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 geriatrics,med/surg,vents.

Not "going away",it was a coming home party

I was on the ACE (Acute Care for the Elderly) floor and I was sitting, looking down, flipping through my index cards and I heard a man say, "How do I get out of here?"

Without looking up, I said, "Follow the hallway all the way down, past the other nurses station and through the double doors that have an exit sign at the top of them. That'll lead you to the elevators, or as I like to call it freedom."

"Hmmm." is what I heard, still looking down, I chuckled and quickly added, "Don't forget to push the silver panel on the right side of the-" I looked up and no one was there.

I got up and looked over the counter down the hall and didn't see anyone on either side. My fellow student nurse came out of the room a little ways down the hall and I stopped her.

"Did you see anyone come down the hall?"

"No, why? did you lose somebody?"

"No, I gave directions to this guy, but I didn't seem him leave."

"Is that who you were talking to?"

"Yeah! Did you see him?"

"Uh, no. And I didn't hear anyone else either."

We both looked at each other and froze in our spots. Then the our instructor comes around the corner and says "What are y'all doing?"

"Uh, we finished assessing the patients, What else is next?"

"Do me a favor, make sure they cleaned the room there" She pointed to the room across from where I was sitting.

"I thought there was a patient in there.", My fellow student says.

"He died early this morning", the instructor explains, "Poor guy was so anxious, all he kept asking was how to get out of here."

:uhoh21:

Specializes in Corrections, Cardiac, Hospice.

Just last night....Had a patient die and about 15 minutes later her sons came down the hall and asked if the electricty went out in all the rooms. Apparently, shortly after she died, the lights in the room all went out for a couple seconds, then went right back on. Now, in our facility when the electricity goes out, an alarm goes off. Never happened anywhere but that room.

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
I was on the ACE (Acute Care for the Elderly) floor and I was sitting, looking down, flipping through my index cards and I heard a man say, "How do I get out of here?"

Without looking up, I said, "Follow the hallway all the way down, past the other nurses station and through the double doors that have an exit sign at the top of them. That'll lead you to the elevators, or as I like to call it freedom."

"Hmmm." is what I heard, still looking down, I chuckled and quickly added, "Don't forget to push the silver panel on the right side of the-" I looked up and no one was there.

I got up and looked over the counter down the hall and didn't see anyone on either side. My fellow student nurse came out of the room a little ways down the hall and I stopped her.

"Did you see anyone come down the hall?"

"No, why? did you lose somebody?"

"No, I gave directions to this guy, but I didn't seem him leave."

"Is that who you were talking to?"

"Yeah! Did you see him?"

"Uh, no. And I didn't hear anyone else either."

We both looked at each other and froze in our spots. Then the our instructor comes around the corner and says "What are y'all doing?"

"Uh, we finished assessing the patients, What else is next?"

"Do me a favor, make sure they cleaned the room there" She pointed to the room across from where I was sitting.

"I thought there was a patient in there.", My fellow student says.

"He died early this morning", the instructor explains, "Poor guy was so anxious, all he kept asking was how to get out of here."

:uhoh21:

Very interesting. Thank you.:up:
The 3 AM thing has something to do with it being half of 6 and 666 is the devil's mark. I'll do some poking around and find the exact answer. I'm with you on the black spirit Auntie...I freaked my sister out with the schroders_piano story too...but she's a nurse too.

I don't think 3am has to do with half of 6 or 666. I had learned (from some respected, deeply spiritual and mature Catholic teachers) that the reason for the 3am activity and reputation as a "witching hour" is that it is a mockery of the 3pm hour of death of Christ. Satan imitates and in his own way tries to "undo" God's work by inverting or doing the opposite. So we hear of things like upside down crucifixes, black 'masses' and the 3am witching hour (opposite of 3pm). Makes sense to me.

I know I am new here, and the last reply was a few weeks ago, but this is a very interesting thread I think :)

The LTC I work at now, has a few creeps to it.

We do in fact, have a death angel. A black female figure that stands around near a patient when the time is nearing for the pt to die.

We do have many cold spots, and black floating figures. I have only seen one of the black figures. In fact, it scared me half to death. I was with a fellow CNA on a hall during one of the dry rounds. And suddenly, felt somebody watching me and the other CNA. I turned my head, and there was a black figure hurrying by it seemed to a different room. The CNA and I went to this room, and checked on the resident - and the lights started flickering. This was very weird. Lets just say, me and the other aid did not stay on that hall much longer than we had to.

I have heard a story about a deceased resident from my hall, who was a devil worshipper. This guy died, but when he died, I am told that the aides found him with such a terrible expression on his face. He was so stiff when they found him dead. I would guess this is from the fear. When the heorifice came to get the guy, black clouds came through, but as the heorifice left, the clouds left. - I have been in this room, and it is always stuffy it seems, even with the air or fan on.

I just started working at this facility, when a very mean old man died. There has since been a few other residents in this same room, but for some reason, when I go into this room, especially in the dark, I can see red eyes glowing from the corner. Nobody else has said anything about seeing this, but i have never said anything, because I do not want people thinking I am crazy :)

The LTC I work at now, has a few creeps to it.We do in fact, have a death angel. A black female figure that stands around near a patient when the time is nearing for the pt to die.

Since everyone and their sister has a camera phone, many that can, in fact, record videos, please take some pics and videos of the death angel and get an interview with him or her if you can. That would be so great.

My favorite ghost story was told to me just this week. I have a friend who just graduated and started her first RN job working nights at an LTC. She has related quite a few ghost stories to me in the past and sure enough, just a week after she started her new job, she told me:

"This place is haunted."

I do a lot of hospice work and have been around dying people in hospice centers, nursing homes, and private homes at all hours of the morning, day and night. You'd think with the sheer volume of ghosts around and their unending proclivities for mischief making I would see SOMETHING.

But nooooooooo.....

Ghosts are jerks; they keep freezing me out and appearing for everyone else.

Happy ghost hunting.

Specializes in Med/Surg.

I work with several people that claim they can "see" things and have experiences with ghosts. I was taking care of a patient last weekend around 3am and heard the water turn on at the sink outside the patient's room. Now this particular room has its sink in a "staging" area that runs parallel to the patients room, we use this area for dressing for isolation patients. This particular pt wasn't in isolation so the door between the pt's room and staging area was open and you could easily see the communal exit for both rooms while standing in the patients room, although the view of the staging area is largely obstructed due to the configuration of the patients room. So about 3am I'm medicating this patient with an IVP med, standing on the far side of that patients bed when I hear the water turn on. The sink has an infrared sensor on it that you have to stick your hands down into the basin to get it to turn on. I really didn't think anything of it as the staging area also houses an additional trash can/linen hamper and figured someone had come in to empty them, so look up to see who it is, but dont see anyone. Finish giving my med and head out to wash my hands and no one is there. Still don't think much about it until a few nights later when I'm back with the same assignment talking with one of my co-workers who is telling me how paranormally active it has been the past few days. I ask what was going on and she told me there had been a man who followed her into a pts room and turned the faucet on. I asked which pt and of course its my patient. :uhoh3:

I keep trying to convince myself its a faulty sensor, but its a bit coincidental considering she knew nothing of my previous night.

CuriousK: Agree about 3am being the polar of Jesus' death. I'm not sure where I heard that though.

Specializes in Obs & gynae theatres.

I'm more inclined to believe in circadian rhythms than Jesus and 666 tbh.

Hello! I am not a nurse, but am fascinated by all the ghost stories on this site. My late husband was a Native American Traditional Healer who actually worked at a health clinic in Canada counseling Aboriginal clients. I was his assistant and worked with the clinic's wonderful and dedicated nursing staff.

You are correct in your observations about 3 am being somewhat of a "witching hour". My husband was taught by Native Elders (through the oral tradition of his people) that the Negative powers work mostly during the odd hours, particularly at night. Thus, you will find certain "negative" things happen at the odd hours of the night and sometimes the day. He used to wake at 1am, 3am and 5am -- like clockwork -- and said he could sometimes feel the negative energy in the air. At those times he would pray to the Creator for protection for himself and those he loved. Sometimes, he said that if you get that feeling that something dark or negative is around at these times, you can acknowledge it and ask it to leave without harming anyone. Native people often acknowledge such things by laying tobacco.

My late husband passed away in the ICU of a hospital surrounded by his family and caring nurses. One time, a couple of months before his death, he was in a regular ward of the hospital, in a shared room, awaiting the results of some tests. He had severe COPD and was on oxygen. Being a "medicine person" he was very sensitive to paranormal activity and was used to seeing "spirits." It was particularly hard for him to stay in a hospital because he said that there were a lot of spirits in hospitals and he could get little rest because he would see them and they would also come into his dreams.

At the time of the incident described here, I was 100 kilometers away at home (I would drive in to the city every day to visit him) asleep in my bed. Our 3 dogs were asleep in the same room with me. My two youngest dogs all of a sudden woke up and were very restless, whining and barking. I looked at the clock-- it was 3:07 am. I sensed something was not right and got up to calm them down and try to figure out what was going on. Then the phone rang. My heart skipped a beat, as call display showed it was the hospital. A nurse was calling me to tell me that an incident just occurred with my husband.

The staff found him almost passed out in the hallway of the hospital -- his oxygen tube was, of course, out of his nose. They got him back in his bed, and once he was revived enough he told the nurses that when he woke up his room was different -- it had file cabinets in it and there were people sitting at desks. He tried to get the attention of the nursing desk that was right outside his room door, but no one was there. So he got up from his bed and started looking for someone and eventually wandered down a hallway and ran out of oxygen.

The nurse on the phone was frightened by what he was saying, and got even more upset when I told her that I wasn't surprised at all by her call and that the dogs had woken me up to alert me that something was not right. The nurse assured me that they would assign someone to sit beside my husband the rest of the night.

The following day, I went early to see my husband. He told me that the nurse, an Aboriginal woman, was totally freaked out, especially when someone told her his background. Later that day, the hospital approved transferring my husband to our local hospital, saying they did not have the staff to be with him 24/7. All my husband would say about his experience was that he thought that his room in the hospital had been used as an office or something, and that the spirits of those people were still there, along with a number of patients who passed away in the room after it was converted to a hospital room.

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
Hello! I am not a nurse, but am fascinated by all the ghost stories on this site. My late husband was a Native American Traditional Healer who actually worked at a health clinic in Canada counseling Aboriginal clients. I was his assistant and worked with the clinic's wonderful and dedicated nursing staff.

You are correct in your observations about 3 am being somewhat of a "witching hour". My husband was taught by Native Elders (through the oral tradition of his people) that the Negative powers work mostly during the odd hours, particularly at night. Thus, you will find certain "negative" things happen at the odd hours of the night and sometimes the day. He used to wake at 1am, 3am and 5am -- like clockwork -- and said he could sometimes feel the negative energy in the air. At those times he would pray to the Creator for protection for himself and those he loved. Sometimes, he said that if you get that feeling that something dark or negative is around at these times, you can acknowledge it and ask it to leave without harming anyone. Native people often acknowledge such things by laying tobacco.

My late husband passed away in the ICU of a hospital surrounded by his family and caring nurses. One time, a couple of months before his death, he was in a regular ward of the hospital, in a shared room, awaiting the results of some tests. He had severe COPD and was on oxygen. Being a "medicine person" he was very sensitive to paranormal activity and was used to seeing "spirits." It was particularly hard for him to stay in a hospital because he said that there were a lot of spirits in hospitals and he could get little rest because he would see them and they would also come into his dreams.

At the time of the incident described here, I was 100 kilometers away at home (I would drive in to the city every day to visit him) asleep in my bed. Our 3 dogs were asleep in the same room with me. My two youngest dogs all of a sudden woke up and were very restless, whining and barking. I looked at the clock-- it was 3:07 am. I sensed something was not right and got up to calm them down and try to figure out what was going on. Then the phone rang. My heart skipped a beat, as call display showed it was the hospital. A nurse was calling me to tell me that an incident just occurred with my husband.

The staff found him almost passed out in the hallway of the hospital -- his oxygen tube was, of course, out of his nose. They got him back in his bed, and once he was revived enough he told the nurses that when he woke up his room was different -- it had file cabinets in it and there were people sitting at desks. He tried to get the attention of the nursing desk that was right outside his room door, but no one was there. So he got up from his bed and started looking for someone and eventually wandered down a hallway and ran out of oxygen.

The nurse on the phone was frightened by what he was saying, and got even more upset when I told her that I wasn't surprised at all by her call and that the dogs had woken me up to alert me that something was not right. The nurse assured me that they would assign someone to sit beside my husband the rest of the night.

The following day, I went early to see my husband. He told me that the nurse, an Aboriginal woman, was totally freaked out, especially when someone told her his background. Later that day, the hospital approved transferring my husband to our local hospital, saying they did not have the staff to be with him 24/7. All my husband would say about his experience was that he thought that his room in the hospital had been used as an office or something, and that the spirits of those people were still there, along with a number of patients who passed away in the room after it was converted to a hospital room.

Your story was very interesting. thank you for writing it.
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