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...

[Bhavana]

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.

This is true, or at least true from my studies of such subjects.

I am amazed at the number of posts in this thread. This is my third day reading, and I am not even to page 30 yet. I have always had a firm belief in ghosts/spirits, and have had several experiences myself. Right now I am just a student so have not had any nursing experiences.

Maybe some of these tales are exaggerated, and I would not be surprised if some are made up, but for those of you who disbelieve (seems you are a minority) because you have never "felt" anything yourself, that does not mean that some of these things are not true. Not everyone is open to the other worlds around us.

Not long ago I saw a tv show on ghosts, I think it was called "My Ghost Story" or something along those lines. One segment was about a hospice in California, a place that has since gone out of business and been torn down. There was a big storage closet there that all of the employees felt was somehow not right, they were nervous, uncomfortable, etc going into this closet. A patient had a friend with a video camera, and one night the friend decided to set the camera up inside the closet before he went out to dinner....afterwards, he came back, and they all gathered around the patients bed (the guy who filmed it, the patients, some nurses) to watch the video he had taken. A face, blurry and indistinct, but definitely the form of a human face, sort of skull like, appeared out of the dark and came right up to the camera, as if it was trying to figure out what the camera was....one of the eeriest, most chilling things I have ever seen! I will try to see if I can find this segment of this show on Youtube or somewhere online, and come back here with the link.

As for me, please all you good spirits out there be with me and help me to get thru my last semester!!

[tencat]

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.

Don't know why, but that really made me giggle.....

I've had a patient's granddaughter get a bright light over the bed of her dying grandmother after grandma said she'd been seeing angels......pretty interesting picture.

[Bhavana]

Same here----I get so scared I can't get to sleep---I keep hearing "noises--" but I come right back to the computer and start reading again.....

I've never seen any ghosts, or spirits, but I've had some uneasy feelings in 3 separate, old places-----one was the old Naval Hospital in Newport, Rhode Island; one was the nursing home wing of Long Beach V.A. Hospital, and one was the cadaver lab in one of the old, (vintage WWII) buildings at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital.

We used to have our classes in the classrooms adjacent to the cadaver lab, and we had to go up there at night to study. I always, always felt as if I was being "watched" when I was there alone. It wasn't a peaceful feeling, either--it was really, really creepy. Part of our duties in those days ('70s) was sprinkling those cadavers down with formalin once a week. I always half expected to look up one night and see one of them walking zombie like down the hall toward me, like the zombies in "Night of the Living Dead." There were only 2 girls and 5 guys in our class, and I always tried to get one of the guys to study with me at night--they felt the same sense of creepiness, but somehow it just felt safer with one there.

One last kind of creepy thing---my mom and I weren't particularly close, but I don't think we had any "issues." She died of anoxic encephalopathy after being comatose for several days after having an M.I. when she was just 47. I have had, since she died in 1981, scary, scary dreams about her---in the dreams, she is a zombie, coming at me with long, ugly fingernails, and she has fangs.

Now, when I was about 9 or 10, I remember my mom telling me to clean the bathroom (my Saturday chore) one Saturday morning, and I was arguing with her that I wanted to go play with my friends. She called me an "ingrate." I told her there was no such word. Next thing I know, she had grabbed me from behind by my ponytail, spun me around, and, as she did it, raked her long, pointed fingernails (fashionable in the early '60s) across my face. I think it was purely an accident; she just wanted to spin me around and show me the word "ingrate" in the dictionary. LOL, I had 5 bloody fingernail scratches on my face for days--but, in those days, that wasn't unusual. I can remember kids coming to school with a palm print across their faces after being slapped for "smarting off" to THEIR moms.

My husband tells me I must obviously have unresolved "issues" with my mom, but I really don't---in fact, that incident never bothered me. My mom had a horrific childhood (her earliest memory was coming home from kindergarten and finding HER mom dead; kneeling on the floor; head in a gas oven, a la Sylvia Plath) and she and her brother and sisters were all sent to different orphanages because their father was a long distance trucker and apparently couldn't or didn't want to take care of them anymore. So, I just figured she had her own inner demons----she was never intentionally abusive to any of us, and no one ever would have considered that "child abuse" in the '60s, anyway--in fact, I figured it served me right for "smarting off" to her.

Whoah, now I really AM scared to go to bed!

wow, what awful dreams to have. Not uncommon though. one of my aunts dreams about her father, my grandfather, who died in the 60's of cancer...she sees him coming after her, eyes bulging out, wearing a long black dress, and on a motorcycle....crazy, huh? And she got along great with him. Go figure.

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

This is true, or at least true from my studies of such subjects.

I am amazed at the number of posts in this thread. This is my third day reading, and I am not even to page 30 yet. I have always had a firm belief in ghosts/spirits, and have had several experiences myself. Right now I am just a student so have not had any nursing experiences.

Maybe some of these tales are exaggerated, and I would not be surprised if some are made up, but for those of you who disbelieve (seems you are a minority) because you have never "felt" anything yourself, that does not mean that some of these things are not true. Not everyone is open to the other worlds around us.

Not long ago I saw a tv show on ghosts, I think it was called "My Ghost Story" or something along those lines. One segment was about a hospice in California, a place that has since gone out of business and been torn down. There was a big storage closet there that all of the employees felt was somehow not right, they were nervous, uncomfortable, etc going into this closet. A patient had a friend with a video camera, and one night the friend decided to set the camera up inside the closet before he went out to dinner....afterwards, he came back, and they all gathered around the patients bed (the guy who filmed it, the patients, some nurses) to watch the video he had taken. A face, blurry and indistinct, but definitely the form of a human face, sort of skull like, appeared out of the dark and came right up to the camera, as if it was trying to figure out what the camera was....one of the eeriest, most chilling things I have ever seen! I will try to see if I can find this segment of this show on Youtube or somewhere online, and come back here with the link.

As for me, please all you good spirits out there be with me and help me to get thru my last semester!!

Yes please see if you can find this on Youtube - I would be most interested to see it. You will be OK in your last semester - just believe in yourself and find a good study routine and be focused on what you are doing. Good luck.

[Bhavana]

carol, can't seem to find it on you tube, and so far all I have found online is just a description of that particular episode, titled as "Granada Hills Community Hospice Closet Ghost"....but I will keep looking!

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

carol, can't seem to find it on you tube, and so far all I have found online is just a description of that particular episode, titled as "Granada Hills Community Hospice Closet Ghost"....but I will keep looking!

Thanks for taking the time to look. I know some good sites I can maybe find it on, and there are also other good ghost videos on Youtube but if you do find it, just post it on here :) I love all that stuff - it scares me but I always have to go back and watch it, usually just before bedtime!

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

I just thought of another ghost story...

My gf, who was then a nursing student, moved to the city we were all studying at and the university gave her shared accommodation. Well I used to go visit her, or pick up nurses who shared with her when we were due on shift as they didn't have cars then. The old house they stayed in had converted rooms and shared bathrooms, and was quite huge. We found out much later on that someone said it used to be the site of the old cemetery when the town was first founded.

Well I wouldn't have believed what happened unless I saw it with my own eyes. We used to sit and watch TV, play cards or whatever and the doors would swing open on their own - creaking as well, which could be explained by the wind or an unevenly placed door. Well I didn't think too much about it. We were all in the lounge at the time. Before I knew it, the door swung back ON IT'S OWN as if someone had pushed it with their hand. There was no-one else in that part of the house at the time, and this used to happen with multiple doors at the same time.

We also used to hear strange sounds like footsteps in the other part of the house when we knew no-one was there. My gf also told me she had a long conversation with her gf who was in one of the bathrooms (she hadn't seen her that morning, just heard her) and when she went into the bathroom, no-one was there. Her gf had been out at the time.

The huge house was always morbidly cold, even when all the heaters were on. My gf used to hear laughing at night and saw shapes and cold rushing winds going past her, or at the other end of the house when she was there alone. She used to go out when everyone was away on semester break, come back and all her things would be moved around or her bedding messed up when she'd made it before she went out. The TV used to be on when she got home after being out when she'd turned it off (which can be explained by planes going overhead). After a while, I refused to go there because the atmosphere was just too evil and creepy; I can't explain it, it was just a horrid feeling of dread.

We also found out that the site used to be the old sanitorium as well - the disabled kids school wasn't far from this house, but the house used to hold the mentally insane apparently. It doesn't stand there anymore and is now demolished as it was getting too old and unsafe.

My gf also used to study at a big old private school in WA (can't remember the name). She told me it was a huge old building, with a spiraling staircase. Well one day the girls were all running up these stairs and everyone had stopped talking, and was staring at something. My gf looked around and lo and behold, there was a ghost in the shape of a schoolgirl floating up the spiral staircase. I think she said a girl had thrown herself off the stairs years before. She used to use the shared bathrooms and see faces smiling at her in the mirrors behind her, and when she turned, they were gone. She also said it was abnormally cold even in summer.

It's all just too creepy for words....now I'm scared!!!

[colzanurse]

To the nurse who says people who have paranormal experiences are only because of being dropped as babies, you're quite wrong. It's something you are born with.

I used to work at a major hospital right out of nursing school. One night we had a patient who coded. After the doc called it and the team left the room, I stayed behind for a moment to think about everything that happened. Suddenly I heard an extremely loud sound from the upper corner of the room nearest to the end of the bed, like an electrical zap. Scared the mess out of me. Somehow I felt that it was the sound of the patient's soul finally leaving the room .

I have had patients who made comments about "so many people in the room" when it was just myself and an aide. Others have said things like "the other nurse who was just in here told me so and so..." and there had not been any other nurse but me in the room since the previous shift many hours prior. I've seen lots of things out of the corner of my eyes that are moving up or down the hallways. I turn and look, and nothing is there. I've had intuition that I cannot explain about patients whom I just know are doing something dangerous and sure enough when I rush to their rooms I find them almost yanking out an IV or Foley cath while trying to walk unsafely to the bathroom.

Non nursing: I was briefly married to a man who did not snore. But when I would get up in the morning to shower before work, I would hear loud snoring coming from my room through the shared wall between my bedroom and the bathroom. Then I would exit the bathroom and the snoring would stop. Back in the bathroom, I heard the snoring again. My ex was quietly asleep the whole time, never ever snoring.

I had a boyfriend in high school who had definite hauntings in his home. The dog would bark at the wall near the floor in the living room with its hair standing on end and we never saw anything...but sure heard some crazy scuffling/scratching noises that moved around quickly. There was a cold spot in one of the bedrooms that we could put our hands through. It was always there, summer and winter. I was scared to death in that room. It faced east and never would the daylight get in there, not even at sunrise, it was always dark. Then there was a closet in the living room that I couldn't stand, it gave me the willies every time I had to be near it or open the door. I felt that something evil was in there. I think whatever the dog was barking at was usually in that closet and it came out once in a while. I often felt that something was watching me no matter what room I was in, and I was sure it didn't like me.

I saw the tall dark ghost with the top hat that so many of you have described. I was about 12 or 13 and in my bathroom at dad's house fixing my hair in the mirror. I saw the man's reflection in that mirror floating down the hall toward my bedroom. I looked out of the bathroom toward my room and a bright glow was eminating out of the doorway as he disappeared into it. Right away I told dad and he told me to never mention this to anybody because he didn't want anyone to think I was crazy. And of course he said he didn't believe it anyway. I've never mentioned it to him since but I know good and well what I saw. And I wasn't scared of it at all.

I've had the conscious paralysis episodes too that have been described in many posts. I can hear myself breathing but I can't control it, cannot move or speak. During one of these episodes I saw an image of a distinguished older well groomed man with silvery hair and beard, telling me what sounded like "You have not learned!" Somehow I wasn't scared by this and quickly came out of it. I was in my very early 20's at the time and I don't know what exactly what he meant. Who was he? G-d maybe, or a guardian angel? What haven't I learned yet that I need to? Not sure, but I keep searching and learning throughout my life. I keep hoping he will send me another message someday.

I have seen ghosts of animals. I told someone once that I saw a small dog in their home peeking at me and then going into a certain bedroom. This brought great comfort to them because they had to put their beloved pet down when he became severely ill and they had felt guilt about it for years. They told me the dog loved to go into the room I saw him going to and he would sleep under the bed every night.

Recently I saw what looked like a siamese cat looking at me in my house. The previous owners had two older siamese cats that they took with them out of state when they moved. I'm wondering if one of them passed around the time I saw the ghost but I'll probably never know.

I hear lots of strange noises in my current home. It sounds like someone is walking around upstairs when I'm on the ground floor. We don't hear those same noises when we are upstairs.

Several times I've had sensations of someone running their fingers through my hair. Once at a hospital during my student nurse clinicals and another time when I was visiting a relative in a very old house. Strangely I was not afraid.

I've heard my name whispered in my ears on numerous occasions but could never pinpoint it to anything or anyone in particular.

Right after my beloved grandfather passed away I had a very vivid dream that he telephoned me. He said he wasn't sure what was going on asked me what had happened to him. I said "Grandpa, you just died two days ago!" He replied with perfect voice and intonation, "Oh my heavens!" I immediately had the sense of mind to ask him where he was, and he said he wasn't sure. I asked him what he could see, and he wasn't sure. I asked him what he could hear, and again he wasn't sure. Then he asked me in a scared tone if he could come over to my house, and I said, "Sure grandpa, I'm going to the front door right now to see if I can find you!" I opened the door, and could clearly see the neighborhood as if I was actually looking around at it. I called out for grandpa and then I woke up, and began sobbing inconsolably. It was absolutely the most vivid dream I'd ever had, and his voice and inflections were exactly as they were in real life. I felt like I had actually had a conversation with him. I've tried to tell a few people I trust and they just said that it must be because I feel so sad about losing him. I firmly believe he and I had a real conversation in our own way. He died in 2003 and I still miss him terribly. I wish I could have another one of those dreams where he and I can talk again so I can try to find out how he is doing, and if he is with my grandma who died about 5 years before that.

There are more experiences that I will share another time. Nitey nite!

[Geani]

It happened to me once. I was working in ICU and one of the patients was dying. At some stage during night time, I could hear a noise like horses and bells. I looked at the cleaner and she said: "This is Mrs C who is coming to pick up the dead. She is the lady who built up this hospital. And every time when a patient dies, she comes to take him/her away." I didn't trust her words, but after a little while, our patient who was in a coma has died. This happened about 16 years ago, but I never forgot it.

[GHGoonette, BSN, RN]

Unbelievable! A five year old post, and it's still alive! I'm, definitely going to read all of them, but I'll have to do it a few pages at a time-over 1,700 to get through! The scariest one I've read so far was the Schroeder's Piano story about possession; now that's terrifying...

Interesting how many hospitals have "grey lady" stories. Cape Town's old Groote Schuur hospital had a grey lady who used to hand out the patient's chocolate drinks in the evening. The kitchen staff would push the trolley into this specific ward, and when the nurses came to hand out the drinks, the "grey lady" had already done it. I might have written it off as just another old hospital legend, but my nursing tutor had experienced the "lady" herself when she was a student. Nobody knew who she was though, even though she was so famous that newspaper articles were written about her.

[raianne]

I have a story...it's not a nursing ghost story, because I'm just a student and haven't seen anything scary yet...and I don't know that it's as much of a ghost story as it is a supernatural story, but I want to tell it.

Yesterday I was going to get white shoes for clinicals. My mom came with me. As we were driving past this one kind of scary section of town, we stopped at a traffic light, and my mom said, "Did I ever tell you about the guy we saw here the night pap-pap (her dad) died?" I said no, and she got kind of teary eyed and started to tell me the story.

My grandpa (pap-pap) died five years ago. He had pneumonia and then he went into a coma and died. The hospital called my mom and all her brothers at in the early morning when he went into the coma, and told them to come to the hospital to say their goodbyes. My mom and dad were in the car, driving through this bad part of town at three in the morning on their way to the hospital, and they stopped at the traffic light. A sketchy looking beat-up car pulled up next to them, and the guy in it rolled his window down. My mom said she was whispering to my dad, "No, don't open the window, just drive away, don't do it" because she thought the guy was going to shoot them or carjack them or something. My dad, however, isn't really a timid guy (he's big and he used to be a steelworker and when kids used to get into "my dad is tougher than your dad" arguments, I was always secretly sure that my dad was the toughest) so he rolled down the window.

The guy was younger, and scruffy looking, but my mom couldn't tell me what he really looked like, you know, eyes, skin, hair. She said she couldn't remember. He asked my dad where the closest Walmart was. My dad gave him directions, and the man said thank you. Then he said, "I sense that you are heavy-hearted in this car tonight." (Which, really??? What kind of thing is that for a scruffy guy looking for a Walmart at 3AM to say?? This is when my mom and I both started crying as she was telling the story) My dad said "Yeah, her dad is in the hospital and we're on our way to see him." The man said, "I just wanted to tell you that he's going to be in a better place, and everything's going to be ok." and he drove away. My mom said as soon as he said that, she felt this overwhelming sense of peace, and my dad did too, and they looked at each other and were like "what just happened here?"

That's all. I don't know if that guy was an angel, if there are angels, or just a person who happened to be in the right place at the right time and knew exactly what to say, but either way, I think that it's a cool story.

[JeannieG]

I have to add my personal experience to this list of great stories. In 1996, my Dad was in North Shore Hospital on Long Island awaiting transfer to Hospice in Glen Cove. He had lung cancer that metastasized to the brain and had developed numerous tumors that were inoperable. After having signed the DNR, we knew it was just a matter of time. He was still conscious and had no idea that the end was so near but was beginning to experience hallucinations. I was sitting at the end of his hallway in front of a window just a few doors from his room, and I saw a figure walk into his room. So I jumped up to see who it was, and ran into the room. I startled my Dad and asked him where the doctor went, and he looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

That same night, my sister came running to me because she had seen a dark figure in the hallway by his room that disappeared also. Needless to say, we were very creeped out. Dad passed a couple of days later.

On a professional note, I have experienced this a few times and I saw it also when my father-in-law passed. I have had patients who were unconscious and unresponsive (my father-in-law included) who seem to come out of it and stare as if they're seeing and recognizing something at the foot of their bed. I always like to think that they're recognizing someone who's come to take them to the other side.

Has anyone else seen this?