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 12 years exp in corporate healthcare.

..sorry the call light came on and I still broke camp (having computer problems today)..LOL!

Love reading your stories!:typing

I have answered bells of palliative patients who have rang to ask me who the man in black is standing at the foot of their bed...I ask if the man is scary and they always reply no, but wholly man does it ever freak the crap out of me...we also have a 4 bed room on our floor that numerous people have reported seeing something under the one bed..I havent seen it thank god....

There was also this one night shift, which was more of a divine intervention more than anything that touched me so deeply that I cried for 2 days afterwards cause I just couldnt believe it... It was my very first night shift ever, it was supposed to be orientation but since we were short I was just thrown in there...I went on break and set my clock for an hour cause we would usually sleep...I hear my alarm go off and I am panicked because I have this feeling that I have to go back out right this minute like I was late for something..I wake up the others who are mad at me cause they swear they still have 15 minutes, but I am positive we must go back right now...so we go back, I check on my patients, the first door I enter is ice cold my hair stands up and I watch my patient take his last breath...so I call a code, code teams comes so fast and end up resucitating him he goes to ICU....I sit down for a moment to catch my breathe and chart and the alarm I thought went off then goes off, and I swear to this day time stood still for 15 min cause when i checked my watch I swear it was the exact same time it was when I came back from break...it was meant to be, something told me to go back to save this mans life...if it was 15 min later he would have died for sure...

Specializes in neurology, cardiology, ED.

My ghost stories are nowhere near as spooky as any of these-I started at the beginning, and have been reading for about an hour, but now have to go to bed. I called my dog from upstairs so he can walk back up the stairs with me in the dark :)

So I work in the oldest of the still populated wings in an older hospital. I used to work on the fourth floor, where one night I was helping a nurse straighten an elderly female patient in bed. This woman had been very lethargic, and hadn't spoken in days, but as we leaned over her, she looked past us into the upper left hand corner of the room and said very clearly "who is that?" The nurse and I both looked in that direction and saw nothing. We told her we didn't see anything, but she insisted that there was someone in that corner. She died the next day.

My other ghost story is probably just a case of me freaking myself out. I was sent up to the 6th floor - which had been the ICU for years, but at that time was deserted - to look for an IV pole. It was the middle of the night, I had only ever been up there during the daytime before. As I made the circuit of all of the empty, shadowy rooms I was just overcome with this feeling of dread. Needless to say, I hightailed it out of there - sans IV pole!

Specializes in Respiratory, Med/Surg.

This one pt I had had a broken leg and pneumonia. She was complaining to me about the leg injury one shift. She said that she only got it because of an accident the ambulance had bringing her to the hospital. It went off the road into a swampy area. It was in the middle of winter, so the water was extreamly cold. The pt said she just wanted to go to sleep, but a woman was calling her name and telling her not to. She didn't think anything of it until she was in a new abulance going to the ER. She said she wanted to thank the female EMT for keeping her awake, it most likely saved her life. But she was told that the EMT were both men, there was no woman there. I got a chill when I heard this.

Specializes in Home Health.

The best way I can describe what has happened to me is that I have had several patients who were very near death give me "prophecies" about what would happen to me in the future and they have come true.

It was not general information like "you will have a good life."

It was very specific, and in sequence, "Such and such will happen, then such and such will happen." Fortunatly they have been good "prophecies" and not bad.

Specializes in Respiratory, Med/Surg.

Well I was ust talking to a co-worker about some of these stories, and she asked if I knew the story of out room 601. I have only been here 6 months, so I havn't. She says there was a young man who was in a ATV accident and dies in that room. Sometimes, if it is unoccupied, you can nudge the door open a little and vaguly see him around the privacy curtain. Also, there are darting shadows that have been seen at that end of the hall....I doubt I'll sleep well when I get home now.

... there was a young man who was in a ATV accident and dies in that room. Sometimes, if it is unoccupied, you can nudge the door open a little and vaguly see him around the privacy curtain.

BLAAAAAH! Is he looking right back at you????

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

I think for the people you feel are still lingering at the hospital. Just tell them you, have died. You need to go into the light.

It is ok. I have prayed for your soul. If you have sined just ask for forgiveness.

It is ok to cross over now.........

Or something like that.

No need to feel afraid of them. :redpinkhe

I used be in another health-care field before I became a nurse. My story is based in a hospital that has since become a long-term care facility. I worked the 11 pm to 7 am shift. Every morning at about 4 am I did my ICU rounds. One particular morning as I entered the ICU, I sensed something was odd because the 3 nurses at the nurse station were unusually quiet. I asked one in a whisper, "Is something wrong". She replied quietly, "I started with the monitor turning on by itself". She signaled toward an empty room. I watched as the curtain around the hospital bed moved on it's own until it stoped exposing the whole bed. The last patient to die in that bed was a hospital employee who became acutely ill. I still at times run into these nurses somewhere and remind them of that occurence. They acknowledge the experience too. I don't have an scientific explanation for what we saw. Subsequently, I have observed other phenomenon at another hospital I worked at in the presence of others. I wonder.

I am not a nurse, but was directed to this forum about ghost stories, from my sister who is a nurse. Really enjoying the reading!

Not necessarily a ghost story, but my Mom passed away in 2006, and there have been a couple of strange incidents associated with that.

  • After my Mom had a massive stroke, she developed dementia during the last few months of her life. Probably the only good thing about her dementia was that she "forgot" that my Dad had passed away 18 months earlier, and she often talked of him as if he was there (who knows - maybe he was?). She needed 24 hour nursing care, so we reluctantly placed her in a nursing home. She was confused as to time and place most of the time, and was often angry and would act out (I think caused by frustration). I visited every day after work. She was basically holding her own for about 2 months, however, one morning I woke up around 5 AM with an overwhelming sense that I needed to see her earlier than normal, so I decided to visit before work. It was about a 10 minute drive to the nursing facility, and about 2 blocks from my home my cell phone rang - It was the home notifying me that she had taken a turn for the worst, and that I should come ASAP. I told them I was already on my way. She lasted about 20 more hours, never regaining consciousness, before passing away peacefully.

  • My Mom had many grandchildren, but was closest to my daughter. My parents had watched my daughter every week day for 12 years while I worked, so they were really close. My daughter was 17 when my Mom had her stroke. Just prior to my Mom's death, my daughter had gone to a camp for several days. Unfortunately, my Mom passed away while my daughter was away. After leaving the nursing home, I came home and called the camp office and asked them to have her please call me. When my daughter called, her first words to me were "Nana died, didn't she?" I told her yes. My daughter told me that the night before she had a dream in which she saw my Dad's hand, and then my Mom reach out and take his hand, and she knew that meant that Nana had passed away.

  • About 6 months after Mom's passing, I was sound asleep when I heard her calling me. I woke up, and looked at the alarm clock - it read 3:16 AM. I went back to sleep, assuming of course that I had been dreaming of her. I didn't mention the incident to anyone, really not even thinking about it the next day in my rush to get through my morning rituals and get to work. The next day my daughter told me she had dreamed of Nana the night before, and it was a disturbing dream. She said in her dream the entire family was at some picnic, and Nana was there. She said Nana was really agitated, and kept calling for me, and was highly upset that I wasn't there. My daughter said she woke up, and when she looked at the clock it was 3:16! I told her what happened to me and we both figured my Mom was trying to get my attention for something, although I haven't figured out what.

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
I am not a nurse, but was directed to this forum about ghost stories, from my sister who is a nurse. Really enjoying the reading!

Not necessarily a ghost story, but my Mom passed away in 2006, and there have been a couple of strange incidents associated with that.

  • After my Mom had a massive stroke, she developed dementia during the last few months of her life. Probably the only good thing about her dementia was that she "forgot" that my Dad had passed away 18 months earlier, and she often talked of him as if he was there (who knows - maybe he was?). She needed 24 hour nursing care, so we reluctantly placed her in a nursing home. She was confused as to time and place most of the time, and was often angry and would act out (I think caused by frustration). I visited every day after work. She was basically holding her own for about 2 months, however, one morning I woke up around 5 AM with an overwhelming sense that I needed to see her earlier than normal, so I decided to visit before work. It was about a 10 minute drive to the nursing facility, and about 2 blocks from my home my cell phone rang - It was the home notifying me that she had taken a turn for the worst, and that I should come ASAP. I told them I was already on my way. She lasted about 20 more hours, never regaining consciousness, before passing away peacefully.

  • My Mom had many grandchildren, but was closest to my daughter. My parents had watched my daughter every week day for 12 years while I worked, so they were really close. My daughter was 17 when my Mom had her stroke. Just prior to my Mom's death, my daughter had gone to a camp for several days. Unfortunately, my Mom passed away while my daughter was away. After leaving the nursing home, I came home and called the camp office and asked them to have her please call me. When my daughter called, her first words to me were "Nana died, didn't she?" I told her yes. My daughter told me that the night before she had a dream in which she saw my Dad's hand, and then my Mom reach out and take his hand, and she knew that meant that Nana had passed away.

  • About 6 months after Mom's passing, I was sound asleep when I heard her calling me. I woke up, and looked at the alarm clock - it read 3:16 AM. I went back to sleep, assuming of course that I had been dreaming of her. I didn't mention the incident to anyone, really not even thinking about it the next day in my rush to get through my morning rituals and get to work. The next day my daughter told me she had dreamed of Nana the night before, and it was a disturbing dream. She said in her dream the entire family was at some picnic, and Nana was there. She said Nana was really agitated, and kept calling for me, and was highly upset that I wasn't there. My daughter said she woke up, and when she looked at the clock it was 3:16! I told her what happened to me and we both figured my Mom was trying to get my attention for something, although I haven't figured out what.

Interesting.
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