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...

Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
I started wondering about those blonde children and what they might be there for. More on this later...............:chair
:nono: You are totally skeeving me out!-I've got goosebumps....I'm askeert....

Wonder about the little blond children.............

Thanks for sharing your stories!

Had a pt who s son had a serious brain infection she was older and had schizophrenia in her ramblingsshe always talked about how she sold her sold to the devil so that he would heal. The night she died when we were shrouding her her body was so hot it was difficult to touch her it felt like she was on fire:angryfire we were all creeped out. But even stranger her son came to from his 'daze' in our hospital a few weeks later.

Not a nurse yet, but have had experiences like this. My grandma took care of me when I was little, and we were very close. I was getting oral surgery a couple of years ago, and prayed to her each night that she would protect me because I was scared. Went to the surgeon, he gave me general anesthesia, woke up fine no problems. Was laying in the recovery room and I felt the distinct presense of my grandma for about 30 seconds. I told my Dad who was looking after me and he freaked a bit and said it was the drugs wearing off. I knew in my gut it was grandma.

I used to rent a room in an old brownstone in Philly. When I first moved in, I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a man standing at the edge of the bed, staring at the wall next to my fireplace. I blinked a few times and he was still there. (I'm not a groggy sleeper, I'm 100% functional at a moments notice). He was about 5'5", wearing a striped 3 piece flannel material suit. Had red hair and glasses. He looked so solid I swear a shoe would bounce off him if I tossed it. He never looked at me. I stared for what seemed like forever then I got scared and asked him to leave. I'm very open to the spirit world, but I guess my human side got a little scared by that! He never came back to visit.

Another strange occurence happened when I was doing Reiki work with a friend. When I was directing healing in her abdomen area I felt a huge rush of air, like being in a wind tunnel. It was so strong that I made a mental note to ask her after. We finished the session and I asked her if she was having any particular health issues. She told me that she had miscarried a few weeks prior. I shared with her what I felt, and that I felt huge healing happening in that area of her body. So occurences like these just affirm to me that there's a whole world of mystery going on out there right beyond our noses. I have a lot of reiki stories like that..but don't want to ramble on.

On another note I am interested in working in hospice possibly when I graduate. I'm sure I will encounter some of the stories you all have described, but hope I am just there to provide comfort to those passing. I personally am not afraid of the life/death transition, but I commend nurses that are there for their patients that are fearful, and I hope to be one of those nurses someday!

I am going to have to send this thread to my mother.....Career RN...I know she will have an addition

My hubby actually had a good one, not a ghost story per say, but a scary sight in a room one night long ago!

My hubby (who is a paramedic) was a Corpman in the Navy working in a old naval hospital in med surge. One night a very old demented man was just done with his shower and the orderly hadn't turned off the old heat lamp in the bathroom...so that night there was a red glow in the room with the gent.

Now the gent slept naked, and as my hubby passed by to check on him the patient was in his room upright in bed stretching his arms up and groaning. My hubby said it looked like satan rising from the bed! LOL!!!!!!! He grabbed the other corpmen to check it out and they felt the same way...and it all gave them the ebbie geebies despite knowing the reason for the scene! LOL!!!!!

I thought that was a cute one!

Let me guess it was either Portsmouth Naval HOspital or Balboa

Love these stories..I have a few to share.

I'm doing my final consolidation in a psych hosp, and most nurses on the floor have at least one story that leads them to believe the floor we work on is haunted.

once, two nurses were on either end of the ward, trying to close windows...they'd close one, go to the next, close it, and the first windows would open again by itself. Finally, they both ran out of the rooms they were in, only to discover the other nurse doing the same.

two nurses have had their hair flipped when no one was around, when they were sitting seclusion.

One nurse once felt something wet drip onto her hand when sitting seclusion. she looked, was something red, she wiped it off. Looked up, nothing on ceiling..that was it

a nurse (one of the one's the window thing happened to, and had her hair flipped) was doing rounds at the beginning of the shift. the shower room door was closed, but she heard shower running. She went, asked coworkers who was in shower..no one knew, didn't think anyone was. So she went to shower room, went to open door..it was locked, she could still hear shower going. She freaked a bit, thinking pt had been locked in. Unlocked door, opened it..and the shower stopped.

same nurse, was sitting seclusion, could hear the door handle of the locked solarium rattling like someone was trying to open it..is a lever type handle, the sound was it going up and down over and over. In the morning, she went in there, she had opened the window of the staff smoking room in there to air it outm, she thought maybe the wind had done it. The window was closed when she checked. No one had closed it.

last night, same nurse and another went down to solarium, passed my male bathroom. no one in there, all pts were in bed. they got their smokes from the solarium, no more than 10, 15 secs later, walked back past male bathroom, tap was running. She had earlier turned off same tap, thinking someone had left it running.

same nurse was once doing rounds, heard someone whisper loudly "FIRE!" in her ear. No one around.

last night, another nurse was in staff room alone, heard very distinct 'CLICK CLICK' coming from the bathroom..few mins later, when she told us, another nurse was testing out sounds, trying to figure out what it was. The nurse who heard it said it sounded most like the door handle going up and down.

That's all i can think of for now...I work again tonight, so if i get more, i'll let you all know.

I think that the disquiet of the Schizophrenic mind causes some of this. I am not a believer in possession but I have seen how patients faces literally change shape when acutely psychotic. I have been around enough old psych buildings to be a believer in the unknown....

Most of them came from the state hospital that had closed and the staff was really their only family. There were several of them that I would see a lot doing just as they had done in life looking and acting in the same manner. Was it just energy or were we the only ones that were there for them in life so they stayed in death. :o

As a long time worker in a forensic hospital I have often had similar thoughts....

Originally Posted by TreeHawk

I have a lot of reiki stories like that..but don't want to ramble on.

On another note I am interested in working in hospice possibly when I graduate. I'm sure I will encounter some of the stories you all have described, but hope I am just there to provide comfort to those passing. I personally am not afraid of the life/death transition, but I commend nurses that are there for their patients that are fearful, and I hope to be one of those nurses someday!

I would like to hear more of your Reiki stories like this.

Thanks

Me too! I enjoy reading all of the posts in this thread! Thanks!

Specializes in LTC, Subacute Rehab.
this is more of a nurse-ghost story rather than one with patient experiences.

a sanatorium named Fort San was built in 1917 to house people with tuberculosis. one night, a nurse wrapped a bedsheet around her neck and hung herself.

The place was closed down in 1972, and is now a hotspot for school trips and such. Since it was reopened to the public as sort of a museum, there have been stories about "sightings", with a nurse walking the halls of the old sanitorium.

I've included a picture to try and 'up the creep factor' :chuckle

There's a similar story about the old Waverly Hills TB Sanatorium near Louisville, Kentucky.

When I worked in a LTC facility, we had the same reports of little children. Several of the residents would start asking us about who the children were. None of us ever saw any kids, but the residents would swear they were there. Some of them would report that they had kept them up half the night. One woman told us that they were sitting on the bed across the hall looking at her. Sure enough, within a day or two, one of the residents would die. I thought perhaps that it was just something about the facility. I later went to work at an area hospital. One of my patients asked who the children were that were in the hall. There had been no children on the floor that day. That night, the patient died. Now, if anyone asks me who the children are and I can't find any kids around, you can bet that I keep an extra watch on everyone.

That seems to be a common thread. Our LTC has "children" on the one hall. There has never been children there at least not that lived there. The home was built on farm land that had never been anything else. Although a lot of the residents in the past were moved from the old home that used to be the county "poor house" that was built in 1850. :gandalf:

This is something that I witnessed during the time my mother in law was in palliative care. The wall clock worked just fine up until the day my mother in law passed on, Bless her Soul. Very sweet and kind woman.

The clock on her wall stopped at 10:10 that day and exactly at 10:10 pm that night she died. Before she passed she would talk about seeing her mother and others who we knew had passed on.

I find this very interesting and comforting to know that when we pass on to the next stage of our souls journey that we aren't alone.

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