Whats your best nursing ghost story?

It all depends on what your experience in computers is. It would be nice to have a nurse friendly computerized ordering system to order labs, diets,etc. and retrieve lab results without going through 20 -30 different screens to get to the right one (my hospital has a bizarre system for this that I swear is from the dark ages!). There is a need for some type of patient- family teaching programs that could be done on CDs (so the family doesn't ask if the IABP won't get tangled up with the NG--- AFTER you have spent 20 minutes going into detail about the procedure and how the IABP will work!!!!) It would also be nice if someone would design a system that lets all of the different hospital computer systems talk to each other easier. What is your computer background? Can you design web sites; or design some CE programs for nurses? You really need to be more specific aabout your experience with computers; write down your strengths and weaknesses, also your interests and whatever bores you, and I'm sure it will be easier for you to use your computer skills and experiences in a creative way to mesh with your medical background.

Check out the field of nursing informatics. Here's web page to start: http://amia-niwg.org/

The best I have heard is from a nurse who said that one night she was floated to oncology at the hospital she used to work at. She was given a patient who was passing away and had been unconscious for several days. At one point during the night the nurse went into the room and the patient was at the top of the bed and looked at her and said, "don't let them take me!", the nurse was freaked out and asked her who was going to take her and she said that black thing up there and pointed up in the air. This patient died within minutes.

Come on now share your stories, I know you have seen and heard freaky things.

I'd have to say nurse managers. I've heard they exist, but I very rarely see one.

Is that like the help that never shows up?

One night I was caring for a dying male patient. He was scared and I spent quite some time with him, trying to calm and reassure him. Eventually he calmed and I left the bedside and went over to the nurses station which was about 15 feet away. As I sat down I glanced over to him and there was a black shape standing over the bed, looking down at the patient. I was terrified, and am sure it was something evil.

Don't have one. Thank goodness.

steph

Funny

We have a nursing supervisor, who is available for us most of the time. She is also the ER nurse. The only one. So she has two separate and complicated responsibilities.

I am the nursing sup/ER nurse today - I do it part-time since getting my MICN a few years ago. This morning I set up a room for a planned cesarean today. I also check the patient's labs for the nurses. We try to help out - but if there are alot of patients in the ER or a code or something, we are just unavailable. If we try to help when we can, the nurses usually understand.

steph

I used to work in and old labor and delivery unit. It was a small hospital, so often times I was back there by myself. I liked to keep the lights low and things quite back there, so naturally I heard a lot of creeps and groans. There was a whole back hall unused, there was also no access to it accept by passing me. I could hears metal objects clanging, and doors shutting. Sounded like somebody was getting ready for a c section.I could always sense something there with me it seemed. There was also a back room on the med surg floor that was never used. It was a patient room converted to a storage room. That room was strange... Call light always going off, and nobody near it...Whole hospital had a creepy aura...Maybe it was the cemetary next door..If that in itself is not strange....