Ever had a paranormal experience while working as a nurse?

kaykay · Mar 19, 2005

Yes, I have had a few...

the first one was when a patient was dying..I was her home health care nurse and she was lying on the couch, yelling at the ceiling.. telling me all the people that were there.. I called the office and was told this patient was very "theatrical".. but I knew she was going... she had 4+ pitting edema... we called her doc who came right over... I left and she died within minutes of my leaving...in spite of her "theatrics"

With years of experience, I have come to notice that when my patients look towards the ceiling and smile (almost ignoring you) their time is near.. three of my patients have done this... as did my Mom!

I had a patient in home health who was hospitalized... it was time for her to come home.. she was much better (no hospice) ... as I was taking her physical to re-admit her, she suddenly said to me "you have such a beautiful countenance"... I was stumped... didn't know what it meant.. I asked her what she meant and she became embarassed.. we spoke about it when she returned home, she remembered it but didn't know why she had said it.

happthearts · Mar 19, 2005

Yes, I have had a few...
the first one was when a patient was dying..I was her home health care nurse and she was lying on the couch, yelling at the ceiling.. telling me all the people that were there.. I called the office and was told this patient was very "theatrical".. but I knew she was going... she had 4+ pitting edema... we called her doc who came right over... I left and she died within minutes of my leaving...in spite of her "theatrics"
With years of experience, I have come to notice that when my patients look towards the ceiling and smile (almost ignoring you) their time is near.. three of my patients have done this... as did my Mom!
I had a patient in home health who was hospitalized... it was time for her to come home.. she was much better (no hospice) ... as I was taking her physical to re-admit her, she suddenly said to me "you have such a beautiful countenance"... I was stumped... didn't know what it meant.. I asked her what she meant and she became embarassed.. we spoke about it when she returned home, she remembered it but didn't know why she had said it.

Yes I have had many just like this over 34 years of being in this field someone always seems to come and get them from the other side. Even the ones who don't believe in afterlife.

CCL"Babe", BSN, RN · Mar 19, 2005

Years ago, on a tele floor, had a no code patient die. She was a frequent flyer so to speak - and no ones favorite due to her wonderful personality. We did post mortum care. She was in the morgue. The bed was stripped. The monitor off and put away. Then on the screen appeared a rhythm. Hers. ( we had to map and document everyone's rhythm at least once a shift - so we compared it w/ hers) We checked the monitor, it was in the drawer, off, batteries out. No one was in the room. The monitor stayed like that for hours, then finally went away. We were all creeped out.

barefootlady, ADN, RN · Mar 19, 2005

Sure and if you work long enough you will too. :nurse:

nbnurse95 · Mar 23, 2005

I had one strange thing happen. It was around 4:00 am. I was preparing an IV med for one of my pts. As I stepped out of the med room a visitor was there waiting for me. (she was with her dying brother) She asked me to come to her brothers room quickly because his breathing had changed. There were 3 of us working that night and we all stayed in the room with the family until he took his last breath. It was very quiet, and sad. At this time it was about 20 past 4:00 and I suddenly realized that I still had that IV med in my hand. So, I excused myself and went to give my med. As I entered my other pt's room, (which was only two rooms away) I found her wide awake and scared. I asked her what was wrong and she said,"What was that?!?" I told her I didn't know what she meant and she answered, "I woke up because it was as if a freight train just came right through here!"

I reassured her that evrything was OK, that she must have been dreaming, administered her med and got outta there!!

safewaygreenbox · Mar 23, 2005

No never, been qualified since 1984

Kay the 2nd :)

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Mar 23, 2005

Do miracles count?

If so, I had a young patient who had a severely traumatized spinal cord, and who delayed treatment because she had no insurance.

I stayed in the room and held her hand (the one she had sensation in) while the neurosurgeon told her the prognosis--the odds were against her ever walking again.

No lie, we all cried.

The surgeon left. The patient asked us to pray for her, so I went out and rounded up all the nurses I knew who prayed, and we had prayer and an anointing in the patient's room.

I lost track of her for about a week, then I got floated to another unit. I'd never been on that unit before, so I was a rather unhappy camper to say the least.

I got my assignment, and was going to a patient room when I heard someone calling my name (which was amazing in and of itself, because this unit was not my own warm, fuzzy, supportive unit :chuckle ) and I spun around looking for the source.

It took about 15 seconds for me to realize that the patient coming down the hall with the walker was the spinal patient we prayed for a week before!

This was her first day walking and she said, "Oh, I just prayed that you would see me walking!"

To this day, I don't believe that her recovery or my assignment to that unit was a coincidence.

ERnurse07 · Mar 24, 2005

One on nights another nurse and I went for a walk to an old part of the hosptial - we ended up in the old nursery/maternity floor. It was really creepy and all the hairs stood up on my neck as soon as I entered the hallway - a few minutes later one of the call bell lights lit up at the nurses station - we got out of there quick!!!:chuckle

allnurses Guide · Mar 24, 2005

No, but I'm not counting miracles.

I am very NOT superstitious.

steph

CHATSDALE · Mar 24, 2005

i am not superstitious but sometimes things happen which can't really be explained...once a friend had her father in the hospital...he was very ill and was terminial, don't remember specifics, anyway he had lived with wife for many years...and she was a vicious person,

anyway while hubby was in hospital she pulled out in front of a truck and was killed instantly..the children decided not to tell him of the accident because to the extreme condition he was in...my friend and her brother were with their father in the room when he looked and them and smiled...'i am glad that your mother won't be here when i go'

he died about an hour later

flaerman · Mar 24, 2005

Yes I had a few. When I used to work on Med/surg years ago at night I would have patients I'd find pointing up a spot on either the wall or ceiling(and I'd see nothing of course) and started to realize that all of these patients would be dead before the sun came up.

One night while working I had a male pt I'd cared for quite a while over a few months get anoxic on me one and got very confused. He almost became entertaining with it and what he'd try to do(aka; brought me his IV tubing cut into nice even 6"pcs, kept climbing out of bed to where I had to put a chair outside of his room where I wrote my notes and did my chart checks by flashlight, he would sit, look out the door at me and lay back down(LOL).

Well morning came and so did his memory, but he was mortified over his behavior of the previous night and felt that he must have done something both terribly and purposefully wrong and assumed that I was mad at him over this. Some little student nurse was assigned to him for clinical for the following day and came to do her data collection and meet the man that day.

She introduced herself and stated why she there etc, to which he answered her, "go ahead and do what you need to, but I won't be here tomorrow". All that day he kept asking the nurses if I was going to be in that night, and told them to let me know he needed to speak to me as soon as I came in on 11P-7A shift. Well I came that night and before I could even get report the 3-11 charge nurse told me I needed to go see this man. I walked into his room and he saw me and started to cry and apologize for his behavior of the night before. I tried to comfort him by explaining that the anoxia he had then was what him caused to act out the way he did and even told that I was not angry at(which I wasn't) him or thought any less of him over how he had acted. I even told him that some of what he had actually done was sort of amusing in a way. This all seemed to help him and he calmed after a little while, shook my hand and thanked me for my time. I went back to the station and got shift report, assigned our techs to their duties for the shift, and was getting ready to go make first rounds on my patients. I heard some heavy breathing coming fom this man's room and went there first. What I found was him standing along side of his bed with a strange look on his face, staring up at that spot. I asked hime if he was okay to which he looked at me, slowly shook his head to indicate no and fell forward into my arms. I caught him easily and as I lowered him to the floor he smiled and died in my arms right then and there. During the day the man had made himself a DNR since he had no family. He could have passed at anytime that day but apparently felt that he had to make things right with me and I guess clear his conscience before he could go. Once I realized this fact, I had an eerrie chill that ran down my spine. THat was the first of a couple of somewhat similar type experiences I had with patients during my career.

One of those those things that make you say HMMMMMM......... flaerman