What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?

What Members Are Saying (AI-Generated Summary)

Members are sharing personal experiences and stories related to ghosts, spirits, and paranormal occurrences in healthcare settings. Some members discuss encounters with deceased loved ones or unexplained phenomena, while others share their interest in ghost stories and movies like "Doctor Sleep" and "The Shining." There is a mix of skepticism, curiosity, and belief in the supernatural among the forum participants.

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...

I took care of a pt, big overweight Spanish guy named Mr. L He had DM1, amputated right foot and a big crush on me. I remember him very well because we both had the same watch we both got at Walmart. He was sent to the ICU and I never saw him again.

A month or two later I get a phone call at the front desk. It was him. He told me, "I've been trying to call you on your Vocera for weeks, I want to take you out for a date. It's me Mr. L". I pretended I didnt know who he was. He said, "But you have to remember me. Your Margarita, and we both have the same watch, from Walmart..please remember." I knew FOR SURE it was him then because only him and I knew that, and his voice was dead on. I apologized and told him he had the wrong person and i had to get back to work, and I hung up.

I told my nurse manage jokingly about the call in the morning, and she told me Mr. L died weeks prior. I thought she was joking until she showed me the obituary the family sent in with their thank you card...

I still havent figured this one out, but I get chills every time I remember the panic I heard in his voice on the phone when I hung up on him.:confused:

I'd get more than chills. I'd have a priest at my house. I'd be a basket case.

i have a story.

[color=#483d8b]i moved into the duplex i live in about 5 years ago. when i first was looking at the place, the whole thing was empty. so i got to choose what side i wanted to live in.

[color=#483d8b]well, about a month or so after i moved in, my landlord told me my smoke detector bateries would need changed soon. she said they were hard wired into the house, with a battery back up. i told her okay, i would get some for them. there are three. one on the top floor, one on the main floor, and one in the basement.

[color=#483d8b]a couple days later, i was sitting at my kitchen table one night doing my bills, and all of the smoke detectors began going off. so i thought i would take out the batteries and put new ones in the next day. i still had to buy some. they took nine volts and i just didn't keep those on hand. i figured they didn't need the batteries, probably anyway. so after i took them all out i returned to the kitchen to the table to continue what i was doing. well, about 20 minutes later all the smoke detectors began going off again. so i thought perhaps they do need the batteries. so i went and unhooked them all from the walls and brought them back into the kitchen with me and placed them all on the top of the stove. they were now without batteries, unhooked from their second power source and laying there. i sat back down again to finish what i was doing. well, about 20 minutes later, those smoke detectors began going off again! i freaked! i grabbed all three of them up, wrapped them in a sweatshirt and put them out on the front porch and closed and locked the door.

[color=#483d8b]well, a few weeks later i came home from work. i worked midnights and nobody else was home. i am a single mom of three and my children were 3, 4 and 8 months old then, and staying with someone else that night while i worked. i would get them after i slept. so, i came in the back door into the kitchen and turned on the light. and there sat a book of matches i had never seen before on my kitchen table. i thought it was odd. nobody else had a key to my house. nobody had been there.

[color=#483d8b]a couple days later i was at work again, and i was telling the girls about the smoke detector, and about the matches. well, another girl had overheard me and asked me to repeat the story to her. so i did. she then asked me where i lived. i told her. she then told me how there had been a fire in my house a few years before and a mother and her little boy had died in it. i told her to shut up! she told me to go ask the officers that frequented the establishment. (i was a server on the midnight shift at a small cafe and we got a lot of the police officers in town who were on the midnight shift come in). well, sure enough they confirmed her story. then about 6 months after that my neighbor came over and was talking about that fire. he said the lady had two boys. and the younger one had gotten up while his mom and brother were still sleeping very early one morning. and he had been playing with matches and set the house on fire. his brother and mother both were killed. there were no smoke detectors in the house at that time to even warn them.

[color=#483d8b]it really creeped me out for a while, i guess. the ghosts of them have never hurt us. although i do sometimes think the child pays tricks and hides things sometimes or gets into mischief! i can't tell you how many times i've set the remote control on the end table, went to get a beverage and come back to find it missing. or have had my car keys disappear! my little dog a couple weeks ago was siiting on this little table i made him by the window, right beside my computer, and my smoke detector chirped and he looked towards the living room door way and immediately jumped into my lap, shaking and just terrified of whatever he saw. i saw nothing. (the smoke detector did this a few times that day already, as well as the day before and he did not react like that!) i figure they're still around living with us! i cannot explain why else my dog would have reacted that way when he looked in that direction.

[color=#483d8b]the only other thing i've had happen here is one day i left to go shopping, and when i returned and walked into my kitchen, i smelled my grandmother's perfume. and the scent was very strong, as if she was standing there!

[color=#483d8b]thanks for letting me share my stories!

[color=#483d8b]~n

I think I would have asked my grandmother to help them cross over.

Specializes in ER/EHR Trainer.

I have several stories that have happened to me and my family.

My great-grandmother was a nurse from Ireland....she also believed that your relatives came to get you when you passed. Right before she died she talked about speaking to her dead children and first husband who died during the Flu 1917. My grandmother(her daughter thought it was nonsense)-she died that night (at home) with a smile on her face. My mother was 10yo and remembered her appearing beautiful and like she saw heaven!

Years later, my grandfather was very depressed and committed suicide-my mother awoke at that exact time shaking and screaming-she said "she felt like death had grabbed her"-my father confirmed it....not something mom wanted to talk about.

When my unbelieving grandmother passed away-she was being treated for kidney stones. My mother had gone home to care for me ( I was a toddler), when she returned she told my mother that she had just missed her father, and grandmother. My father said my mother walked out of the room and went hysterical! Why? Because my mother was a big believer in the supernatural and believed my great-grandmother, especially when she experienced my grandfather's death. My grandmother died that night of uremic poisoning, she was only 59!

When my daughter was two I was cutting the grass-my daughter was safe in her crib napping(or so I thought), I got a bad feeling and heard my name. I stopped cutting the grass went in the house and found my baby hanging from the blind cords-VERY SCARY! I almost disregarded that feeling. She was turning blue and I have no doubt she would have died.

A few years later I was going with my dad and 5 year old to his last soccer game of the year...of course, I wasn't ready, wasn't dressed yet. I kept looking at my dad, and I kept asking him if he was okay. It was weird....I've read books where an author foreshadowed a death, something like " a shadow crossed over his face..." I swear that is exactly what happened. My mother got alarmed and said "why do you keep asking him that?" I really didn't know..it was weird. Crying as I write this, I never saw him alive again. Daddy died of an anuerism-they said he was walking and laughing and that was it! 59yo too and healthy as a horse-it was a family joke that we'd have to hit him over the head with a shovel, he was never sick!

Like her dad, my mom went into a depression...was out two years after my dad's death with the kids....had that bad feeling again, mom had OD'd....got her to the hospital in time. Hate this feeling.

Have had other feelings, weird ideas and thoughts about people..sometimes I don't want to know-and sometimes I believe I shut it off.

Most recently, FIL passed in hospice after brief illness. Even that was weird, DH had checked on dad 30 minutes before I was leaving, but had a bad feeling....found him aspirating on vomit. HATE THESE FEELINGS!

Anyway, the day before he went to hospice he was talking to family, and a friend from his youth that he had kept in touch with-while we sat around watching him. Told us he talked to George, George was coming. Dad did not talk much in hospice, but said George was coming. The day he died we called George's home, we were told that George had passed away 1 year prior on the same day. Coincidence? Maybe George came.

I don't doubt that ghosts, visions, lost souls, evil presences and whatever else you want to call it exists. It stands to the reason that are bodies if controlled by electrical impulses are energy. Energy never dies, so when our body expires-it has to go somewhere.

I have truly enjoyed this thread...keep them coming.

Maisy

PS don't want any feeling anytime soon, mine aren't usually good!

Specializes in Corrections, Cardiac, Hospice.

This just happened yesterday. I was in the bathroom in a patient's room washing my hands and the door slammed shut on me. Not a easy gentle shut, or the wind pushing it shut, but slammed. I had chills all over and went out to the nursing station to report my latest incident. The other nurse told me that she has had that happen every time she is in that room washing her hands. Just to check one time she put her foot in the door to see what would happen, it stayed open until she moved her foot, then WHAM. :sofahider

Maisy

Have you ever been able to stop something from happening?

As for the door. Why do you think it slams??

:typing

Specializes in ER/EHR Trainer.
Maisy

Have you ever been able to stop something from happening?

As for the door. Why do you think it slams??

:typing

I've thought about that alot...I think we all have "feelings" we just ignore....if I'd ignored the feeling about my daughter, she may not be here!

If there was one thing I could've stopped or had that heads up....I would have been with my dad during his last few minutes on earth. I really miss him, he was my buddy. :sniff: If I could have stopped his passing, I would have in a second!

As for the door, haven't got a clue....someone wants to be acknowledged?

who knows maybe nurses are more sensitive....don't you all get that sixth sense when looking at a patient? Can't quite put a finger on it, but just know something isn't right. The difference between stopping an event and picking up after an event is very subtle. I don't know about you guys-I'd rather prevent that clean up!

Maisy

Bumpppppppp

I'd get more than chills. I'd have a priest at my house. I'd be a basket case.

:chuckle:lol: I'd feel the same way!!!

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
I have several stories that have happened to me and my family.

My great-grandmother was a nurse from Ireland....she also believed that your relatives came to get you when you passed. Right before she died she talked about speaking to her dead children and first husband who died during the Flu 1917. My grandmother(her daughter thought it was nonsense)-she died that night (at home) with a smile on her face. My mother was 10yo and remembered her appearing beautiful and like she saw heaven!

Years later, my grandfather was very depressed and committed suicide-my mother awoke at that exact time shaking and screaming-she said "she felt like death had grabbed her"-my father confirmed it....not something mom wanted to talk about.

When my unbelieving grandmother passed away-she was being treated for kidney stones. My mother had gone home to care for me ( I was a toddler), when she returned she told my mother that she had just missed her father, and grandmother. My father said my mother walked out of the room and went hysterical! Why? Because my mother was a big believer in the supernatural and believed my great-grandmother, especially when she experienced my grandfather's death. My grandmother died that night of uremic poisoning, she was only 59!

When my daughter was two I was cutting the grass-my daughter was safe in her crib napping(or so I thought), I got a bad feeling and heard my name. I stopped cutting the grass went in the house and found my baby hanging from the blind cords-VERY SCARY! I almost disregarded that feeling. She was turning blue and I have no doubt she would have died.

A few years later I was going with my dad and 5 year old to his last soccer game of the year...of course, I wasn't ready, wasn't dressed yet. I kept looking at my dad, and I kept asking him if he was okay. It was weird....I've read books where an author foreshadowed a death, something like " a shadow crossed over his face..." I swear that is exactly what happened. My mother got alarmed and said "why do you keep asking him that?" I really didn't know..it was weird. Crying as I write this, I never saw him alive again. Daddy died of an anuerism-they said he was walking and laughing and that was it! 59yo too and healthy as a horse-it was a family joke that we'd have to hit him over the head with a shovel, he was never sick!

Like her dad, my mom went into a depression...was out two years after my dad's death with the kids....had that bad feeling again, mom had OD'd....got her to the hospital in time. Hate this feeling.

Have had other feelings, weird ideas and thoughts about people..sometimes I don't want to know-and sometimes I believe I shut it off.

Most recently, FIL passed in hospice after brief illness. Even that was weird, DH had checked on dad 30 minutes before I was leaving, but had a bad feeling....found him aspirating on vomit. HATE THESE FEELINGS!

Anyway, the day before he went to hospice he was talking to family, and a friend from his youth that he had kept in touch with-while we sat around watching him. Told us he talked to George, George was coming. Dad did not talk much in hospice, but said George was coming. The day he died we called George's home, we were told that George had passed away 1 year prior on the same day. Coincidence? Maybe George came.

I don't doubt that ghosts, visions, lost souls, evil presences and whatever else you want to call it exists. It stands to the reason that are bodies if controlled by electrical impulses are energy. Energy never dies, so when our body expires-it has to go somewhere.

I have truly enjoyed this thread...keep them coming.

Maisy

PS don't want any feeling anytime soon, mine aren't usually good!

This is exactly why I love to watch the TV show, "Ghost Whisperer." That show is about things the actual woman who was on the Oprah Winfrey show a while back told about. She was then asked if she sees a lot of them, and she said she did, but she had to block them out and focus on just one or two at a time.
Specializes in Geriatrics, Alzheimers, Special Needs.

I worked in an alzheimer unit that was supposedly haunted. Now me being a fan of Ghost Hunters wasn't bothered by this so called rumor. I still enjoyed working there, but I was a day shifter.

One month while covering the overnight shift for a co-worker, I expereinced two haunting experiences. I was only a temporary fill in, so I wasn't alone either night, and had my own witness.

The first night I was getting trained and oriented to the overnight shift and what happened when and where. My co-worker and I sat down for some coffee in the dining room around 1am, after we had gotten the wanderers back to sleep.

While she was telling me about the usual nightly procedure, we heard a door slam. Knowing that we had opened and propped each door open for the night, we went to check and see who was up. The door that had slammed was to the room of one of our bedridden residents, who wasn't even capable of sitting up on her own, and she was fast asleep. Not really worried about what happened, I opened the door and pushed the doorstop under the door and made sure that it was secure before I headed back to the dining room with my co-worker.

In a matter of minutes after sitting down, there was another door slam. I didn't know why, but I was certain it was the same door, so this time both of us went down to the room, to not only find the door slammed shut, but locked. We were able to find the key and open the door, finding the patient still fast asleep. Together we both propped the door open and made sure that it was securely propped.

Durring the morning shift change, while doing rounds and checking on patients, we found the same door shut and locked. The door was still propped open and the patient was doing fine at the last check, less than 30 minutes before, and neither of us had heard it shut again. Once we unlocked and opened the door, we found that the patient had passed away.

The second happened the week after. We had just finished checks on the patients rooms, finding all residents safely asleep, and had started on the reports and charting for that night. Everything was calm and quiet and so far uneventful. All of a sudden we hear a loud crash, as if someone had fallen. My co-worker took the west hall and I took the east, and we carefully checked every patient to see who had fallen out of bed. Neither of us found anything out of the ordinary. The same crashing sound happened again before our shift was up.

Now I went back to my day shift, and none of the day shifters believed us about what had happened, but every single night shifter congratulated me on my first experiences, and followed with their own stories. Too many to fit in one post.

Specializes in Med surg, Critical Care, LTC.

3 weeks ago I was on call over the weekend. We had been working 20 hours straight, and I was exhausted. I had my last patient in recovery and then "hopefully" was going to be able to go home and get some rest. So I was very vested in keeping up with the VS, urine output, PCA, incisional assessments, pain, etc... so I would be ready to take the patient to the floor in exactly 1 hour - the minimum time they had to spend in PACU.

Things were going well, the OR nurses had finished cleaning up and said goodbye, anesthesia and the surgeon were long gone, just me and my patient we left.

I was doing my care plan when I heard a noise in the holding area, which is right across from PACU and where I was sitting. It was dark, but there are, for lack of a better word for them, night lights throughout the area, so it's not totally dark.

At first I ignored the noise, it sounded as if someone had moved a chair. I chalked it up to fatigue and kept working. A few minutes later, I heard the same noise, so I looked up, and there was a chair, the stationary kind, not on wheels, sitting in the middle of the floor, facing me. I know this chair wasn't there before, as I had been walking through the area for 20 hours between cases to use the bathroom.

The patient was resting comfortably, and I noted that I had 10 min left before I could take her downstairs. The hair was standing up on the back of my neck and my arms. I couldn't leave her, so I tried to ignore the chair, but felt like it was staring at me.

Maybe another three minutes went by, and I kept glancing at the chair, every minute or two, when it just moved an inch or two backwards. I SAW IT - I WAS LOOKING RIGHT AT IT, NO PERSON MOVED IT!! I basically got up and called the floor saying I was on my way down with the patient. A few minutes early, too bad.

As we were leaving the OR doors, I heard a "BANG", and I just knew the chair had fallen over.

After bringing the patient back from the floor, I look and sure enough, that's exactly what happened. I was either to overtired to care, or my fear mechanism had shorted out, but I walked over to the chair, righted it, and push it back over too the side where it belonged. I looked around and saw nothing, heard nothing.

I cleaned up PACU, all the time waiting for something to happen, but nothing else did. I've been there three years, and nothing else like this has happed before.

I'm NOT looking forward to being there alone again after hours.

I don't dare tell anyone I work with about this, I'm afraid they'll think I'm nuts.

I would have passed the whole thing off as fatigue, except, when I came up from taking the patient to the floor, I physically MOVED the chair to it's right spot, so I kNEW I didn't imagine it.

I've got goose bumps just wrighting about it, and I LIVE in a haunted house. I can deal with a fleeting aparation, or noises, but seeing inanimate objects move, that's too much for me!!

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