Is your workplace haunted?

nicenurselpn, LPN · Oct 26, 2012

At the old building (which was over 60 years old) there was the spirit of a nun who would go into the children's rooms and turn on the water faucets. Several of the old timers saw her, and one actually spoke with her. They said she looked like a real solid person. She had worked there for years and I guess she didn't want to leave her "babies". That old building was torn down 2 years ago. I often wonder if her spirit moved on.

uRNmyway, ASN, RN · Oct 26, 2012

We had something happened where I used to work. There was a hallway with three rooms for isolation cases, 2 positive pressure, one negative pressure at the end of the hall. For the sake of explaining, 71 was first by the nursing station, then 72 in the middle, and 73 was at the end of the hall, the negative pressure room.

Patient in 71 was a Walkie-Talkie, fully lucid up until then. She starts ringing us at like 3am, telling us that the gentleman from down the hall keeps walking past her room. She knows he is not allowed to be out of his room, so is concerned and wants us to check on him.

The problem is that this man is pretty much bed-bound. We quickly go check on him, and it turns out he passed between our last hourly rounds and the time this woman spotted him walking by. Patient could not be resuscitated by then.

Also had another event, not quite anything about hauntings, but was definitely freaky.

At change of shift, I come on the floor to find everyone working on a code. They had been trying to bring this lady back for around half an hour, but she had many co-morbidities and we all had little hope. Finally, the MD decides to call it. As everyone starts walking away, the nurse at bedside is taking off all cuffs and monitors. She then calls out "Hey, she just breathed!" Keep in mind, no breathing or heartbeat for around half an hour now, had been getting bagged and had chest compressions and all. So the MD tells her not to worry, that expiration is normal since the body is just expelling air. Nurse answers, "No, she breathed IN!". So everyone rushes back in, start working on her, and indeed, she was 'back'.

Now of course, with my twisted nursing sense of humor, all I could think of was that scene in Dawn of the Dead when that obese lady dies and comes back after everyone has turned their backs on her. No one understood the reference . But until the time when she got transferred to ICU, I just kept expecting her to sit up in bed like that woman in the movie lol.

Flare, ASN, BSN · Oct 26, 2012

Some of my workplaces have been. The hospital i'm PD at, definitely, but it hardly fazes me anymore when odd stuff happens or things go bump in the night.

Born_2BRN · Oct 26, 2012

In my precious workplace LTC while me, a tech and supervisor talking about a ghost ( night shift) the light on the hall way front of the room we sit started to flicker or short circuit. Every was quite and all walked away afterward.

allnurses Guide · Oct 26, 2012

We have one hallway that gets bone chilling cold every night around 2AM. We also have one room with a reputation for sudden strange deaths in stable patients. That room is a the beginning of the cold hall. I have only heard of one death on our floor that wasn't either in that room or on that hall.

cienurse · Oct 26, 2012

My facility is an old mansion, renovated to a nursing home back in the 50's. It has had several renovations since then but some of the original "occupants" are still here. For instance, the night staff have reported seeing a girl in a long, white nightgown walking around in the basement when they go down to the vending machines. Personally, I got up from my desk one day to go ask which room the loud, running children were visiting in so that I could ask the parents to please have them stop running up and down the hallways. The nurses looked at me strangely and told me that no children were visiting. One of the CNAs then told me that the sound of children running and playing was that of the children who used to live in the mansion and that I had been "visited." There is also one hallway where we occasionally can smell pipe tobacco, supposedly the old seacaptain himself. When that happens, we usually experience a death, not necessarily in that hallway, but within the building somewhere.

registeredliz · Oct 26, 2012

Although I can see how this would be fun to talk about in the spirit of Halloween, I do find this subject to be one that frustrates me to hear about. Although we are all entitled to our religious and afterlife beliefs, I find the beliefs in these stories or occurrences by a hospital professional to be assumptive and honestly quite silly.

More than anything, I would worry about quality of client care in a situation such as the one a previous commenter described in which seemingly stable clients would suddenly die. If any hospital professional actually believed such a thing was caused by a "ghost" or what have you, that may very well prevent them from discovering a real, science-based explanation for such a thing happening. It would likely even prevent them from looking in-depth into possibilities or encouraging others to do so. Worst of all, nothing could be corrected or modified to prevent future recurrences. That is negligence, pure and simple.

It is my opinion that no religious/afterlife beliefs have a place in the workplace for several reasons, client safety and quality improvement issues being most important. Here's another seemingly small example of one's belief in such things impacting care: Nurse A hears from Nurse B that room #13 is haunted, and she is caring for a client in there today. Even though Nurse A isn't sure she believes in ghosts or things like that, the story that Nurse B had told her floats around in the back of her mind all day.

Subconsciously, this bias results in Nurse A avoiding room #13 more often than she should. The patient might be a very weak, elderly man who is receiving a new antibiotic, but instead of coming in to assess his IV line in a timely manner and to assess the patient's overall status, the nurse decides she'll just go check another patient down the hall first because she is the only one in that specific hallway and she feels a bit creeped out.

Think of everything that could happen to said patient as a result of simple avoidances like that. Think of how it might influence the client's perception of the nurse and vice versa. Think of what happens if Nurse A tells Nurse C about what Nurse B says, and imagine if the lack of care continues. Case in short: everything has an explanation and coincidences happen. A professional nurse should recognize her biases (ie religious/afterlife) beliefs and not let them interfere with her provision of quality of care and clients' continuity of care.

uRNmyway, ASN, RN · Oct 26, 2012

Ugh, I didn't think someone would be so quick to ***** in our Kool-Aid...

irisheyesRsmilin · Oct 26, 2012

I am in LTC in supposedly the most haunted building in our town. I have heard all the stories and all, but have not experienced most of the items that have been told. I do know that our basement is cold and creepy and most of the night shift WILL NOT go down there to take down laundy at end of shift. Many have resorted to bridding or paying the maint. dept to do this for them as they are too frightened to go there. I have never had an issue going there, night or day, despite my coworkers warnings. I simply reply that I am more afraid of the living then of the dead!!

I am super "sensitive" to these kind of "paranormal" expressions, feeling much more than normal people do, but i still have no issues with where I work. I feel that the "prescences" there are all good spirits and not there to harm any of us. So I go about my job, many times alone at night, and let them do theirs.

MotherRN · Oct 26, 2012

Well, here's a story for you. The CNA took me into the dining area behind my station to draw my attention to the big, black crow that was tapping on the glass door that leads out to a garden courtyard in the back. She proceeds to tell me that every time that crow taps at that door, someone dies. She tells me he was there with his usual friends-two other crows- the night before and one of the long time residents passed that afternoon. And since he was there again, someone else was going to pass. Well, later that shift, I had to send a resident to the hospital for CHF. She made it, but a different long term resident passed instead the next day. Now, according to their tradition, we are owed one more soul since there were three crows at the door.

Now, I don't think it's anymore than coincidence personally. I think the birds know there is food in there because its a dining hall. Also someone else said they are pecking at their own reflection. But the whole story is an interesting reflection of cultural diversity and varied beliefs. This story reflects the superstitions of the a particular cultural group in the area where I live whose root were in the West Indies.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Oct 26, 2012

Although I can see how this would be fun to talk about in the spirit of Halloween, I do find this subject to be one that frustrates me to hear about. Although we are all entitled to our religious and afterlife beliefs, I find the beliefs in these stories or occurrences by a hospital professional to be assumptive and honestly quite silly.
More than anything, I would worry about quality of client care in a situation such as the one a previous commenter described in which seemingly stable clients would suddenly die. If any hospital professional actually believed such a thing was caused by a "ghost" or what have you, that may very well prevent them from discovering a real, science-based explanation for such a thing happening. It would likely even prevent them from looking in-depth into possibilities or encouraging others to do so. Worst of all, nothing could be corrected or modified to prevent future recurrences. That is negligence, pure and simple.
It is my opinion that no religious/afterlife beliefs have a place in the workplace for several reasons, client safety and quality improvement issues being most important. Here's another seemingly small example of one's belief in such things impacting care: Nurse A hears from Nurse B that room #13 is haunted, and she is caring for a client in there today. Even though Nurse A isn't sure she believes in ghosts or things like that, the story that Nurse B had told her floats around in the back of her mind all day.
Subconsciously, this bias results in Nurse A avoiding room #13 more often than she should. The patient might be a very weak, elderly man who is receiving a new antibiotic, but instead of coming in to assess his IV line in a timely manner and to assess the patient's overall status, the nurse decides she'll just go check another patient down the hall first because she is the only one in that specific hallway and she feels a bit creeped out.
Think of everything that could happen to said patient as a result of simple avoidances like that. Think of how it might influence the client's perception of the nurse and vice versa. Think of what happens if Nurse A tells Nurse C about what Nurse B says, and imagine if the lack of care continues.
Case in short: everything has an explanation and coincidences happen. A professional nurse should recognize her biases (ie religious/afterlife) beliefs and not let them interfere with her provision of quality of care and clients' continuity of care.

Welcome to AN! The largest online nursing community.

Coincidences do happen and there are explanations (most of the time) for strange things in our environment.... but I feel that a nurse can be professional and tell stories about urban legends about the work place for the reality that surrounds us most of the time can be over whelming. What specialty do you work? Have there ever been any stories about your department?

I think that the intention of this post is to share stories/folklore that is associated with many facilities/places....not just hospitals. Anytime there is a place of death and tragedy....sorrow and heartbreak...there will be stories of ghosts or weird occurrences.

I have never, in 34 years of nursing, ever saw anyone refuse to enter a room because it was haunted...although I have had some reticent to enter the morgue and I had to escort them to ally their fears. Many nurses while they may not have certain beliefs....... respect the beliefs of others.

In my experience........Sitting around and telling stories is comic relief.......and in no way interferes with patient care or safety.

Lets stick to the topic of the post....a light hearted place to share our stories of urban legends