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...

[lpnstudentin2010, LPN]

showmegirl said:

I was working in a LTC night shift and would always have this one lady come talk to me during the night she would sit in her w/c at the nurses desk never bothering anyone she couldnt sleep and didnt want to be in the room alone. I got to know Mary very well she was dying with diabetes and kidney failure. A few months passed and she devolped sores on the lower half of her legs and refused to amputate them stated she knew she was dying and was ready Her and I would joke that it wasnt going to be on my shift I wouldnt allow it.

I had gotten to know Marys family as well as they were coming and going most the time. After one bad night she sat up in bed looked at me and was comenting about the red aura i had around me also about the lady that was standing right behind me I had my back next to the wall and can say no one was there but she had also told her daughter that I was the twin of her that had died at birth. I became part of her family that night

About 3 weeks later I had just gotten back to work after being gone 4 days I walked in Mary's room and she lay there dying and hadnt been awake for 2 days My adopted sister had stated that she was waiting for me to get back to work to pass on I went into the room and said my goodbyes and told her again that she couldnt go on my shift But we had talked during the long nights that when she did pass she was going to send me a signal to let me know she had gotten there and that everything would be allright it was kinda like a night time joke for us. Later on that same shift myself and the aides were sitting down and talking when a call light went off in a room down a empty hall we went to go there ( spooky at night there was 5 of us total ) and no light was showing but it was still going off all of us looked at each other as we left the room i sent 2 aides down one hall to do a check the other 2 went down another hall . They came back to get me saying that mary was gone when i heard this the call lights stopped i was crying and laughing at the same time i was sadden about her passing but in my own werid way I think the call light was her sayingthat she was where shes suppose to be and it was going to be alright seems like Mary kept her promise

OMG that is so sweet. You must have felt happy though sad (if that makes any sense)

Rosie- said:

:chuckle We had a woman the the 3-11 RN sent for the funeral home 3 different times before she actually died and stayed that way. We'd get her over on the cot on the body bag and she'd start breathing. It got to be a big joke well is she really dead this time?????? They stayed quite a while the last time even after she was in the body bag "just in case".

The vitals were probably so low as to be not able to detct them. But it sure makes you wonder.

WOW!!!!! I have seen this on tv shows but never heard of it happening in real life

[luv your nurse, RN]

Quote

"but she had also told her daughter that I was the twin of her that had died at birth".

What do you mean? you were the old patients twin??? good story, will you clarify this part?

[luv your nurse, RN]

ok im totally scared now, i just picture a gost breathing down my neck as i read these stories..but i cant stop!!

[luv your nurse, RN]

schroeders_piano said:

I used to work in an old catholic hospital. Where the labor and delivery unit is located now, it used to be the convent for the nuns that worked at this hospital. One of the nuns died of natural causes years ago. This nun loved and raised numerous varieties of roses. Ever since the OB department was moved to this area, anytime a mother or baby is having difficulties you can smell the scent of roses throughout the whole unit. The OB nurses know to be prepared when they start smelling the scent of roses. If a mother or baby dies, the room suddenly fills with rose petals. It is one of the creepiest, but also loving things that happens. I was standing in a room one night when the baby died. The room filled with white and pink rose petals. The nurses and family was creeped out.

I worked at another hospital where you would see a nurse in the old white dress and cap walk down the hallway and smile at you. Then she would walk into a patient's room and apply wrist restraints. All the nurses knew her. It was just Mildred who died 60 years ago. You just had to follow her so you can take the wrist restraints off.

I do have other stories that are a lot creepier than these.

Where do these petals come from? the roof? like appera out of thin air? have you seen this?

[luv your nurse, RN]

kbclary4 said:

I am so easily scared, I would leave and never come back. Seriously. I am actually getting uneasy being in my apt. alone and reading this stuff. I really would have to quit my job if I saw anything like that or have someone go with me everywhere I went. My husband and I were watching The Shining the other night (I had never seen it) and I made him get up and go to the bathroom with me and I wouldn't let him go anywhere unless I followed him because I didn't want to be left alone. He was so aggravated, but I really scare easily.

I am the exact same way, i now have all the lights on and my radio, and im waiting for my boyfriend to come home before i go anywhere dark in the house.. you and i both get scared easily...:)

[TypicalFish]

luv your nurse said:

I am the exact same way, i now have all the lights on and my radio, and im waiting for my boyfriend to come home before i go anywhere dark in the house.. you and i both get scared easily...:)

OT-I live in a 100+ yr old house; we've always heard and seen stuff; but once when I was home alone-with doors locked( I'm a chicken)-I was upstairs and heard the front door open (very heavy, solid wood, warped frame=lots of noise), then it slammed and I heard someone walking down the hallway. Thinking it was my dh home, I walked towards the steps calling him. no answer, just sound of someone downstairs. vaguely freaked, but thinking he just didn't hear me, I went downstairs. no one was home, the doors were all still firmly locked and bolted. I decided to go out to a coffee house in town until dh got home-3 hours later.

[showmegirl]

luv your nurse said:

"but she had also told her daughter that I was the twin of her that had died at birth".

What do you mean? you were the old patients twin??? good story, will you clarify this part?

LOL No i was her daughters twin that had died in childbirth her and I are still good friends :balloons:

Never be afraid of the ghosts left behind normally there here to help us or to tell us to be on alert so far i have never seen them hurt anyone and when you get demented pts they seen to calm down when the see the children for a short while there happy

[Nurse Cozmo]

I heard this from a med nurse at a SNF where I worked as a CNA. He was a corpman in the Navy at the time, working at a Naval hospital in Baltimore (I think). Anyway this hospital was next to a military cementry, that dated all the way back to the Revolutionary War. One night he was passing meds and saw a man walking towards him in old fashioned military garb, you know like those Civil War re-enactors, and that's what he thought he was seeing until he realized that he could see thru the guy. He was so scared that he couldn't move and watched this apparition walk right thru his med cart, thru the wall to the outside and head back toward the cementry. He put in for a transfer the next day.

[Tinkerbell2]

showmegirl said:

LOL No i was her daughters twin that had died in childbirth her and I are still good friends :balloons:

Never be afraid of the ghosts left behind normally there here to help us or to tell us to be on alert so far i have never seen them hurt anyone and when you get demented pts they seen to calm down when the see the children for a short while there happy

I don't understand. If the daughter's twin died at birth, how are you her ?

Was her/your soul reincarnated into your current body ?

[Tinkerbell2]

TypicalFish said:

OT-I live in a 100+ yr old house; we've always heard and seen stuff; but once when I was home alone-with doors locked( I'm a chicken)-I was upstairs and heard the front door open (very heavy, solid wood, warped frame=lots of noise), then it slammed and I heard someone walking down the hallway. Thinking it was my dh home, I walked towards the steps calling him. no answer, just sound of someone downstairs. vaguely freaked, but thinking he just didn't hear me, I went downstairs. no one was home, the doors were all still firmly locked and bolted. I decided to go out to a coffee house in town until dh got home-3 hours later.

Whew ! I don't blame you ! I'd get the heck out of there quick also.

[TypicalFish]

HillaryC said:

I work in DC; I'm really curious to know where that job site is? So creepy!

The corner of 14th and H st, NW-it's a building now; My dh was injured there in 1991.

[ShirleyR]

nurse_suzan said:

Not so much a ghost story, but a story about when my mom died a year ago. She was at my sisters house for two weeks and started going down hill. Hospice was called on a Saturday and she lapsed into a coma on Tuesday. Me and my other sister got to her house on Wednesday. On Thursday, my mom woke up for 3 hours and was talkling to "other" people in the room. My dad died in 2000, and she kept saying "Frank, would you leave me alone, I am not ready to go with you yet!" Then she would get pissed and yell at him in German, (she was from germany). Then she saw her mother who passed away in 1964. The said "Mama" and started to cry and then spoke german to her for about an hour. She was reliving her childhood with her and talking about things they did when she was small and she was laughing and having a good time with her. My mom lost twin boys in her 5th month in 1966 and she was talking with them and said "I am so glad your Oma was there for you. I was so affraid you were alone." All of us in the room, and there was about 15 of us were in wonder the entire time. This went on for 3 hours. She would talk to them and then us. At one time she turned to me and said "oh Suzie, I didn't know you were here too, do you see all the people waiting for me?' She was affraid to die because of the unkwown I guess. The next day, Thursday she didn't wake up at all and she woke up again on Friday morning for an hour while I was in the room with her. She said she wasn't affraid anymore and that she had seen heaven. She just wanted my dad to stop bugging her becasue she hadn't finished her job yet. She told me that my dog that had passed away 6 months before that was with my dad. She died the next day.

When we got back into town the following day to get ready for the funeral, we were staying at my mom's house and it was hot outside, but we all smelled wood burning from her fire place. I snapped some pictures and there are orbs all over those pictures. The only picuters in the set that has them.

I've been a hospice nurse for 5 years. I have been with hundreds of people at the time of their death & I can tell you first hand that if the patient isalert enough to speak, you'll hear them talking to loved ones that have already passed over. I had a patient last week that kept saying where did the precious baby go? His grown children were at his bedside kept naming off grandchildren's names thinking he wanted to see them one more time. He kept telling them no, that wasn't the baby he was talking about. Finally one of the daughters asked him if it was Randall he was talking about, his face face lit up & he said "Yes, my precious baby. Your Mother brought him here & now I don't see him". Come to find out Randall was a child of his that only lived 6 hours after birth & his wife died 6 years ago. It gives me a kind of peace knowing we are not going to be alone at the time of our "transition".