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...

and then there are the human ghost helpers (like hamburger Helper!)

A CNA hid under the bed and waited for the new grad nurse to come in and prep the body for the morgue. The CNA kept her hands icy cold by holding onto a water pitcher, at just the right momment she reached out and grabbed her ankles. It was night shift, the scream was heard by the entire floor, the CNA made her escape and and never fessed up to the haunting for fear of retribution. (and no it wasn't me!) just a late night shift confession.

Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.
and then there are the human ghost helpers (like hamburger Helper!)

A CNA hid under the bed and waited for the new grad nurse to come in and prep the body for the morgue. The CNA kept her hands icy cold by holding onto a water pitcher, at just the right momment she reached out and grabbed her ankles. It was night shift, the scream was heard by the entire floor, the CNA made her escape and and never fessed up to the haunting for fear of retribution. (and no it wasn't me!) just a late night shift confession.

Awww, how mean!! I hope the CNA turned up for work the next day!

Specializes in Emergency Department.
and then there are the human ghost helpers (like hamburger Helper!)

A CNA hid under the bed and waited for the new grad nurse to come in and prep the body for the morgue. The CNA kept her hands icy cold by holding onto a water pitcher, at just the right momment she reached out and grabbed her ankles. It was night shift, the scream was heard by the entire floor, the CNA made her escape and and never fessed up to the haunting for fear of retribution. (and no it wasn't me!) just a late night shift confession.

Is it sick that I thought this was brilliant? :devil:

I read alot of these stories way back when and I am coming back to catch up. The one with don't let me die is definately one of the scariest I have read.

I am not a nurse, but I work in two group homes and have worked in 4 others before this. The womans home I work at has had lots of clients live there and has been there a long time. I know of at least one death of a client there, but not much about it. Its had alot of managers over the years too. The agency I work for took over the home about 16 years ago. The current manager says there is a spirit in the home. One of the the old staff ( she is not old,lol, but used to work there and now doesn't) told me and a coworker and her girlfriend that she saw a ghost of a person, presumabley a guy, with a hoodie I beleive when she was out having a smoke break. She looked at him and noticed she could see the trees and house through him. Scared the crap out of the coworker and girlfriend listening, as we were sitting in the dark waiting for my husband to connect the generator during a power failure. The girlfriend was really spooked and said she was going outside. Actually she didn't as we reminded her the ghost was out there. But Sarah the one with the story, was none to joke around so she wasn't much believed. One day I was working and helping a client change into pJ's in her room. I was working with the scared coworker. She was in the kitchen doing dishes, when we heard a loud noise from the bathroom. We went in and found the laundry basket on the floor, when it was firmly placed all the way back on the cupboard. I told her it was the ghost and she was very mad at me.

I have a liking for ghost stories. and Ghost shows. I often watch them at work when the clients are tucked in and we have down time. All the staff know this. i have worked thirds on occasion and one occasion I was working with a staff I was not fond of. I continued to watch my ghost shows. She said she didn't believe in ghosts. I went out for a smoke break and came around and tapped on the glass door right where she was sitting. She jumped a foot, terrified. We had already told her the house had a ghost and a few of our own ghost stories. I said i thought you didn't believe in ghosts.

The last little bit was about two or three months ago. The first stories were about a year ago. Just this last week, a staff for third came in and started talking about the back side of the house, and how she was scared to go back there. She said it's spooky at night. When back there, you can hear tree branches rubbing together. I have heard them, but she says that's not all about the back of the house. Then she told me last week she seen a figure walk from the office to one of the clients rooms in the far side of the house. That client is elderly, and her parents have passed away. Sarah, from the beginning of the story has said she dreamt that that client's mother came to visit her after she died. So it is interesting and hard to know what spirits have visited the home.

Not a ghost story or nursing related, but a parental isntinct story: When I first started working nights at a hospital almost 5 years ago I had two daughters at the time, 2 1/2 and 1. We were living in a 2nd story condo and my girls share a bedroom with a window. My husband, who has always been a much stronger parent than I, was in charge of bedtime because he never wavered when the kids yelled and fussed. He was very firm about bedtime and once the door to the bedroom closed, he never ever ever opened it until morning.

One night I was at work and I called my husband to see how the night was going.

"You'll never believe what just happened." he said. "I was at my computer playing a game and you know how sometimes your imagination wanders? Well I was overcome by a vision in my mind of firetrucks and ambulances and emergency vehicles coming to the house and I just had a strange feeling about the kids falling out the window. I felt like I had to check on the girls and sure enough the girls had somehow gotten the window open and were throwing things out the window."

During this time my oldest daughter was really into Peter Pan and I could easily have seen her creating some pretending game with the younger one where they fly out the window off to Neverland. When I got home from work that morning I was walking under their window on my way from the car to the door and on the bush were tiny little girl socks that they had been throwing out the window. It gave me chills seeing how easily they could have falled. I don't know what it was that prompted my husband to make an exception to his "closed door policy" and check on the girls but I am so grateful every day. There are so many things in this world that we can't explain. Love this thread...

I had a simular experience when my son was about five years old. We lived in the only two story apartment I had ever lived in. He is autistic. I was giving him a bath in the kitchen in his strawberry toy box. ( there was only a shower there, and I did this with him and his sister, usually in the shower.) The phone rang and I answered it, my attention regretfully taken away from my son. I had been talking for several minutes to my friend as she was helping me through a difficult divorce. I suddenly got a bad feeling and told her to hang on. I don't know how he got up to the window which was really small in the kitchen, but he had one leg out the window when I found him. Scared the crap out of me. Guardian angels are all around us. He is now a healthy twenty seven year old living with his dad, after living with me and going back to his dads for years. Whatever that funny feeling was probably saved if not his life, but at least from some serious damage. We have kept to single story homes after that, and not leave him alone while bathing.

Th elderly client I mentioned in an earlier post that had a figure go into her room has been in the hospital since last thursday. She has aspiration pneumonia. She is not getting better, but worse Please keep her in mind. It is very sad for us.

Specializes in LTC.

I work in LTC and an older nurse says to tie a knot in the sheet to keep the resident from passing on your shift. Anyone else heard this before?

is it sick that i thought this was brilliant? :devil:

yes!!!!!

Specializes in Plastics. General Surgery. ITU. Oncology.

That tying a knot thing is a VERY old superstition. When I trained back in the Dark Ages I remember a Sister telling me that there could be no knots in the room where a patient was dying as this would prevent a peaceful death.

I also heard the same from midwives who would allow nothing tied or knotted as it would impede the birth.

It must have to do with an association with loosening the ties between worlds. Magical thinking. A knot is a blockage and must be untied to permit passage.

Specializes in Med/Surg; Surgery; Ambulatory Care.

Early one morning i had a patient pass away around 7:30 right when change of shift occurred. I was assigned this patient only to perform morgue care after the family came in to pay their respects. I took a CNA with me to perform the morgue care. The patient was in Bed A, while Bed B, by the window, was empty. While we were getting ready to place him in the bag, Bed B's television suddenly turned on displaying static and then a movie. Neither of us were anywhere near the tv controls. We both said, "Did you do that?!?" When both of us realized neither of us had turned the television on, we hurried up and finished as fast as we could and got the heck out of that room! Scary!

Th elderly client I mentioned in an earlier post that had a figure go into her room has been in the hospital since last thursday. She has aspiration pneumonia. She is not getting better, but worse Please keep her in mind. It is very sad for us.

Ok, I have one more human haunting. I lived in Erie Pa. at the time and worked at a Nursing Home, that had been just horrible, but was improving. The staff was young, motivated and sometimes well, a bit unpredictable. I for one, brought my dog to work in my truck on nice Fall or Spring nights. (the nusg home was out in the country) I figured she'd sleep at home or in the truck, and on my two 15 min breaks and 1/2 hour lunch, I'd go out and let the dog play and take a little walk. One day was just horrible, so I asked an aide if she'd have time to let my dog out. She said fine, all went well, and after a while, the dog spent a lot more time out of the truck on smoke breaks with the staff than in the truck. One night, a staff decided my Large Black Lab, German Shepard mix was just what the residents of the Nursing home needed to cheer them up. Mind you it was about 2 in the am.

I was on the hall passing meds, or doing treatments or something, when I heard what sounded like running and saw a blur of black flash by. I shook my head and thought "Nahh, that couldn't be my dog that just ran past." 15 or so minutes passed by and I had a another "?!" momment. I made my way to the nurses station where all angelic faces said "Oh no, Molly's not in here, she's in the Truck." I apologized!!!! Then about 5 minutes later my dog runs up the hall past me, into a resident's room and then back out again. I was hot on the dogs heels and locked him back in the truck. A resident later told me she was "afraid of that dog." I assured her the dog was no longer in the building. Apparently, there were several residents who related there was a large black dog in their room at night. The DON thankfully never asked anyone directly if there had been a "real dog" in the building, but she was concerned enough to post a memo reviewing several policies of the Nsg Home. The one highlighted by our charge nurse was. "No dogs or Cats may visit residents in Nursing Home without prior approval of administration." My Molly has gone on to dog heaven but I hope she comes to find me when it's time for me to go. I for one will never be afraid of the black dog under my bed!

Our patient came home Friday. She looks to be about the same as usual, but she has oxygen and nebulizer treatments. She hates the nebulizer. She gave me a scare when I went to change her and her respirations were a little bit more than I expected before I changed her. She is tube fed, but she drools alot, and older staff said it would be better for her if she died. Had me crying all the way home. But she calmed down, maybe she will make it. Maybe the figure was just a friendly visit. My boss said she has seen that figure herself.

At least I got confirmation on the ghostly presence.

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