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 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.

  • 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.

simply ask her.....

Not a ghost story per se but it does allways remind me of the infamous nurse gallows humor that seems to develop as a coping skill. Several years ago I was working a sub acute unit as a tech (non cna aide). I worked the 11p to 7am shift and spent most of my time answering call lights, taking vitals, getting linens, etc. The unit had one room designated as an emergency hospice room since most patients who were admited to that room passed within 12-24 hrs of admit. The room was almost never used while I was there but many of the night shift nurses would tell the techs "spooky" stories related to that room such as seeing people out of the corners of their eye, hearing voices talking to the patient with no one else in room, etc. Well one night I was working the hall, and a call light came up...from the hospice room. I got down there and there was no pt in room so i turned off the call, checked the bathroom, and even checked with the nurses station to make sure there was no pt in the room. I went back to my work and ten minutes later call light ring outs..same room..the nurses at the station are now looking at each other saying "thats weird". I go back down there..nothing again. back to work. 15 minutes later call light again...this time i tromp down there determined to disconect the call light call. I entered the room just in time to hear a small childlike voice rasp "help me"..I froze, felt the hair go up on my neck..and slowly entered the room to turn off the call light....as I approached the bed I got one of those 6th sense feelings i wasnt alone which added to my imagination even more..I kept looking in the window to see if i could see anyone else in the reflection..I just knew I was gonna see someone behind me...no one. I let out a sigh..turned off the call light..turned to leave...and a hand reaches out from personal articles/extra linen closet and grabs my arm....I shrieked like a little girl (I was 30 yrs old and a 200+lb male)..one of the nurses had snuck down the hall and hid in the closet..the nurses at the call station had been setting off the call light from the desk..the voice asking for help was a nurse muffling her voice over the room intercom. I didnt speak to any of them for the last 4 hours of my shift but at least I "livened up" what normally was a long tedious shift. I was angry for 2 weeks..until we got a new tech..who asked me about the "death room" and did I ever see anything in there? Well I told him all the stories i had heard...and when he went down the hall to start his rounds.. The nurses grinned at me and said "wait until he is on the next hall before you get in the closet"

magjentes

Before you to go to bed. Ask your mom to come to you in a dream again. And, be more direct with her message to you.

I believe they can hear you on the other side.

Specializes in OB/Gyn, L&D, NICU.

You have quite a bit of fun with your history of rude posts, don't you?

Wow I wonder why they call you "scarymary" ...

I could never GUESS why ... LOL

Specializes in Clinical, Hospice, Home Care, and HH.

OMG!!!

Specializes in OB/Gyn, L&D, NICU.

I apologize. That member has not posted for a long time. The matter has been resolved.

Specializes in Paed Ortho, PICU, CTICU, Paeds Retrieval.

Not a ghost story (maybe an urban myth), but scary all the same:

A group of 4 nursing students were on their last day of a clinical placement and were very happy to be finishing. They decided that they would go out after their shift had finished to celebrate. However, by the evening one of the four had had such a tough day that she decided to stay in the dormitory and get an early night. The other three head to the nearest bar, where one of them realizes that she left her cash back at the dormitory. "Thats ok" said the other two, "we are walking past the dormitory on our way to the next bar, we can pick up the cash then". They had a few drinks and when it came time to move on to the next bar one of them slipped into the dorm building. Seeing no light on when she opened the door to their room she decided to be kind and knowing that her cash was on her bedside cabinet she tiptoed in with the lights off, grabbed her cash and tiptoed out.

Several hours later.....

The girls arrive home in the small hours and as they are walking up the street they see a lot of police activity. As they reach the police cordon they are stopped and asked to move on. They explain that they live in the dorm building and are immediately taken to a senior officer who explains that there has been a terrible incident and that their friend has been killed. They are not allowed into the building because the forensic team is there. One of the girls needs to get her medication which is in the room, so the senior officer relents and escorts her into the building. When they enter the room it is full of forensic teams in white jump suits. The matress is covered in blood. When she goes into the bathroom to get her medication she sees a message written on the bathroom mirror in her own lipstick...

"YOU WERE LUCKY THAT YOU NEVER TURNED ON THE LIGHTS!"

Your story does have elements of an urban myth but also is very close to a very real series of events that occured in Boston 1962-1963 with a serial rapist/murderer who became known as the Boston Strangler. For some strange reason a lot of his victims were nurses or worked in the medical field.

""WARNING" links give very graphic portrayals of the crimes and crime scenes.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896645,00.html reprint of a story in Time Magazine from 1963

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/boston/index_1.html very graphic depiction of the Bostone strangler muders.

Specializes in Paed Ortho, PICU, CTICU, Paeds Retrieval.

And now a true story.

On our unit we were caring for a pt who was in heart failure. He was so skinny, but had this bloated belly. He was a DNR case and was fully aware that he was going to die. One evening he started to go downhill very fast and was very aware of what was happening and was very scared. He suddenly revoked the DNR order and asked that we resuscitate him. What happened next was bizarre - he arrested and we set about the resus, except the bed kept repositioning into a chair position. It must have been a short in the electrics or something. Anyway the resus was unsuccessful - coding a person in a seated position does not work well.

A few months later I was looking after a patient who had a really rocky recovery post op. Her mother was terrified. When we were finally able to extubate her the mother started to update her on what had happened and how close to death she had been. The patient turned to her mother and told her not to worry.... the skinny man with the big belly had been with her and had told her she was going to be ok. She couldn't tell her the mans name - he had never told her.. but he had a bird on his shoulder. The patient that died had an eagle tattooed on the upper arm!

Specializes in Paed Ortho, PICU, CTICU, Paeds Retrieval.
Your story does have elements of an urban myth but also is very close to a very real series of events that occured in Boston 1962-1963 with a serial rapist/murderer who became known as the Boston Strangler. For some strange reason a lot of his victims were nurses or worked in the medical field.

""WARNING" links give very graphic portrayals of the crimes and crime scenes.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896645,00.html reprint of a story in Time Magazine from 1963

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/boston/index_1.html very graphic depiction of the Bostone strangler muders.

Very interesting - thanks for the article.

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
And now a true story.

On our unit we were caring for a pt who was in heart failure. He was so skinny, but had this bloated belly. He was a DNR case and was fully aware that he was going to die. One evening he started to go downhill very fast and was very aware of what was happening and was very scared. He suddenly revoked the DNR order and asked that we resuscitate him. What happened next was bizarre - he arrested and we set about the resus, except the bed kept repositioning into a chair position. It must have been a short in the electrics or something. Anyway the resus was unsuccessful - coding a person in a seated position does not work well.

A few months later I was looking after a patient who had a really rocky recovery post op. Her mother was terrified. When we were finally able to extubate her the mother started to update her on what had happened and how close to death she had been. The patient turned to her mother and told her not to worry.... the skinny man with the big belly had been with her and had told her she was going to be ok. She couldn't tell her the mans name - he had never told her.. but he had a bird on his shoulder. The patient that died had an eagle tattooed on the upper arm!

Wow, your story is very good.
Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..

now i have a true story that happened in the small pa city where i live. her name was cindy song. she was a psu undergrad student from korea. some of you may have seen her story on the tv show without a trace.

the night she disappeared, she had been out with some friends, and had gone home to her apartment located near our local giant market at around 2 am. cindy liked to party with friends, but nobody saw her with the exception of someone picking her up in a car at our local walmart in the early morning hours. that was when she disappeared.

top investigators were hired, the local newspapers were covered with news of her disappearance, and even private dectives were hired to look for anything that might have led to her disappearance. nothing was found, and nothing was out of place in her apartment. the police even checked her emails and and anything that might give a lead to her disappearance. a famous medium was also hired, but no trace of her was ever found.

this happened around 5 years ago, and still there is no news about her whereabouts.

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