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 LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
I want everyone to feel sorry for me :wink2:

I have no nursing ghost stories. All my colleagues have them, but not me - *sigh*

Peri, no, you only think you want everyone to feel sorry for you. Given time, and experience, believe me, you will have experiences. I have had many, but always said the Lord's Prayer or rebuked the name of whoever or whatever was the annoyance In the name of Jesus. That paranormal stuff is not holy, but is of another world trying to frighten us. May you always be protected from that that is evil.
Specializes in paediatric and trauma.

an unoccupied room on peadiatrics is very spooky indeed The other night I was working on nights The call light in

that room would carry on ringing every 5 seconds it was kinda creepy no one for 9 years i have heard have been in that room apparently because pts who had been there before complained of spooky noises and apparitions this kinda freaked me out I avoid that room now

Specializes in paediatric and trauma.

I have another story for you yesterday night I was changing feeding tube formulas and I kept feeling this cold air and ghostly whisper brush past my ear it was kinda creepy and freaked me out a little but I haven't let it get to me 1 hour later a girl called lauren who was in that bay where I was when it happend went into respiratory distress and was taken to ICU she was intubated and a few hours later we got a call from ICU saying that she had gone into cardiac arrest and died she was only six years old bless her the thing that didn't add up was the fact she had no problems with her respiratory system so it must have been something to do with that ghostly happening im freaked out now

Specializes in Home Care,Psych, Long Term Care.

In the early-mid 80's, my first nursing job was working on night shift on an inpatient psychiatric unit for adolescents in Pittsburgh.

The unit was set up as a long hallway, with the nursing station in the middle and a day room on each of the two ends of the hallway.

The two dayrooms were fairly far from the nursing station, and we had a staffperson sitting in the east dayroom and another sitting in the west dayroom at all times. Sitting by ourselves for the most part, watching the graveyard shift hours click by.

Several night shift folk, including our unflappable charge nurse, told me that there was a ghost at the west wing of the hall.

This supposedly started happening after a patient hung himself in that room.

Some of the staff who were there at night would hear the door of a particular room rattle pretty loudly at times. The story was that a few of the patients who stayed in the room complained from time to time about the rattling of the door.

Much creepier than that.... were the stories from several staff describing that when they were sitting at night in the dayroom, they would feel hands gently circling the back of their neck.

Being young and adventerous and interested in ghosts, I often volunteered to sit watch at night in the west dayroom.

My thinking was, it would be kind of neat to see the door rattle, or maybe even see an apparition, as long as it wasnt right up in my face, and didnt look too scary.

Nothing happened when I was there. That may have been a good thing, because if that ghost had touched me with "gentle hands on the neck", I probably would have jumped up out of my chair, yelled the F word at the top of my lungs, and ran to the nurses station screaming the name of the charge nurse.

That would look good on the evaluation of a new nurse fresh out of school. :bugeyes:

Specializes in LTC, Subacute Rehab.
My best ghost story doesn't involve a ghost but rather myself. I was working my usual wing on a graveyard shift. I was the only staff on the wing. I went to do rounds on a resident when i saw my own shadow on her door. My hart jumped about en feet in the air before i realized it was just my shadow.

When I was about thirteen, I was sleeping over at a friend's house. I came back from the bathroom about 0300... only to see somebody walking toward me from the other end of the hallway...

I just about died of fright before I remembered the full-length mirror...

Specializes in Home Care,Psych, Long Term Care.

I am resurrecting an old, very popular thread that started in the year 2000 and continues to get posts. The thread is 147 pages long and is too big to reload to the top of the homepage, so I am starting a fresh thread.

The url below is for the older thread. If you like ghost stories, scroll past the first few entries and enjoy some spooky reading!

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/whats-your-best-108202.html

Here is my story:

In the early-mid 80's, my first nursing job was working on night shift on an inpatient psychiatric unit for adolescents in Pittsburgh.

The unit was set up as a long hallway, with the nursing station in the middle and a day room on each of the two ends of the hallway.

The two dayrooms were fairly far from the nursing station, and we had a staffperson sitting in the east dayroom and another sitting in the west dayroom at all times. Sitting by ourselves for the most part, watching the graveyard shift hours click by.

Several night shift folk, including our unflappable charge nurse, told me that there was a ghost at the west wing of the hall.

This supposedly started happening after a patient hung himself in that room.

Some of the staff who were there at night would hear the door of a particular room rattle pretty loudly at times. The story was that a few of the patients who stayed in the room complained from time to time about the rattling of the door.

Much creepier than that.... were the stories from several staff describing that when they were sitting at night in the dayroom, they would feel hands gently circling the back of their neck.

Being young and adventerous and interested in ghosts, I often volunteered to sit watch at night in the west dayroom.

My thinking was, it would be kind of neat to see the door rattle, or maybe even see an apparition, as long as it wasnt right up in my face, and didn't look too scary.

Nothing happened when I was there. That may have been a good thing, because if that ghost had touched me with "gentle hands on the neck", I probably would have jumped up out of my chair, yelled the F word at the top of my lungs, and ran to the nurses station screaming the name of the charge nurse.

That would look good on the evaluation of a new nurse fresh out of school. :bugeyes:

Specializes in Home Care,Psych, Long Term Care.

There must be a ghost in my computer LOL. The older thread would not show up for me on the Nursing Discussion page until after I posted thread #2. :idea:

Specializes in LTC, geriatric, psych, rehab.

At our nursing home, we have an older lady in a red dress who goes into rooms supposedly to check on residents during the nite. Several of the alert residents have seen her. They didn't know the story, but still saw her. One man awoke one nite to find a ghostly lady in a red dress standing by his bed and leaning over to look in his face. Apparently about 15 yrs ago, one of residents was a lady who had a red dress she loved to wear. She died there, but has been seen ever since. I have never seen her, but we love to tell the story to new nurses esp around halloween.

Specializes in CMSRN.

About 2 weeks ago we had a proportionally large amount of pt's die. They were long term pt's and DNR's but within 2 weeks 5 of them died. Nothing that would be considered suspicious though. (2 were there for 5 months and the other 3 for a few weeks/we are gensurg floor and usually do not have long term pt's)

Well one lady had green streaks in her hair. She was eccentric and pulled it off well. She was 95. She died in room 10. Well one week after she died a pt was admitted to the same room and asked a nurse on duty who a woman was that came into her room at 0500. She described the person, which sounded like any one of our elderly pt's but when she mentioned the color of hair we knew who it was.

Because the pt was adimant about knowing why she would be in her room, I told her we have elderly volunteers and they come in early and maybe she stopped by to see how she was doing.

I work NOC at a LTC facility. Recently I had a lady call me in her room at about 2 am. The first thing that I noticed was that her door was half open, which is very odd because she likes her room very dark. So, I thought that she just wanted me to close the door. When I went in her room she said that someone just opened the door, went in her bathroom, and used the sink. She wanted to know who was in her room. I told her I was the only one there, and that I didn't see anybody go in her room. This lady is completely lucid, and truely believed someone had been in her room. I just thought that was kinda creepy. Does anybody else have any creepy stories?

Specializes in NA.

wow, that is kinda creepy. I can imagine creepy things happening in nursing homes, considering i'm sure many deaths may take place there. I'm going to be a cna too. I was considering the grave yard shift because i thought it would be a little easier because most of the patients would probabley be sleep. but I am a big scary cat! i dont want any bad experience to happen to me. I would totally freak the heck out!!!!

Hi Carebear,

I am sorry for your creepy experience. She probably just thought she heard something - the dark can play tricks on the best of us at different times!

I am a CNA student and intrested in nights 11-7 - can you tell what a typical night is like for you?

Thanks so much!

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