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...

[LoriAlabamaRN]

Ooooh had another creepy thing (actually two!) happen today. One of our halls is windows on both sides, entering into an area with a nurse's station, so someone at the nurse's station can see your reflection a few seconds before they see you. Well, I was walking down that hall and a CNA at the nurse's station said "hi!" to me before I actually got to where I could see her, when I got to her I was puzzled because she kept looking past me. Finally she said "Who was that with you?" I told her noone was with me. She said "Well, then I must be losing my mind, I swear I saw your reflection in the window and there was a man in a white shirt walking next to you! :chair:

Then about thirty minutes later, we had a series of four calls originating from an outside line, we would answer and it would be this gravelly male voice going "heeeeeelllllpppp mmmmeeeeee" two or three times and then silence. I checked all the resident rooms to see if someone was calling from a cell phone, since some residents have them, but noone was. It's been a CREEPY night!

[jessica]

Interesting thread, and right up my alley! My other "job" is paranormal investigator and I also run a small ghost tours operation locally. As I've been doing it for over 16 years, I could most likely tell you a few stories that would keep you awake tonight but most have nothing to do with nursing so I'll keep them for another time. Great read though.

Oh you must tell!!! Don't keep us waiting :)

[NrseJudy]

OK. I'll share with you what sparked my interest in the paranormal to begin with. Not as creepy as some of the stories I can tell you, but interesting nonetheless.

Many many many years ago when I was 17, I had a close friend over and was hanging posters on my wall (as you do at that age). I was standing on a chair and asked my friend if the poster looked straight, to which she replied "yes" so I leaned against the wall to keep it in place and asked my friend for a couple of tacks. When she handed me the tacks, I couldn't move my arms to reach for them. I thought perhaps my muscles had frozen or cramped so I tried to relax before attempting again. I still felt extremely heavy and was unable to move. I told my friend how I was feeling and she thought the situation was quite amusing and grabbed my arms and began pulling. To her amazement, she could not pull my arms away from the wall. I now began to panic as I did not enjoy this sensation. After a few minutes my friend, still laughing, decided to end the "game" and pulled the chair from under me.......I was still stuck to the wall! I am "hovering" about a foot and a half in the air with nothing underneath to hold me up! NOW I really start to panic and begin yelling. My friend continued to pull and after what felt like 5 minutes (I am sure it was most likely only a minute, but it felt like forever) I finally crashed to the floor. I got straight up and began to run down the stairs (my friend had bolted and was already at the back door). As I ran to get out of the house all the cupboard doors in the kitchen swung open and the chair in the lounge room began to rock back and forth heavily. Now I was a pretty fit person in those days and certainly not heavy enough to cause things to move by running across the floor.

Anyway, that prompted me to begin reading as I have a fairly logical mind and needed to know how something like that could possibly happen naturally. I never did find any answers.

I'd tell you more, but I don't want to change the topic of the thread as it is nursing ghost stories. Besides, you'd all think I am crazy if I shared some of the things I have seen and experienced, especially as of late!

If there are any keen "ghosthunters" out there though, feel free to pm me and I'll fill you in on a couple of my stranger experiences.

[NrseJudy]

Hi guys,

I have had alot of you asking to start a new thread for non-nursing ghost stories, but I do not see anywhere to put it. The only non-nursing thread seems to be in the premium members area so I guess the next best thing is to ask if it's ok with everyone to post a few here, even though they are not nursing related.

[NurseyTee]

I don't think you'll get even one objection. I'm all for it and I can't wait!! Bring them on, PLEASE!! :welcome: :balloons:

[karleb, RN]

NrseJudy,

I certainly wouldn't mind if you posted your stories here, however, if you start another thread please let us know on this thread. I am constantly checking this thread for new ghost stories - I can't stay away!

I'd also like to get the link to your website. I'm going to try to figure out how to "pm" you!

[Shell3]

Just spent 4 hours reading these....Have to share. My ex husband and I had just bought our first house right before our third child was born. It was an old farmhouse that was a mile away from General Brown's (War of 1812) home during the War. It was built on the land that his soldiers camped on. When we asked about previous owners we were told that there had been "many" since it was built in 1875. No one had lived there for more than five years before selling. Thought it was odd, but no one elaborated, so we moved in. Strange things happened all the time. Lights flickering, dryer starting for no reason, toilet paper unraveling itself, kids "jolly jumper" jumping by itself, kids talking to those men who have boo boos. If I told them to stop it, they did. (the ghosts, not the kids) Night before my scheduled c-section my parents came to stay with me. The slept in the woodstove room by the stairs leading to our bedrooms. My mother asked me the next day about the soldiers. She said they looked wartorn and had marched through the wall of the woodstove room up the stairs. General Brown's soldiers coming back to camp after a battle??? I finally got the nerve to ask the farmer who lived in Gen Brown's old house why no one stayed there long before moving. He said that bad luck always happened to those who lived there. Loss of jobs, divorce, etc...After living there my ex started to become a complete jerk, lost a few jobs, started cheating, treating me very badly--physically and emotionally. One night I heard a man's voice telling me to leave--it was best. I decided it was time to leave my ex and I moved 2 weeks later. The night after I moved my stuff out of the house and unplugged all appliances in house (ex moved out one week before I did) the house caught on fire--deemed an electrical shortage--and burned to the ground. Maybe my soldiers were stopping the damage to any other families. BTW ex has returned to normal self, doing well at job, he is the man I once married. Was it the house??? I guess I'll never know.

[jenny031]

Had always heard ghost stories but never had my own until I had been nursing about 6 years. We had a bed tower in the hospital where I worked the night shift as a float nurse. It was a pretty quiet night at about 3am and the nurses were sitting at the desk charting when my patients light went off. His room was the right in front of the station so I went in to check and he wanted to know "if everything was OK" and I said, "what do you mean" and said, "someone just came in here. I woke up and someone was standing by the bed and then they went out but didn't say anything. I didn't want to upset him, but I knew noone had been in there so I just said, Maybe it was the CNA or maybe you dreamed it, but I was secretly a little freaked out. Then I was REALLY freaked when I went out and told the others. They weren't surprised, said it happened all the time in that room and the call light frequently went off when the room was unused. No one was sure who the ghost was but had been seen many times. Sure enough not a while later I was working that floor and in the early morning hours the light went off, same story, different patient.

[2stush4u]

My nursing supervisor told me that when she was doing her peds rotation in school she had a litttle 4 or 5 yo keep calling her into his room, and when she went in there he was laughing and saying.." Look..look at the angels..aren't they pretty, they want to play with me." She said she turned around to look where he was pointing and as she turned back around to him, he passed away.

[carachel2]

I will never forget one patient I had. At the time, I worked full time in cardiac rehab and then worked an occasional shift in the CCU. In cardiac rehab, I had a new patient with really bad disease,etc. and he was VERY mean and crabby. Usually I can break through these though old guys and find some common ground once they start feeling better with the rehab, but this one held firm.

One Saturday he was brought into the CCU in advanced CHF. He made himself a DNR. All that afternoon he kept screaming "HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME...DON'T let THEM take me ! Don't let them take me" and he would point to the floor and under the bed.

((((((((((((((shudder)))))))))))))). He died later that night after I went home. The nurse said it was not a peaceful death.

[Jupiter Crash]

I do not have a nursing ghost story, but I do have a story. I was sitting home alone reading an interesting book and suddenly I glanced up and I saw a figure of a woman. The figure did not have any distinct features but I could tell it was a woman. I was so scared that I flipped out of the chair and banged my head on the wall. Now I am NOT a person that scares easily, nor do I ( or should I say that I didn't) believe in ghost. :sofahider I now often hide behind the couch when ever I began to get an uneasy feeling ( which is often )

[flashpoint]

When I was a CNA, I worked night shift in a nursing home after I graduated from high school. The nursing home had been built about five years previously and their first resident was a lady named Leatha. Leatha was very independent and needed very little care...she was mostly there for meals and meds...everything else, she did on her own. We had a doctor's order not to go into her room at night to check on her. One morning she didn't come to breakfast. She had died sometime during the night. The next resident in that room often talked of the lady in the blue plaid outfit who came into her room and sat in her chair in the middle of the night. Leatha wore a blue plaid outfit to church every Sunday. Once the new resident asked the lady who she was...she said the lady told her she was a friend who wanted to watch over her and make sure she slept peacefully. The morning that the new resident died, a CNA found her dead when she went into her room to answer her call light...her call light was in her chair and the resident was in bed about 5 feet away...there is no way she could have reached the call light from her bed.