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...

[CaLLaCoDe, BSN, RN]

Had a creepy thing happen to me early this morning at home. I awoke early upon my bed around 4:30 and heard what sounded like a man's droning speech in the mattress. I tried to make sense of the words he was saying but all was a low incomprehensible brumble. I perceived that this could be an intruder and worried about my daughter's safety. My dog was snoring at the time and perhaps didn't hear the intruder; and I could definitely differentiate between our dog and the voice in the mattress. I got up from and went downstairs stealthily to check on things.

Cautiously I opened up the downstairs bathroom which I suspected was the place where the noise was coming from. Nothing. I then opened the door to the garage and no sign of living or undead, thank God! Oddly I did have a smell on my person that reminded me of my past life of having worked on a Step Down unit with patients on ventilators, whose time spent on my unit could last years. You know that smell on one's uniform that when you enter your home your spouse says for you to stop dead in your tracks and tear off your clothes, burn them, and head straight for the shower!

After coming back to my room and lying down I heard no more of the constant drone. Perhaps my imagination, but rarely am I spooked. Perhaps a visitation by a passed patient who could not have spoken to me while having had been trached, who knows?

My wife stated she had a rough night, perhaps her snores went into the mattress? But the icky smell that accompanied it, who can explain that! I do note that a couple of hours after rising, no more gross smell lingered in my nose or on my person.

I would not have been so spooked by this incident had it not been for the tandem sensory stimuli. Together they were effective at making me question my reasoning.

[lil pixi]

Man, I LOVE this thread......

But it messed me up for weeks last time.

Couldn't stop thinking about all the stories I remembered.

And fight myself whether or not to pick up where I left off.

I'm one of those people so afraid of the subject, yet SO intrigued. That's a curse.

[thomas81z]

ok come on im hooked on this thread

[brighella]

This thread gives "floating to another unit" a whole new meaning...

[tmbtaygurl]

this is insane, like, wow.

[Hygiene Queen]

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.

Wow.

Two good little stories.

The "Goliath" man is intriguing and I could feel anxiety and fear with your comment about you not wanting him to look at you.

Whoa!

Your second story reminded me of a story my boyfriend told me about when he was a kid.

He was probably about ten and he had just laid down and turned his light out... he insists he was wide awake. Anyhoo, his eyes were drawn to his bedroom door. He saw his door open and, down low close to the floor, these loooong bony fingers wrapped themselves around the door.

The door slowly opened further and "pop!" a big head popped around the door and peered around.

My boyfriend said it was a wee little guy with long fingers and a big head... and it was smiling at him.

I asked my boyfriend what the heck did he do?!

He said he did the same thing so many others have done (including myself): he squeezed his eyes shut, wished like thunder it would go away and eventually found himself waking up in the morning... and wondering "what the heck!".

[nitronymph]

Got ya'll one!!! We had a pt in ICU that had several cats. When she came to us, she had been found down in the yard. No one knew how long she was down. She was basically out of it the whole time she was with us. I found out she had cats and would talk to her about her cats and my cats. (I am a firm believer in communicating with your patients regardless if they talk back or not.) Needless to say, the poor woman died. Many months later, a male nurse and I were working when we heard a female voice calling, "Here kitty, kitty. Here kitty, kitty." I looked and him...he looked at me. It came from the direction of the room the Cat Lady had been in! That was the first time we heard it. Many months later, October 31st oddly, he and I were working nights again along with a young female nurse. We heard the familiar, "Here kitty, kitty. Here kitty, kitty." The young female nurse had eyes as big as saucers as she came almost running over to me asking what that was. I told her to relax that it was just the Cat Lady calling her kitties. On both occasions, there was no patient in that particular room. No one has heard her but the 3 of us. Maybe she found her kitties!

[Hygiene Queen]

Nitronymph: I'll bet that woman appreciated you talked to her like she was human.

I firmly believe that too.

I once had a patient who, for all appearances was ready to die.

She was a very very demanding type and insisted we brush her long hair before bed.

When she was on her "death bed" and non-responsive, I automatically brushed her hair for her and asked her if that felt better and "goodnight, Gracie, love ya!" Of course, she made no reply.

Lo and behold, she got her second-wind a short while later and the next time I had her for a patient, she told me she remembered me talking to her and brushing her hair.

Wow! It blew me away!

God love her! She could be as mean as cat-**** but I NEVER forgot that and cried like a baby when she finally did die... one of two patients that I ever cried for like that.

Cheers!

I hope your gal finds peace... and her cats!

[vegas2009]

[quote=Hygiene Queen;4312772. The door slowly opened further and "pop!" a big head popped around the door and peered around. My boyfriend said it was a wee little guy with long fingers and a big head... and it was smiling at him.

This little guy with long fingers and a big head sounds like DOBBY from "Harry Potter" or OB One Kenobe's friend, "Return of the Jedi" ---> YODA (I think he's the little dude with the pointy ears! Or maybe Dobby is the one with the pointy ears?) . . . lol, I swear I love sci-fi movies! AND scary flicks! They rock!

[vegas2009]

Well, as for me, I find the 'supernatural' interesting. I haven't seen a ghost yet and I'm not exactly a firm believer. But, I have to admit though, there's a lot of things in this world that can't be explained.

Sometimes, when I hear a ghost story, I tend to be cynical. Yet, I find haunted mansions fascinating? This is probably why places with too much history kinda irks me a bit! But, I sure want to visit the Winchester House in Cali. someday! It's the mansion house that continually grows by itself. Meaning, the total number of rooms change time to time and no one really knows what the final tally of the rooms are. The history of the house is interesting, a lot of people died in it. BOO!. . . but seriously though, the place is freaky scary.

[ShannonRN2010, BSN, RN]

I was worked on a Surgical Observation unit in 2005. We had recently aquired about 10 additional beds to the unit that had been the old chest pain unit. Before that it was the old psych unit. We called it our back unit.

We had 7 pt. back on this unit in private rooms, so an RN and I (an lpn at the time) were working it together. She left and went to the other nurses station to get our paperwork for the night and I stayed in the back unit.

It was about 3am and I stood up and was stretching and walked out of the nurses station and was watching Carol, to my right, talk to the other nurses at the other nurses station in the front unit. I specifically heard my name spoke, as clear as a bell to my left. I only had two pt. to my left, so I went and checked and they were both asleep with their TV's off. I stood in the hallway again, looking down to my right to the other nurses station and I heard it again, softer, almost a whisper in my ear...

I literally RAN down the hall to the other nurses station...it freaked me out.

Another night, I was working the front part of the unit and the back half of the unit was closed because of census. One Pyxis was out of meds for my pt. so I went to the back unit to use that one. I was standing outside the med room door and heard voices coming from in the room...thinking that maybe pharmacy was there to restock, I opened the door and noone was there.

Again...I RAN down the hall!

Lots of ppl saw and heard things on that back unit...it was freaky.

[Aleonard13]

i love your stories!!!