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...

[Hygiene Queen]

Oooooh, I do love ghost stories, heheh!

I grew up in an old house that was haunted, I swear!

My friends never liked coming over. It just felt creepy.

Anyway, I was in bed sleeping and woke up to hear my name called in a smooth voice that sounded as though it came from a tin can... it sounded "tinny". It was right in my ear and I freaked and ran to my sister's room where I slept on the floor!

Another time, something YANKED the covers down on my bed. It was a yank, not a gentle tug. I could justify it as a muscle spasm or something on my part, but the room felt so "heavy". I freaked and ran to my sister's room... and prepared to sleep on the floor, once again.

I told my sister what happened and that there was NO WAY I was going to sleep in my room. My sister was a little scared, but not scared enough to not be amused.

She says, in a low creepy sing-song voice (as I'm trying to camp out on the floor) "Hygiene! It's coming to get yooooou....It's slithering across the floor... it's not using it's arms or legs...it's just slithering across the flooooooor....."

I told her to shut up! shut up! shut up!

I slept on her floor for over a month!!

I also ran from that house several times when I was alone. I'd just get these horrid creepy feelings that I was not alone... I was convinced something was around and it wasn't comforting.

I once got to work an hour early because I just couldn't stand it. I felt like something was upstairs while I was downstairs... it was odd. It felt bad. That time, I literally ran out the door, barely able to lock it behind me, I was so freaked out.

There was a lot more weird stuff, but that's enough for now. I have to study!

[twistedpupchaser]

I have two stories, the first was when I was working on a different ward I felt a weirdness when I went to the storage cage at the end of the ward. I felt an anger suggesting I leave immediately. I got what I needed and left. I didn't speak of this thinking it was just tiredness. A few weeks later another nurse came running from the hallway looking dare I say as white as a ghost saying that the empty room next to the storage cage realy freaked her out. The other staff laughed and each had their own stories of that particular room.

A few weeks later we had a Pt wanting earplugs because the people in the next room were talking too loud. We assessed him and sat in the room with him and heard nothing. After the team leader called the RMO for an Ax we heard screams from the Pt telling the voices to stop. It was then that I thought of the room where the voices were coming from. Maybe he was oriented.....

My other story is from last week, we had a Pt pass in one of our rooms. In the next room we have a Pt who is constant care, a PCA sits outside his room in the hallway betwen both rooms. The PCA heard a noise like someone urinating in the toilet followed by thye toilet flushing. Knowing that the room was empty she checked out the room and it was stil empty and noone could have gone in or out without her seeing them. She told me about this and I mentioned the Pt who had died several days earlier, bad move this just put her on edge even more.

I told the team leader wanting to know if there was a ghost on this ward and he laughed at me and my silly imagination. He told me to watch the PCA from the other end of the hallway he went into one of the Pt's bathrooms and flushed the toilet. Amazingly the PCA jumped up and bolted down the hallway as if the hounds of hell were chasing her. My team leader was rolling around laughing, aparantly the plumbing pressure builds up when the toilets are not flushed and for some reason this particular toilet would flush when the pressure was built up and another on that hallway was flushed. They get all of the new staff with that one.

[ShayRN]

I can almost always tell when we are going to have a death at work. When I am sitting charting at the nurses's station I see things out of the corner of my eye. But when I look up there is nothing there. Told night turn the other night, we are going to lose more than one soon down the high hall. There was A LOT of activity going on tonight. Within 12 hours two patient died.

[grace90, LPN, LVN]

Geesh, it's broad daylight and I'm freaked out and home alone after reading the stories above. Yikes! :sofahider:dzed::gtch:

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

Yes. Pennywise is in there a couple times.

I hate clowns...

Where's the clown? I don't see one.

[sirI, MSN, APRN, NP]

Where's the clown? I don't see one.

I got the distinct impression members were bothered by the avatar, so I changed. it.

[nightmare, RN]

I got the distinct impression members were bothered by the avatar, so I changed. it.

Certainly freaked me out! [[[[[shudder]]]]] love the witches,sirI.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

My sister was a little scared, but not scared enough to not be amused.

She says, in a low creepy sing-song voice (as I'm trying to camp out on the floor) "L***! It's coming to get yooooou....It's slithering across the floor... it's not using it's arms or legs...it's just slithering across the flooooooor....."

This reminds me of a time I was on Decadron. Heh heh, love the stuff. It completely altered my personality. I became very funny and agressive. I would make phone calls to various people then forget to disconnect. One time the phone call was to my daughter, and I told her there was a green monster ready to grab her tootsies, so she better keep them up. How do I know? I'm under the couch. The following evening I phoned the same number and sand Polly Wolly Doodle to my SIL. After he hung up the phone, he went into the bathroom where my daughter was and said; "Laurel, I think they've legalized marijhuana down at that hospital. Do you know what your mom just did? She sang Polly Wolly Doodle to me.

Now, my voice always gets deep when I have to have treatments. This time and one other it was very deep. Anyway, I phoned my friend Andee, and when she answered, I said; "Deep!" she replied; "Come on Fran stop fooling around. What do you want? I again said; "Deep!" She hung up.

But the best two parts were when a bunch of nurses were in the break room and I had my call light on for a whole hour. By that time all three of us in the same room had to use the commode. When two of them walked by the room, I yelled; "Yep, there they go! I had this light on for a whole hour and nobody helped us yet. They just walk right on by! 15 minutes later 3 nurses came into our room and couldn't help us enough. They were sooo nice to us.

I saved the best one for last though. This time it was my old doc who I had batted heads with time and time again, because he didn't believe me. I even confronted him face to face before. But this time was different. Fearlessfanny was on board now. I laid him out good when he told me he was going to send me home on Prednisone. I told him I wasn't going to fill the prescription because it gave me steroid induced myopathy and a PE, and asked him if he wanted to finish me off. He then melted right down like a puppy and asked me what I wanted to go home on. I went home on a Z pack, and I fired him not long after that.

[LanaConga]

i really thought this thread would be bumping around this time of the year.....

[MrsMommaRN]

come on ladies and gents. let's get this thread up and rolling. i love this kind of stuff and so do the readers here.

i will share a story that has been told about our facility.

the hospital i work in is quite old. it was run by nuns back in the day. it used to have its own nursing school. the hospital is small and during the holidays we are known to close a floor and combine floors. during this time a year or so ago my floor was closed. at lunch two of the nurses from our floor came up to the floor to eat their lunch. we have bp cuffs on rollers and they make a distinct noise when you roll them down the hall. as the two nurses were @ the nurses station they heard one of the bp set ups rolling down the hall. they went to look and it was rolling down the hall on its own and went into room 1 @ the end of the hall. two weeks later we had a young man code and die in the same room.

[Hygiene Queen]

While this isn't a ghost story, it is something I'd like to point out.

Working in Psych will, on occasion, almost make one wonder if there isn't truly something in the whole "demonic possession" concept.

When you hear your patient holding a conversation in two distinct voices, you tend to get the willies!

We had one lady who switched between being her "normal" self and her deceased sister.

Her "normal" voice would argue with the "sister's" voice (which was very very deep absolutely evil sounding... a growl).

Watching her and hearing her flip back and forth was a trip!

Now, rationally, you'd remind yourself you are working in Psych, but still, it just gave you the chills.

As one of our devout Catholic nurses said, "Oh myyyyyy... she doesn't need a psychiatrist-- she needs a priest!!"

[yousoldtheworld]

At the nursing home I used to work at, it was a well known fact that VERY often, residents would complain about seeing children in their rooms, and within a few days, they'd pass. I only worked there for about four months, but just in that time, I remember six different people who passed away after complaining about the children.

The one time I was present for the actual death, I remember very clearly. It was actually the first time I'd heard of the children phenomenon. I was working the 5 p.m. - 5 a.m. shift, and one of my patients had mentioned seeing children a couple of times in the previous couple of days, but she was suffering from dementia and I didn't think much of it. I got her ready for bed, she was acting like herself and things had been going pretty smoothly. Around 11:00 or so, her call light was going off. I went in to check on her, and she said "Those children are in here again, and I'm trying to sleep. Can you make them leave?" I reassured her that no one was there, opened her closet and bathroom so she could see, and went back into the hall. About 15 minutes later, her light was on again. I went in and she was a little more stressed. "I really can't sleep with these kids in here talking!!!" I tried to calm her down, and went back out. Not even five minutes later, her call light is going off again and she's calling out for help. I rush down and she's sitting up in bed, looking terrified. "Please help, that man came in here and he won't get his kids out. I'm scared." I was starting to get a little alarmed, but I talked to her for a few minutes, calmed her down, and went back into the hall. Immediately both her call light, the empty bed beside her's call light, and a call light across the hall started going off and she was screaming for us to make the man leave. The nurse came back from her lunch break gave her something for anxiety. I told the nurse about what had been happening, and her face went white. She told me that it was a regular occurring thing at the facility for patients to talk about seeing children in days before they passed away, but none had ever mentioned a man. I was freaked out, and I went in to check on her. She was sleeping comfortably, so I checked in with my nurses and went on my lunch break.

When I returned 45 minutes later, she had passed. Earlier in the night, she'd seemed fine (aside from the anxiety) and her vitals had been good. It was really unexpected.

The same facility also had a closed down wing that was no longer used, except for storage. Every once in a while, one of us would have to run down there to get something like an extra chair or table out of storage, and every person I worked with on nights had at least a story or two about creepy things they'd seen down there. The first time I went down there to get something, I swore I saw a man walking behind me in the reflection of one of those round mirrors that they put in corners so you can see down both halls. Another time, I walked into one of the rooms to get something and a desk just fell over. Most of the people I worked with refused to go down there alone.