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 NICU.

i took care of a premature baby whose father died just before she was born. this baby girl was always looking up and to the left side of the room when i cared for her. odd since 24 wk premature babies can't focus their eyes. her mom liked to think it was the dad looking after his baby girl. i took a picture of the baby girl and her mom one day and there was an orb in the picture and the baby girl was looking right at it.

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
i took care of a premature baby whose father died just before she was born. this baby girl was always looking up and to the left side of the room when i cared for her. odd since 24 wk premature babies can't focus their eyes. her mom liked to think it was the dad looking after his baby girl. i took a picture of the baby girl and her mom one day and there was an orb in the picture and the baby girl was looking right at it.
awesome!!!!

Ahh... Good forum. Some stories are awesome, some are a little too awesome I'm not sure if I believe them. LOL. Anyway, my mom used to work in a nursing home that used to be a orphanage back in the 50s. She told me that she would always hear multiple residents complaining of hearing children running around at night. It's not unusual for someone with dementia to hallucinate or insist something happened, but it is unusual for residents in different rooms to report the same things the same night...

I worked PMs at a small nursing home as a CNA for almost 2 years. We only had about 30 beds spread among two halls. Many of the rooms were double occupancy, so each hall only had about 9 rooms each. In addition to those two halls, we had an older, unoccupied section used only by the beautician and for storage. Occasionally, at night, we would have the call lights go off in this section. Strangely, they never went off during the day (that I'm aware of). Additionally, one night at the end of the shift, the aides and I were sitting at the nurses station when I heard the sound of a walker making its way across the linoleum floor. Thinking a resident was trying to make it to the bathroom (most residents were fall risks) , I got up and started down the hall to see who it was. Another aide also got up and headed down the other hall. We both came back immediately. Everyone was fast asleep. The other two aides just smiled at each other... They believed it to be the spirit of resident who died a week before I started. She had been semi-independent and was one of the handful of residents who used a walker.

I only heard the sound maybe two times after that... Never could explain it. Just glad I didn't accept the nights position offered to me after graduation... yikes!

Specializes in ER.
This isn't really a ghost story, but it definitely gave me chills.

I was working in a critical care unit and there was a minister that was a pt. I can't really remember what was wrong with him but I do remember him saying that we better get his family because he would be "going home soon". In the course of the next hour, he was made a DNR.

I promise you, after that man died, he had a GLOW coming from his face and a smile that was so sweet.....I have never seen anything like it. Nurses from all over the unit came to see this man's face and everyone that saw it, cried. To this day, I get tears in my eyes thinking of it. I can not think of any other word to describe it but "heavenly".

I'm not really religious, per se, but that was moving.

Specializes in Midwifery, surgical nursing.
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.

I remember hearing about Groote Schuur's "grey lady" when I trained there. Never met her though... :)

Specializes in PACU, OR.
I remember hearing about Groote Schuur's "grey lady" when I trained there. Never met her though... :)

I had to go to the "newish" UCT hospital section (run by Netcare) earlier this year to do my CPR certificate, and what I could see of the old place is still as gloomy and spooky as ever. GSH has seen so much history, there must be dozens of ghosts prowling the empty corridors at night...

Specializes in Medical Assisting.
i took care of a premature baby whose father died just before she was born. this baby girl was always looking up and to the left side of the room when i cared for her. odd since 24 wk premature babies can't focus their eyes. her mom liked to think it was the dad looking after his baby girl. i took a picture of the baby girl and her mom one day and there was an orb in the picture and the baby girl was looking right at it.

a great big "aw" ^_^ that was so sweet! perhaps dad was making sure that she was okay.:heartbeat:rolleyes: there will always be things in this world that will be difficult to understand (besides "rocket science" lol ) and even more difficult to explain. perhaps we need to experience these things for ourselves...i myself have seen and experienced things that i cannot explain by any other means. keep an open mind and you never know what might be let in! ;)

Thanks for sharing your wonderful stories!:)

Specializes in ICU & LTAC as RN. FNP.

Around 1998, I was a new LPN in a small hospital. This old lady, probably late 80's or 90 years old was one of the patients whose room was across from the nursing station. I remember her being scared, and very "needy" as in that she just wanted someone to stay with her. I stayed with her and talked, but I had to tend to my other patients as well, but she didn't want to be alone. So I asked the charge nurse if she could sit in a chair at the nurses station and the nurse agreed. The patient hadn't been bed ridden or anything, so we didn't see a problem with it. I placed her in a chair, and covered her with a blanket, and she appeared so happy just to be out of that room. Well, I was down the hall, and sure enough, the patient codes right there in the nurses station. She died soon afterward, but I wondered if she had sensed she would soon die and was frightened by that.

" she appeared so happy just to be out of that room."

I know she was!:redpinkhe

You granted her last wish. Not to be in a tiny room, as she left this plane.......

Hugs**:nurse:

Specializes in ER.
The rose petals just started floating down from the ceiling. It was like someone was just showering the room with them. This has happened several times over the years.

My creepiest and scariest ghost story for me happened about a year ago. It really was more of a posession than a ghost story. I was helping another nurse with a patient that had lived a very hard life. It had numerous things going on with him from cardiac to renal failure. You name it, he had it going on. This man was very much afraid to die. Every time his heart monitor beeped, he would just go into a rage screaming, "Don't let me die! Don't let me die!" The other nurse and I found out why he didn't want to die. About 0200 his cardiac monitor starts alarming V-Tach. We both rush into the room. I am pulling the crash cart behing me. When I get to the room, the other nurse is completely white. This man was sitting about 2 inches above the bed and was laughing. His whole look completely changed. His eyes just had a look of pure evil on them and he had this evil smile on his face. He laughed at us and said, " You stupid b****es aren't going to let me die will you?" and he laughed again. We were kinda frozen. I did reach up and hit the Code Blue button and when I did the man went into V-fib. He crashed back onto the bed. We started coding him, but after 20 minutes it was called. 5 minutes after the code was called several of the code team is in the room cleaning up when this man sits straight up in the bed and says, " You let him die. Too bad." and then begins laughing. The man collapsed back to the bed. We heard a horrible, agonizing scream ( actually every patient in the unit that night commented on the scream), and then you could hear "don't let me die" being whispered throughout the unit. Everyone of the nurses that night was pale and scared. No body went anywhere by themselves. By morning the whispers of "don't let me die" were gone. The night shift nurses had a prayer service in the break room before we left for home and then we all had nightmares for weeks.

that's too bizarre. I think I'd not be going into that room... ever.

Around 1998, I was a new LPN in a small hospital. This old lady, probably late 80's or 90 years old was one of the patients whose room was across from the nursing station. I remember her being scared, and very "needy" as in that she just wanted someone to stay with her. I stayed with her and talked, but I had to tend to my other patients as well, but she didn't want to be alone. So I asked the charge nurse if she could sit in a chair at the nurses station and the nurse agreed. The patient hadn't been bed ridden or anything, so we didn't see a problem with it. I placed her in a chair, and covered her with a blanket, and she appeared so happy just to be out of that room. Well, I was down the hall, and sure enough, the patient codes right there in the nurses station. She died soon afterward, but I wondered if she had sensed she would soon die and was frightened by that.

I wouldn't be surprised if she did know...and I am glad that she wasn't alone. Sad that I know that when I get out of school and start working, I too may be too busy for patients like this. It shouldn't be that way. No one should have to ask for someone to be with them when they are scared and dying.

I am glad you were able to make her last bit of time more comfortable for her.

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