What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?

Nurses General Nursing Nursing Q/A

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What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?

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...

2621 Answers

Chad_KY_SRNA

423 Posts

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.

stidget99

342 Posts

I used to work in a state inst for developmentally disabled. We were temp relocated to another building for remodeling of our bldg. Anyways...I was working one nite, 2nd shift. We had a locked pica unit. I saw one of the residents walking down the hall. Very distinct gait and very distinct yellow t-shirt w/ a happy face on it. I went into the ward to let staff know that they had an escapee. This was a serious situation because this particular resident, Larry, would ingest absolutely anything (from clothing to pens to belts to *ugh* a bird's head)...literally anything. He was also very reluctant to go back to his home ward (hence why I didn't bring him back myself...he needed two escorts). When we got back into the hall, less than 15 secs later, Larry was gone!! We searched the entire building! Outside, downstairs, all wards...he was NO WHERE to be found!!! This whole search lasted last than 10 mins because I had all extra staff looking for him. I was just about to call the house supervisor to let her know that we "lost" someone when out from the bathroom walks Larry w/ one of the staff. He had been getting his bath in the bathroom for the last 30 mins or so. Kind of freaky! I absolutely, without a doubt, saw Larry in the hallway. I never would've short-staffed the wards like I did if I hadn't seen him! Like I said, very distinctive gait, look, clothing. I took a lot of razzing that nite! They all thought that I was crazy. Anyways, come to find out the next day, after the story goes around that I am crazy (haha, gigglegiggle, funnyfunny)..............Larry had an identical twin brother who died in that building 10 yrs previously.

ZASHAGALKA, RN

3,322 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care.

Heard a story once about a 5th floor neuro unit. This was told to me first person. Nurse was at the desk and a guy in white nursing garb came through the double doors, walked into an empty room, and didn't come back out.

Nurse thought it was wierd so he went into the room, and it was empty.

He went to the double doors and opened them and there were 2 resp techs talking at the entrance who swore they'd been there talking the whole time and that nobody came through the doors.

When one of his co-workers returned from lunch and he explained what happened, she was like, "Oh, that's just bob (actually I don't remember the name, so the name were changed to protect my ignorance). He worked here as an lvn years ago and was accused of molesting a child. He was sure he was about to be arrested so he jumped out the window in that room and killed himself. We see him all the time . . ."

no-recall

3 Posts

The story of "Rocking Mary." We closed room 12 in our MICU because just about every patient that has been there since Mary died complaints of seeing a woman in wearing a white habit rocking back and forth by their bedside. Apparently this nun never makes eye contact...just stares outside the window which happens to be on the patient left side over their head. This window overlooks the hospital cemetery where nuns that have died where buried. Mary was a nun that died of a car accident outside the hospital back in the 50's. She was only about 30 years old and all patient describes her as a young woman. We all thought that it was the "sun-down syndrome." Anyways, since then room 12 became our storage room where no one goes in by themselves unless it is absolutely critical.

rogramjet

202 Posts

I got called to a code in the hallway. A patient was being transfered from the ER to the floor. She passed away in the hall. According to the tech, they were carrying on a conversation, the lady looked up, said " Oh, here comes God, I think I will go with him." She passed away right then.

Specializes in ICU, CCU, Trauma, neuro, Geriatrics.

Prior to becoming a nurse, I was a paramedic. One patient all the way to the hospital told me about all the spirits in the ambulance and said that it looks like many people have died in here. She sat up, yelped, said OH GOD grabbed her chest and died as we pulled into the ER parking spot. We did CPR on the way in and she was pronounced by the ER doc after doing CPR for at least 10 mins.

Chad_KY_SRNA

423 Posts

We had a resident that had been hollering staff members names and banging on the wall instead of using her call light the night she passed away I had helped clean her up and then went to empty the soiled linen cart as I was emptying the cart I heard her scream my name and I ran out of the soiled linen room and did not go back in there alone.

rogramjet

202 Posts

I worked my way through nursing school as a housekeeper/security. One time the other man on security got a call from the nurses in the LTC floor of the hospital. They said they needed help because there was a ghost. Like the night housekeeper is going to be able to help you. So he asked her what kind of ghost it was. She wasn't sure what he meant. He asked her if she could see through it. She said yes. He said then it can't grab you, so don't worry about it. Now if you can't see through it, maybe there is something I can do.

The nurses weren't amused, but I think it is funny.

Ruby Vee, BSN

17 Articles; 14,030 Posts

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

Every hospital I've ever worked in has at least one ghost. I've never worked in a nursing home, but I hear from a friend who has that they have their ghosts as well.

Years ago -- and this will age me -- I worked at the old peter bent brigham hospital. We'd just moved into our brand new tower, and the old hospital was scheduled for demolition. Several coworkers wanted to walk through the old unit one last time . . . . As we walked past what had once been the large men's ward, we saw a couple of figures in what should have been a completely empty ward. One of my coworkers peeked in to investigate and immediately backed out, face as white as a blank order sheet. Of course I was curious then, so looked in myself. All I saw was two older men sitting on an old bed, chatting. My coworker explained : that was billy and larry (or moe and joe -- I've forgotten the names) they were frequent fliers in the ward. Both were royal pains in the patoot when they were alive -- which they weren't anymore. She said they'd been rumored to still be hanging around, but no one had actually seen them before!

michaelv

2 Posts

A long time ago when I was in my late 20s. I had a dream, it was very vivid. I was at my own wake.

I was watching the various people who came to console my mom. Lots of people I didn't recognize. From the conversation, I gathered I died at age 42 from something sudden.

Okay I woke, up thinking nothing of it. But as the years passed.. I started to meet the people in that dream that I didn't know at that time. There were my mom's new church friends. More and more of them I recognized over the years.

So started to believe I was going to die at age 42. I was literally anxious all the time from my birthday to to the next birthday. Thankfully nothing happen.

It seem a very real premonition that dream. I've come to believe that I did change my life over that time leading to my 41st birthday that my fate changed.

Still it was a very spooky year for me.

Well I'm 51 now .. whew..

Selina Pait

4 Posts

Specializes in My husband is a nurse LPN.
On 7/31/2018 at 5:57 PM, DocWorkaday said:

I hope the mods here don't mind if I relate a ghost story that's not directly "nursing related" other than the fact that my girlfriend is a nurse and I talked her into taking one of those paid ghost tours.

Okay, so far?

Back in 2013 when I first started dating her we got onto the subject of her nursing ghost stories before I ever discovered this thread. Of course her confidentiality requirements don't allow her to discuss much that is work-related, but she was able to tell me enough that it stoked my desire to fulfill one of the items on my bucket list: to take a real ghost tour with authentic ghost investigators just like on the TV shows.

So, in this town there is an old hotel that dates from the Old West. It's been a hotel, a bank, a brothel, and other things during its history. It's a historic landmark and a local ghost investigator society is allowed to charge customers to accompany them on a genuine ghost investigation. So I paid the money and we showed up for the "tour".

It's important to note that one of my trademarks is that I wear an Australian slouch hat (looks like the classic movie green safari hat with puggarree). On this particular evening, the sun had gone down and I decided to leave it in the car for the ghost tour. To most people it looks like a "green cowboy hat" if you're not familiar with the old Tarzan movies. I was the only one in the group to wear such a hat to the tour, even though I left it in the car. This will become significant in a while, you'll see.

During the ghost tour, we were invited to silently walk through some of the corridors on the ground floor of the hotel. I was born with a "gift." I can walk into a haunted building and sense if there is an evil presence there. While walking in one of the corridors, I definitely felt the presence of something totally evil that did not want us there. Others in the group noticed it too.

As the evening progressed, the ghost investigators did the usual "parlor trick" of placing a flashlight on a table with the head mostly unscrewed, so that the "spirits" are supposed to answer questions by turning the flashlight on and off. They did this through several questions. At one point, they tried to contact the spirit of a famous local murder victim. The murder was never "officially" solved, although a book was written by a man who claimed to have solved the murder. He claimed that a man who lived with his mother was the killer and the investigators had totally missed it. So at one point during the "contact" session with this murder victim, members of the audience were allowed to ask the spirit of the deceased girl some questions. Most asked about the political intrigue surrounding the murder, etc. When it became my turn to ask, I asked if she had been murdered by the the guy with the two dogs who lived with his mother. The flashlight flashed once for "yes". This is something that probably could not have been faked because unless you've read that author's book you would never believe the murderer was someone other than the people named in the official narrative. Had the ghost hunters somehow been able to fake the answer to that question, they almost certainly would have had the flashlight flash two times for "no."

The investigators also made it a point to tell us that the spirits in that hotel like to mess with electronic devices. Several just wouldn't work right during the tour. This will become significant toward the end of my story.

The ghost investigators contacted the spirit of a little girl who made a toy move. At one point a flashlight left in an adjacent room turned on so brightly that it lit up the adjacent room like a huge spotlight was turned on! We went back into that room and there was the lowly Maglite sitting on the table. No spotlight. When people started asking the child ghost questions like, "What's it like on the other side?", the spirit suddenly shut up and didn't want to talk anymore. Can't reveal there's a Heaven and Hell, kid, is that the deal?

As we went upstairs, no one was left on the ground floor, and yet we saw one of the flashlights turn on and stay on as we ascended the stairs.

On the top floor, the ghost hunters contacted a prostitute that had lived in the hotel. As they asked the spirit questions, several women felt their hair getting brushed by something invisible. The ghost hunters just laughed, and said, "She doesn't like women for some reason." At this point they asked the spirit, "Is there any man in this room you do like?" The spirit answered audibly through one of those spirit boxes, "COW...BOOOOOYYYYYEEEEEEEE." Remember I had left my safari hat in the car, and how I had described it as looking like a green cowboy hat to a lot of people?

There were several more minor things like cold spots and more women getting their hair brushed, but eventually the evening ended and my girlfriend and I went to our separate homes.

Days later, my girlfriend frantically called me one afternoon to ask if I had experienced anything strange at my house. I said, "No, why?" She explained that a radio she left in her daughter's room had turned on spontaneously while her daughter was in school. Upon inspecting the radio, we found that the alarm was turned off, and the switch was set to "manual", meaning you had to move it to the on position with your hand.

A few nights later, as I was lying in bed, I was awakened by the sound of the carbon monoxide alarm going off. Note that this was the time of year when it was still too warm to have the furnace on. There should have been no source of carbon monoxide anywhere in the house. Later that night, I felt the same evil presence above my bed that I had felt in that hallway of the old hotel. I saw what looked like an indistinct black shape moving across the ceiling. Quickly I shouted at it, "In the name of Jesus Christ you were not invited into this house and I command you to leave."

Neither my girlfriend or I have had another incident, but we don't go on ghost tours anymore, either.

I hope you post more of your stories of what you have experienced. I really enjoy reading your post.

MaryAnn_RN

478 Posts

Specializes in ICU.

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.

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