the trail themselves.

One day when I was walking along the eastern edge of the southern Lake trail, I could hear rapid footsteps coming up from behind me. The type of sounds that would be made by a jogger. These footsteps were faster than my own footsteps.

Of course I moved to the side of the paved trail so the jogger behind me could pass by. But they never did, I moved further to the edge of the trail practically walking off the edge of the paved surface, allowing the jogger to pass without hindrance. But still the rapid footsteps would not pass me.

I finally stepped completely off the trail, and turned back to see why the jogger wasn't passing, and I saw nothing. There was no one there!

I have also experienced this same sensation on the highest part of the trail that overlooks the Lake on the west side of Spring Lake!

I can't account for the foot steps. It could be anyone of a number of victims that have drowned in Spring Lake over the years.

Why don't you come and visit Spring Lake Park, walk along the paved trail; and see if you can encounter this Jogging Ghost, too!

Maybe you will discover the Ghost's identity!

I know a couple of local Police Officers, whom I've discussed my Ghost Hunting activities with. In fact one of the Officer's wife has gone on a few Ghost Hunts that I have organized in the past.

Anyway the younger of the 2 Cops talked to me on his coffee break, and told me the other day, that he had heard that I was giving up and getting out of Ghost Hunting.

I said that was right for the most part. But I was free to change my mind too.

He said he thought it was a good idea to stay away from it. He said the last time I talked to him, ( which was also my first time to talk to him, again on his coffee break ) that night at about the exact time I was telling him how to do "Table Tipping" his wife was experiencing a haunting in their recently purchased home.

Prior to that they had not experienced anything, and since then they had not experienced anything.

He said he didn't believe in coincidence, and believed that since I was talking to him at about the same time she was experiencing something at home, that he felt it was a result of my involvement in Ghost Hunting.

He also said the other Officer had gone home after work the night I talked to the both of them, and he was watching TV before going to bed. When he got up to go shut off the TV set, to go to bed. The TV set turned off by it's self along with the lights in that room. And a TV set in another room turned on by it's self at the same time.

Sounds pretty freaky!

In the end of it all, I decided not to give up on my Ghost Hunting Adventures. And am currently scheduling my next outing, which will take place this Mother's Day weekend.

If you are ever in the NW Iowa Region and would like to go on a Ghost Hunt, email me and I'll see what I can organize for you.

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