nursing superstitutions.....any truth in???

LasVegasRN · May 14, 2002

Very old southern superstition which I think is true, I believe came from as far back as slavery - hearing the fluttering of wings and BIRDS when someone is about to die. My grandmother, when she was in the hospital with pneumonia...we were staying at her home in Wynne, Arkansas when one morning we work up to a yard FULL of birds. They were chirping and flapping their wings so loudly it woke all of us up. I had never seen so many birds in a yard in my life. There had to be hundreds. Grandmother died.

A friend at church, his 23 year old son was in the hospital. Said he was in his bathroom getting dressed to go visit his son at the hospital when he heard birds - chirping, wings fluttering, so loudly. His son died that night, unexpectedly.

Another southern tradition, again, maybe came from slavery, when a family member dies, all mirrors of the home are covered and walls are washed down.

Yes, they definitely go in 3's. There is proof in things being affected by lunar cycles - the full moon being the strongest.

ok, now I've creeped myself out...:chair:

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · May 14, 2002

LasVegasRN,

Another Southern tradition for death. You stop the clock in the room where the death has occurred and open the window.

Nurse K-Bear · May 14, 2002

right out of high school I worked as a transporter. We had to bring patients to the morgue. One of my co-workers would always open the window before putting the expired pt on the stretcher. She said so the spirit can leave and go to heaven. Then the movie Ghost came out in the movies. That made me believe. I have always opened the window when a patient expire, now I work in a hospital where the windows do not open. So now I get the creeps each time. I say a prayer to myself and tell God to help the spirit find its way out! call me weird.

My grandmother was into the bird theory especially if one flew in the house

Death does happen in three when I worked Sunday 3 patients died in two hours of each other on the surgical floor where I work.

colleen10 · May 15, 2002

In my family pictures come off the wall.

Not necessarily fly off the wall but come off the wall and roll. Sometimes toward a specific person. Usually a family member that is most closely related or emotionally closest to the recently deceased.

On another note, true story,

I have two aunts. They are not sisters. One is my blood related aunt and the other married into the family by marrying my uncle (aunt's brother).

However, they went to the same high school, are the same age, were in the same grade, and were friends when they were young.

They both started families around the same time. My blood related aunt (we'll call her Aunt A) had recently had a baby and the other aunt (Aunt B) was pregnant and due any minute.

Aunt A had a dream in which her baby, that she had just had was in a box and she couldn't get him out no matter how hard she tried. The next morning she was very disturbed about the dream and then later that morning our family got news that Aunt B went into labor but the child did not make it.

My family is extremly superstitous and occurences like this just add to our belief that superstitions / clarvoyance exist.

mattsmom81 · May 15, 2002

Fedupnurse, I've noticed many long term ill patients have a pre-death type of phenom before they pass. I've seen it occur uncounted times...and you're right; family surprisingly says "Gee, Mama looks a lot better today." Or she'll wake up out of a long semi- comatose state and talk lucidly, ask for family members, etc. when she's looked awful and been on death's door for weeks.

Whenever a sudden unexplained miracle improvement is seen, it's usually the 'calm before the storm' or the patient is ready to say goodbye and let go, IME.

zudy · May 15, 2002

Another Southern tradition; a hat on the bed means death, so don't ever place a hat on a bed. I had a pt get upset with me for putting a hat on a stretcher. Also, peacock feathers in the house means death. I have also had some pts come into er wearing little bags around their necks that they wouldn't take off, they called it their "gris-gris" they said they would die if they took it off. I didn't mess with their bags!!!

kailucan · May 15, 2002

I found out the hard way about "jinxing" my floor at the hospital where I work. I'm new and our hospital is very small and I VERY innocently asked if we ever get many trachs or g-tubes, well the next night I worked we had 2 in the same room with both (trachs AND g-tubes). Like I said the hospital where I work is small and we have 24 rooms on med/surg. Also slipped and said the "s" word at 5 pm one night and we had 4 admits before 7pm. UHG. Wish I'd known better...............

micro, RN · May 15, 2002

mattsmom.........that calm before the storm......have seen it to many times to discount it.........

there may be a scientific basis for it.....but to me it in another realm of living that we don't fully understand.........

i can say slow and quiet now for a few days.......hehehehehehehe i am on vacation......

fedupnurse · May 15, 2002

Enjoy your vacation Micro! Mine just ended. Funny how fast 2 weeks goes by and how slow a 12 hour shift can go, huh??

ChristenLPN, LPN · May 25, 2002

Originally posted by kahann
Coincidentally I have had the same set of scrubs on in every code I have been involved in--got to be a standing joke when I wore them that somebody was going to code. These scrubs now hang in the back of my closet unworn. If a patient begins to go bad I always say they can't code, I don't have my "code scrubs" on. Haven't been in a code in over a year--(probably jinxed myself now!)

:uhoh3:

Too weird! The 3 years I spent in OB, I always had the same set of scrubs on every time we had a fetal demise or missed AB. Did not wear those scrubs again till I went to urgent care. Thankfully, my patients here do not seem to be affected by them!

Spooky!

Editorial Team / Admin · May 25, 2002

:uhoh3: :uhoh21: A neonatologist I worked with years ago said, plain and simple, she would never touch vent settings after 6 p.m. on weeknights, and wouldn't make any adjustments after 12 noon on weekends (Fri - Sat - Sun nites); "All the kids have trouble when I make any changes after those times, so I just don't do it," she said.

We never say the Q - word, either.

We take call for urgent angios and special procedures for Radiology, and I do NOT like to answer when non-medical, well-meaning friends ask, "So, have you been called in this weekend?" To blithely answer, "No, isn't that great????" would invite work! I usually whisper, "Not yet, but I don't talk about it." All us Radiology nurses have experienced increase in cases when certain phrases are mentioned, so we don't mention 'em.

micro, RN · May 25, 2002

hope there is no superstit' about returning to work after time away..........

I will not believe in superstit' i will not believe in superstit'

back today.....few hours