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...

[PopeJane3rd]

No nursing ghost stories but I do have two myself. When I was a teen I used to share a room with my 12 years younger sister. Sometimes, for reasons unknown, I would wake up in the middle of the night. A couple of times I woke up in the night and just glance over at my sister, I would see this very tall figure around like 6.5ft or so, blonde hair, very broad and Goliath-like. He would be standing over my sister as if protecting her, I thought to myself that I better not look too long because he might sense I was watching and look over to me which I did not want! I would pull the covers over my head until daylight and hope the thing went away which it did.

Then I was overseas once. I was camping, sleeping in a tent pitch black couldn't see the nose on your face. I awoke alone in the tent to sounds of small giggling above me. Well when I looked up I saw two very small figures perched high on one of the tent poles. At first I thought it was people fixing the tent, but then they were really small, and I'm like why would they be perched that way. It didn't make sense. Though pitch black I could see them and they me. They looked like little demons or something. They looked down at me knowing that I had noticed them. I hollered out for Erica, this girl that was supposed to be in there with me, she wasn't. I must've passed out with fright until the next morning. I never told them what happened in that tent that night.

[prb65]

imintrouble, we stayed at the "Battlefield Bed and Breakfast". It is located on the battlefield and very close to Devils Den. I had thought about staying at the cashtown inn but it was a bit farther away than I wanted to be from the battlefield. I hope to go back there again. I am very sesitive to paranormal happenings. I find it intriguing yet also feel like im playing with fire for personal religious reasons, so im somewhat reserved about making inquisitive attemps at things like that again. Human nature keeps us curious.

[AR2010]

I know several. I'll share more later if there is any interest:

We had a black girl, about 10 in ICU that was severely injured in a car accident. Lots of brain damage. She didn't die there but was moved to another facility after weeks and weeks.

After that, I know of 3 older black males, in their 50's, that, if they were even mildly sedated, would ask about the little black girl with the ribbon in her hair who was sitting at the foot of their beds.

One guy said, "she asked me how I was doing, and then got up and walked that way" while he was pointing towards the 2nd floor window. He paused, a wide-eyed look came over his face, and then he said, 'But I guess she really couldn't have left the room that way, huh?"

Personally, I think she was taking care of grandfatherly figures.

I worked in an ICU where a prisoner convicted of murder died in ICU 1 - and nobody would put a patient in that room after that cause the air was too heavy and the room was too spooky and 'dark'. It was so bad (nurses would refuse to put patients in the room even if it was the last available bed; they'd triage out a patient before they'd trust putting a patient in that bed 1), that the hospital eventually closed down the room and knocked out a wall to make it a separate entrance into the unit.

I used to collect ghost stories: I know several.

~faith

Timothy.

Do tell!!!!

[prb65]

I have a few other stories all though this is about my two aunts. She was being cared for by another aunt (her sister). My aunt wasnt expected to live much longer and had Parkinsons. Because of Parkinsons she spilled her drink on the carpet and her sister who was apparently overly stressed out caring for her made a comment "Ohhh... thats new carpet" and went quickly to clean it up. The Aunt who spilled the drink felt very bad about it, and was assuerd its ok. She passed away a few months after. Not long after her passing late at night the aunt who cared for her was in bed, the house was quiet and the distinct sound of rubbing on the carpet was heard it sounded like someone spot cleaning the carpet. Not only did she hear this but her husband aslo heard it. A week later they were sitting at the counter eating lunch when they both caught a glimpse of my deceased aunt leaving the bedroom where she died, she was wearing her black winter coat and went right out the garage foyer door (which was the width of the hall apart from bed room to garage door). They both saw her and they heard the door shut. Apparently my deceased aunt came to get her coat that she left in the guest room across from the garage entry.

Also another aunt of mine who had adopted children was finally able concieved a child. It wasnt long after that she learned her husband had cancer. He was in remission more many years before subcoming to it, he was able to watch his daughter grow up as a young girl. During this time this baby apparently had a gaurdian angel watching over her (atleast that what my aunt always called it) Whenever photos were taken, there was a aura/ glow present above her head. She told me of one event where she was warming milk but had carried the nipples and rings for the bottle into the nusery and set them down on the bed. She took up the baby and went to check on the milk and when she came back to the nursery the nipples and rings were gone. This happened many times and my aunt knew she wasnt going crazy. At one point she demanded that they be put back and that when she comes back into the room they had better be there. She left the room came back and there they were right where she originally put them. Only the girls in the house could experience the strange events they guys never did.Things like vision being obstructed while trying to watch tv, Piggy bank sliding across the dresser and crashign to the floor, Door handles being jiggled and not being able to open the door for it to suddenly release and no one is there. My neice has since moved off to college and now her roomates are having to deal with simular events.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

My aunt wasnt expected to live much longer and had Parkinsons. Because of Parkinsons she spilled her drink on the carpet and her sister who was apparently overly stressed out caring for her made a comment "Ohhh... thats new carpet" and went quickly to clean it up. The Aunt who spilled the drink felt very bad about it, and was assuerd its ok. She passed away a few months after. Not long after her passing late at night the aunt who cared for her was in bed, the house was quiet and the distinct sound of rubbing on the carpet was heard it sounded like someone spot cleaning the carpet. Not only did she hear this but her husband aslo heard it.

I bet your aunt's sister regretted even mentioning about the spill, and didn't realize how much your aunt was really affected.

I think these stories are intriguing, and after a while you do get used to them if they aren't ghoulish. I know, I have experienced a few myself.

[iNurseUK, RN]

'Twas a dark and stormy night on the Plastics ward I worked on many moons ago. A patient had turned up on the ward with a post-op problem, hadn't phoned us or anything but just pitched up at the nursing station.

As he had attended our Outpatients clinic the day before we knew his medical notes would be there. The ward held the keys to the clinic out-of-hours and I was the lucky soul delegated to go and locate the notes.

Picture the scene. A deserted and dark clinic at midnight. As I unlocked the doors I could faintly, but distinctly hear voices. A bit spooked I hit all the lights, hurried to the reception area and headed for the out-tray. I could still hear the voices, too low for me to make out what they were saying but chilling in the desolate clinic.

Well I grabbed the notes, all over goosebumps, turned to flee and a green LED caught my attention on a high shelf. Yup the "ghostly" voices were a radio that had been left on:D

Feeling a total twit I hastened back to my ward with the notes, told my scary tale and was mercilessly mocked for about a million years.

[alicia211]

I was working in a behavioral health unit that had just opened and used to be the old hospital. I was having some bad chest pain so I decided to do an EKG just for giggles. We only had 2 patients on the unit that night so I picked an empty room, laid down on the bed and wired myself up. I had used that portable EKG machine many times and had everything plugged in, electrodes placed correctly, the battery was fully charged, etc and I couldn't get the thing to work...it just showed a flat line and blinked "check electrodes". Then I heard my coworker say something through the closed door so I quickly unhooked myself, looked outside the door and nobody was there. So I go to the nurses station and she's sitting there with the door closed charting. I asked her what she needed and she gave me a wierd look and asked me what I was talking about. I was so creeped out I couldn't even go back into the room to get the ekg machine! I used the Ekg machine the next day...in another room and it worked just fine. Creeeeeeeeeppy! Some of the other night shift nurses told me afterward that they had seen on the hallway cameras a head peaking out of the door way to that room many, many times.

[alicia211]

Oooh, just thought of another one...

Me, an LPN and a Cna were all at the desk charting in silence. I was in the middle, Michelle was on the left and Pat was on my right. I starting hearing a humming sound like someone was humming a song. I didn't think anything of it and just glanced at michelle. I heard the humming again and looked at her and asked "what are you humming". Her eyes got huge and she said "I thought that was you". I looked at Pat and asked her if she heard it...and she did. I went and looked on the other side of the desk and there was nobody there.... We were all pretty freaked out!

[simboka]

Second hand telling (worked night before and after) and not a ghost, per se, but supernatural. Pt had been CTD for a week after coding a few times in the ICU, DNR/DNI. The night he finally died, he would be mumbling and talking to his wife, who'd died suddenly a few months before. He'd be alert and saying that's who he's talking to, even after confirming she'd died. Finally, he passed. Doc called it. Looked at his telemetry and his last heart beat was the same time his wife was declared.

[lil pixi]

Really, really Fascinating thread. Makes you really think quite a bit about things.

I'll have to check out those books now too, esp. after reading all this.

Well, I'm through about half of it. But it's addicting...

And unfortunately, I am in the same boat with all you ladies who can barely walk to the bathroom afterward. :rotfl: :chair:

The possessed & levitating dude def had my jaw dropped. Got to be the freakiest yet.

And I DID cry over the woman talking to all her family members.

I'm sure it was happy, beautiful, comforting tears that struck me.

Mama & her baby boy & the dream - So beautiful. :redpinkhe

Just "wow" to so many of these. Thanks for sharing.

[CFitzRN, ADN]

This one is pretty creepy and it is one of the reasons I got out of the hospital and started working office case management. I worked many years on tele and I worked steady nights. I was constantly overtired, never felt quite rested. While waiting for my husband to get home (he worked steady 2nd shift, I worked steady nights) I was dozing on the couch, the kids were in bed. I was half in and out of consciousness when I felt a presence. Even though my eyes were closed tight, I "felt" the room turn red beyond my eyelilds. I started to hear the whispers of athousand souls in the room. The air was oppressive, and I tried to scream, though no sound came out. The whispers got louder and louder, though I could not tell what the souls were trying to say. When my husbands key turned in the door, the redness in the room vanished, the whispers instantly stopped, and I became wide awake, as though never asleep. I told my husband I felt it would be a bad night. Sure enough, in the room across the hall from the nurses station (you know the one, that is reserved for the sickest or the most unstable, so to be close when code is called) my coworkers patient strangled herself silently in her waist restraint. Her body was contorted, limbs contorted in unnatural ways, with her face smashed between the bedrail and the mattress. My coworker was distraught, having checked on her only 20 minutes prior. We called a code, and worked on her a back breaking 30 minutes, I did compressions, and I still remember the sound of a couple fo ribs cracking. In the end she was gone, and my coworker was beside herself. The next night the same scenario, I waited for my husband to come home, I drifted in and out of consciousness, the room turned red beyond my eyelids. and a thousand souls whispered tortured sounds into my ears, but I was unable to discern what they were saying. I opened my mouth to scream, nothing came out, I woke to the sound of the key in the door...That night I had agreed to switch sides with my coworker, having felt pity for her. The room across the hall was cleaned and in it was a new patient, a man in his 50's with moving chest pain...I was tired from the night before, my back still sore from the 30 minutes of doing compressions. I worked swiftly as I could getting in first rounds, checking frequently on my new friend across the hall with the moving chest pain. I was newly trained in telemetry, and felt concerned about the pain that moved across his chest, and down the left arm, then back up and down the right arm. Although I was new, I felt that I noted a subtle S-T depression on his rhythm strip. But a more seasoned tele nurse looked at the strip, and said it was nothing. I called the cardiologist, and though I didn't want to seem overly zealous, I told him about the moving chest pain, and what I felt to be a subtle change in the S-T segment. He ordered my patient maalox and tylenol, which I gave, then I was sidetracked by a patient whose rate suddenly went into the 150's. I got busy with his orders, and for a moment, forgot about my patient with the moving chest pain. Suddenly the unit clerk shouted at me in the still of the night down the hall, "Patti, go see your patient in 15, he is in V Tach!, as I raced to his room, she said, "NO! now he is in V fib!" I yelled over my shoulder, call a code! As I ran into his room, the hues changed from a soft yellow, to a definite red. I looked at my patient, as he sat up, and laid down, up and down up and down again and again, making these agonal sounds. He could not sit still. In the midst of this the code team came in. They all watched as this man sat up and laid down again and again. In awe, we watched as this man breathed his last earthly breath. As he laid down for the last time, they sprang into action, but too late. He died of a massive heart attack. A week later I was applying to every insurance company in town. I got my steady daylight weekends and holidays off. I make sure I get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I vow never to work nights again.

I realize this post was years ago, and things have changed I'm sure, but it sounds to me like you were being given some discernment about what would be happening. I also don't know your spiritual status, but I'm hoping that anyone who reads this or experiences similar circumstances will take a minute to just pray - put the night (or day if that's what their shift is) in God's hands and pray for all patients in their facility that day. I believe prayer is incredibly powerful, especially when there is a "revealing" like this post describes. I have experienced very similar occurrences whilst in a "twilight" state of consciousness. When it happens, I pray fervently.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

I agree. Prayer does help. I thought the creepiest message was the one about the levitating man who screamed; "Don't let me die!, Don't let me die!," and the one who was levitating over the head of his bed cursing the nurses. yikes!