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...

[BabyRN2Be]

2. When my husband and I first moved into our house we live in now. We could hear all kinds of noises....file cabinets shutting ( and there weren't any ), chairs scooting across the tile floor in the basement, toys randomly playing themselves ( musical ones ), and the piano play by itself one or two notes. We ignored all of it and it all quit. [/quote=trmr;4134825]

Not to ruin any fun, but I do have a partial answer to this one: we have a two year old and over the last few years, we've accumulated a mass of electronic/musical toys. These appear to go off by themselves when neither myself, my husband, or our little girl are nearby. I was freaked a few times when these would appear to go off by themselves, but apparently the TV sends out a signal (ping) that activates these toys. Although I now know how this happens, it is a little disconcerting when late at night our child's little horse starts playing... especially when watching "Ghost Hunters."

OK, speaking of "Ghost Hunters", hubby and I had a chance to visit one of their haunts (pardon the pun... or not ). We went on a ghost tour at the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, AR. This is the one where they caught a full-bodied apparition staring back from them out of a locker. The locker has a number "2" painted on it which appeared to glow on the FLIR camera. We gathered together for the tour, which had a designated meeting area in the hotel right across from the bar, in which it seemed almost everyone (excluding hubby and myself) visited. A lot of them carried alcoholic drinks on the tour. It seems as if a few people saw things on the tour (including a low growl, which I did hear - but I couldn't exclude the possibility it was somebody's hungry tummy). Most of the people who "saw" things on the tour were the ones who visited the lounge before the tour started. Long story short: Be skeptical of any ghost sightings at a location that contains an alleged morgue and bar on the same premises. The scariest thing happened to us in broad daylight several hours before the tour in the hotel lobby: It was scary how $36 will disappear right out of your wallet... especially at the prospect of seeing the locker in which Jason and Grant actually stood in front of while filming the apparition.

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

I posted earlier about an old farm house I worked in as a private duty nurse. Being tired all the time is a side effect of working nights. Working nights as private duty is almost torture. Some nights I was so sleepy I would stand against the door frame just to stay awake. Every 2 hours I did care, including chest percussion. Ten to fifteen minutes on each side. I kneeled on the floor by the bed for this, sometimes on auto pilot. The house gave me the willies. One night while I was groggily doing chest percussion, I saw the door to the bedroom shaking. Very slightly going back and forth as if someone was on the other side. I watched it for awhile thinking I was just seeing things r/t being tired. The house was dark, the room was dark, but there were night lights on in the room. Dark enough that I questioned what I was seeing. I am not brave, I thought maybe one of the parents was on the other side of the door and decided to investigate. I "walked" on my knees over to the door and opened it. The floor outside the door was what I saw first. I thought I saw a pair of gray shoes and lower legs, only I could see the carpet through the shoes. Again, I was so tired I thought I was seeing things. I stared at these shoes until I was sure I saw translucent gray shoes. I didn't look up cause I didn't want to see what was attached to the shoes and legs. I slowly closed the door, moved away and continued with care. I think my reaction was so calm because I was in a sleep deprived fog. I did not mention it to the child, the parents or the other nurses. I always felt when I left the "nursing" area of the house at night, in the dark, I was being watched. If I had looked up that night I would have seen what was watching me.

[JDZ344]

I;m finally at the end of this thread! (took me a month to read!). Any more stories?

[gr8rnpjt, RN]

It has taken me almost a month here and there to read through the whole thread. I was one of the initial posters in 2005. I wrote about my horrible experiences that caused me to leave bedside nursing. First, I want to say I was sleep deprived for 3 years of workng steady nights. That's not to say something sinister didn't happen when I laid down to rest before leaving for work those 2 nights, so whether it was an overtired gr8rn, or something more sinister, I have to say it was good that I left either way. I have had this "night paralysis a few times since, but nothing as sinister. No red rooms, no voices whispering. I still hear a rushing in my head and have a feeling that I am not alone, and its very scary when you are trying to scream and nothing comes out and you are paralyzed unable to move or get the heck off the bed! Since it continues to happen but not in such a sinister way, I guess I can live with it.

I also wrote about my Mom seeing my grandma's spirit leave her body in the ICU at the moment of her death. Same grandma who helped my grandfather win money in the lottery, just enough so that he could live in the new nursing home near my Mom, till he died several years later. I didn't see the spirit, but my Mom sure did!! And no, grandma never gave me any numbers and I never hit big when I plaly, but I keep trying!!!

I had some more things to add: first, some of you talk about angels, and how they help people especially children. I had my daughter, who is now 17, she was a toddler at the time, in a shopping cart in staples. It was one of those very deep carts, she was standing up. Well, She was on the opposite side of the buggy and I had to stop suddenly. I watched her tumble over the side in slow motion, head first and then, while I maneuvered around the big cart, I watched as she kind of hung upside down suspended in air as if being held by her feet by an unseen person. I was able to make it around the cart in that split second and kind of catch her in a bear hug upside down like that. It's kind of weird to describe, but she should have fallen on her head. Instead, I was able to get around the big cart and watch her hang in the air for the moment it took me to get around the cart. Everyone seeing it saw how it looked and we all felt the same thing--that she was being held up by her feet till I could get around to get her.

People talk about astral projection and children talking about old lives. I remember as a kid talking about my previous life. I had friends we all talked about what we did "last time we were big" my children have said things as very young children, of things they did when they were bigger. I remember a strong memory from my childhood and had dreams about it: I have this recall of large groups of people gathering by a body of water and all looking skyward and amazing things in the air, the air filled with things we were looking at but not remembering exactly just the awe of all of us experiencing the same thing: then the feelign of all the people on the ground laying flat, unable to move after the "event" whatever it was. I remember flying up by the ceiling of my house, through the rooms and down to the basement where my parents were playing cards with other people, not being able to get their attention but knowing I was flying over them and flying back to my bed. Talking about it when I was older to my mother she was not surprised and told me she still did it sometimes, it had become for her something she could will herself to do if she wanted.

My Mom, I told you was able to see her mothers spirit leaving her body at the time of death; not the first or the last time Mom has seen things like that. Full apparitions are seen by Mom, ususally right before or after being asleep. Something about the in between of sleep and awake that makes the dead things visible to my mother. She has stated she woke up to full room of dead people, all trying to get her attention and trying to get her to talk to them. Mostly not able to communicate with them. I have said to her why are you not afraid, I would be so scared. She says she knows they aren't here to hurt her. She thinks if people are afraid they won't see; but if you are open to it and not afraid, then you will see. I obviously am not ever going to see anything since I DON"T WANT TO!!! skeered to death!!

Anyway the last thing I want to talk about is Mom..She is very OK with seeing things like that. A couple of years ago, before she sold it, she lived on a farm that was very isolated. The house sits on 72 acres, very peaceful. I used to love it there because it was so calm and nice, I had come out of an abusive realtionship and this place was where I took my kids and got some peace. There was no cellphone service, so my abuser could not get in touch with me. It was a good way to get away from the constant distractions from this person. Just peace. He was too dumb to remember how to get there, so I felt relatively safe, the only time I worried was at night because it was PITCH black outside when it was dark out. No city lights, nothing but DARK. There were security lights with motion sensors, occasionally they would turn on when a deer or other large animal came too close to the house. But relatively I felt very very safe when I was visiting the farm. Until one night. We had all been watching tv, Mom had fallen asleep in her easy chair, my son had fallen asleep on the couch. I had fallen asleep on another couch. I got son up and took him into his room and laid him down. Then I went out to wake Mom to tell her I was going to bed. I woke her up and with a start she looked over my shoulder and said, "who is that man?" I said, "Mom what man?" The whole living room was top to bottom windows with drapes but you could really see outside unless it was dark like this time, I loooked there was nothign out there past the window it was all dark, and the motion sensors had not turned on any of the flood lights, so I turned back to Mom and said, "no Mom there is no man out there, its dark, the lights are not on you can't see anybody out there!!?" And what she said next made my hair stand on end.."No Patti, he is not OUTSIDE the window, he is INSIDE right next to the TV" BWAAAAAAHAAAA!!! I was so scared. I did NOT want to turn around to look. I said "I don't see anyting Mom, I am going to bed" She got up too and went to bed and nothign was said until the next morning, I asked her what she meant, then she told me there was an old man she did not recognize standing in the living room by the tv. She said that this happens a lot, that sometimes it startles her when she wakes up and sees these people, but she justs accepts it as something she can do, like a party trick, or a hidden talent. As she has gotten older, she doesn't like to talk about it. She suffered for years with severe OSA and I think that attributed her to being able to see things like that. As I said before since I am getting lots of sleep, the problms I had have gotten better, and now that she is on Bipap, she is sleeping better and she doesn't like to talk about anything like that.....Except for the doorbell she took from the farm when she moved. SHe liked that doorbell and has meant to put it in her new house near me. She hasn't connected it, it is in the hall cupboard, unconnected. But sometimes she hears the chime of the doorbell from the farm, chiming, while disconnected. She thinks it is my stepfather, checking in. He died up at the farm house a few years ago, and had told her he would ring the doorbell if he could to let her know he was thinking of her.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

What is OSA?

[gr8rnpjt, RN]

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

[hecallsmeDuchess]

This is my second day reading this thread and I'm currently going to call it a night at page 71. I started at the beginning and I'm reading every single post and all I can really say now is wow!!! Really creepy stuff going on in our realm.

P.S:I'm so glad I have roommates or else...:chair:

[vegas2009]

Interesting thread... :)

[hecallsmeDuchess]

Finally got to the last page of this thread. Wow!!! I shall return and tell a few stories of my own...:)

[hecallsmeDuchess]

Wow!Wow!!! Finally got to the end of the page...

[Michaelxy]

Okay, it is official, nurses do have way too much access to meds...:)

[StudentNurse2011]

I just found this thread a few days ago, and I am addicted! Thanks for all the great stories, and please keep them coming! I have a few myself....some from patients and some from family members, and even one from a deceased doc.

Many years ago, I worked as an aide at a LTC facility. Just before I worked there, a resident had died in the room at the far end of the hall. The other staff talked about this man frequently, but they said he wasn't a pleasant person by any means. They said when they did his post-mortem care, a chill came over the room and they had the distinct feeling that an evil presence was in the room. The entire time I worked there, that room was always icy cold - regardless of the temp in the facility or the weather (I started working there in August).

I had another resident that we all became somewhat attached to. To this day I still remember her name (30 years later), but we had nicknamed her "Pooky Bear." One evening shift that I was working, Pooky Bear fought her last battle with cervical CA. I did her post-mortem care and went home. The smell was so bad that I could still smell it after 3 showers, and I cried the whole time I was in the shower. Finally, in an attempt to get rid of the smell, I showered with rubbing alcohol. That did the trick.

That night, I had a dream that I was doing her post-mortem care. In the dream, I picked Pooky Bear up to put her in a body bag, but instead I placed her in God's outstretched arms. It was just a dream, but it gave me a sense of peace about her passing and also changed the way I feel about death to this day.

About 10 years ago, my mother was fighting COPD. My daughter and I lived with my parents, in their basement, since Mom needed round the clock care, and I'd also just gone thru a divorce. One night, my daughter was in bed asleep, and I was sitting at the desk (in the basement) playing a computer game. I distinctly heard 3 knocks on the wall. Assuming that it was Mom trying to get my attention, I went upstairs to check on her. She was in respiratory distress, so I did what I had to do to help her breathe. Later, she asked why I came to check on her when I did - I told her I heard her knock on the wall for me. She swore and declared that she never knocked on the wall; she was struggling just to breathe. Until the day she died, she told everyone who would listen about her angel that summoned me for help that night.

After Mom passed, I frequently saw or heard unexplained phenomona in our home (even though we moved out of state), and my DD (dear daughter) related similar stories. DD had very troubled middle school years, and as a result moved in with her dad, who lived a couple of hours away (also out of state from where Mom had lived). When DD moved in with her dad, the strange sights and sounds stopped - here. My daughter said she continued to experience them in her dad's house. The only times we had occurrences in my house were - you guessed it - when DD came here for the weekends. Even stranger? When DD got past her troubled times, the occurrences stopped. She and I are convinced that Gammy was watching over her and trying to help her.

Another time, I was working in the endoscopy department at the hospital here. Since the equipment is so expensive, I always made sure to turn off all the electronics when I cleaned the room at the end of the day. One day, I cleaned everything, turned off the equipment, and left to get supplies for restocking. When I got back, everything was turned back on, and the radio was blaring. We never turned the radio on loud; it was just background noise for us. I stepped outside the room, and the charge nurse was sitting right outside the door. I asked her who came in my room while I was restocking (assuming that a coworker was playing a joke on me). Very seriously, she told me that nobody had came in my room. I gave her THE LQQK....the don't BS me look. She swore that nobody had been in there. I told her why I was asking, and without so much as a blink, she said, oh, that's Dr So-and-So. He used to be one of the endoscopists at that department, but he passed away and willed enough money to the hospital to build the department we currently worked in. I didn't really believe her at the time.

Some time later, I was in another room cleaning after procedures. I had already turned off all the equipment, but while I was alone in the room, everything suddenly came back on - including the radio, again blaring. I said aloud, "Dr _______, this is my room now and you have to stop this." I swear to God, I kid you not, these things never happened to me again while I worked in that department - although they continued to happen to my coworkers.