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...

Specializes in Acute post op ortho.

We had an elderly, terminal woman in a room right next to the nurses station. One night we heard 2 distinct voices, it was around 3am & we all thought it was odd for a visitor to come at that hour. I went in to see what was going on & she was alone in her room.

When I asked her about the voices she said "oh, that was my husband, he just dropped by to see me. She passed the next night. I was breaking her chart down & something on her H&P caught my eye.

Her husband had been dead for 20 years.

We had an elderly, terminal woman in a room right next to the nurses station. One night we heard 2 distinct voices, it was around 3am & we all thought it was odd for a visitor to come at that hour. I went in to see what was going on & she was alone in her room.

When I asked her about the voices she said "oh, that was my husband, he just dropped by to see me. She passed the next night. I was breaking her chart down & something on her H&P caught my eye.

Her husband had been dead for 20 years.

Whatevs, they were probably just talking about her travel arrangements.

Specializes in Getting my LVN first, the onto my RN!!!!.

There is one room in the post partum unit of the hospital that always smells like men's cologne! When you enter the room, the door shuts without being touched, and the lights appear to be off from outside the building, when they are on on the inside!!! Creeepy! We have to warn the newbies from mentioning anything around patients!

Specializes in LTC private/CBRF.

I am currently taking CNA classes and our class's labs are split up between the nursing home the classes are in and another nursing home.

The other nursing home is where my mother was for a couple of months and where she died.

A fellow student and I were talking about where we would like to work after we are certified and he said, "I wouldn't want to work at 'DS'!" and he shuddered. "It's CREEPY!"

I told him I knew it was creepy. When my mom was in her last few weeks, my brother came to see her and she said to him, "Are you the angel of death, coming to take me away?" My poor brother was devasted.

"No, Mom, it's me, Tim."

And she told him there were people there for her -- often. She told me this also and mentioned dark and shadowy figures. As she was closer to death (liver failure from massive meds for congestive heart failure) she was foggy and confused and eventually had no idea what was going on. Of course that could have been much of it, but it made sense...

I don't know anyone that works there to ask just what goes on there at night, but I do know from spending many days and evenings there that her wing was very scary. When you'd walk down the hall away from the nurse's station, you could definitely feel "presences" and the air was very heavy and rather ominous. To leave the building at night, you'd have to take the elevator down to the first floor where there were a couple of offices and the cafeteria at the end of a VERY DARK hallway. The glow of the EXIT lights were enough to light the hall so you did NOT want to look! I would avoid looking down that hallway and walk so fast the other direction to the door that I practically ran!

*shivers*

I don't particularly want to work there either. Maybe that's why they pay so well and their pm/night differential is so great!!

Specializes in acute rehab, med surg, LTC, peds, home c.

My 1st job was 3-11 in LTC and we had a lady who would always ring a bell when she needed something instead of a regular call bell. After she died, once in while we would hear the bell, even though no one had a bell anymore. We would all tip toe down the hall together looking for a pt with a bell and could find none but we all heard it.

Specializes in Corrections, Cardiac, Hospice.

Had a patient wake up FURIOUS a couple monthes ago. She said the bus had been there to get her, but "that damn fat woman took up two seats" and I was told that there was no more room for me. The next day, she was a bit more subdued, a veteran was waiting and she let him go first. The next morning, she died.

Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

freaky. When my grandfather was in his last days, he resided at a nursing home. He would point up at the ceiling and say there's Uncle Richard....I have an uncle named Richard who lives in texas and my dad's uncle was named Richard also. He died about 25 years before while cleaning his gun. I think my grandfather saw him.

Specializes in Corrections, Cardiac, Hospice.
freaky. When my grandfather was in his last days, he resided at a nursing home. He would point up at the ceiling and say there's Uncle Richard....I have an uncle named Richard who lives in texas and my dad's uncle was named Richard also. He died about 25 years before while cleaning his gun. I think my grandfather saw him.

Working inpt Hospice, I see this all the time. Some may call it hallucinations but it is ALWAYS someone who is dead. It isn't like grandpa sees John who is at home with his kids. Grandpa sees his brothers and sisters who are dead. They are sometimes able to tell us when they are going to die. Oh, my favorite? The guy who had a "healthy" brother die while he was a patient with us. His family told us we weren't allowed to tell him his brother died because then he would just "give up." He said to his nurse " I know what your not telling me, do you think you can hide that from me? He already came and told me he was dead and I know that I am next. So if you cannot be honest, get out of my room." We told his family that if they wouldn't tell him his brother died, we would because it was breaking down his trust in us, because HE ALREADY KNEW!:rolleyes:

Creepy

thanks for sharing your stories

Specializes in Med-Surg, Rehab,Acute LTC ,PCU.

I worked in a local nursing home several years ago,and there were two confused ladies in a semi-private room. The lady by the window, we'll call her Mrs.L, had an old fashioned looking black and white photo of an old woman with a shawl on. She would turn on her side all the time and chatter to it. I asked her who it was, she said it was her mother. One day I went into the room to medicate the roommate and the partition curtain was drawn between them. There was just enough of a gap in the curtain to see that Mrs.L had a visitor with a red shawl on . She was talking like she always does. I came back down to the nurses sation and asked one of my coworkers who the visitor was. She said she hadn't seen anyone go in there. So I went back into the room to meet the visitor and no one was there. I asked Mrs. L who she was visiting with and she said, "my mother came in. " I said it could not have been her. I then looked at the picture again at the woman in the picture and asked her what she wears, Mrs. L says " her red shawl today." Scared the hell out of me!! I got out of there. The other nurse said she had seen "mom" before too.:uhoh21:

Specializes in PACU, ED.

My wife has worked in hospice for 19 years. She told me of a patient who passed in their inpatient unit. No pulse, no breathing, mottled, cold, dead. She asked another nurse to help her prepare him for his family. They went into the room and started cleaning off the bedside table and straightening up. Then both froze as the patient's right arm slowly bent at the elbow, raised his hand to his face and scratched the side of his nose with his index finger. Then it relaxed on his face. They both got out of there and it took awhile for my wife to convince her coworker to go back in with her to finish prepping him. He didn't move again and they worked as quickly as they could.

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