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...

When I was in college in nursing school I took a course called death and dying. I had to go to a autopsy and I had to go to a funeral home embalming. I promise you if you did not die in the hospital you are dead in the autopsy after they get done. OR YOU are dead for real after the embalming. So no one is buried alive by the time they get done with you!

My first hospital had a room in the "back," which was the room we often put dying patients in, as it was quiet and far from the nursing station noise.

Of course we never told patients who were NOT dying this fact when they were placed in this room!

I can't tell you how many times we had AOx3 patients in that room calling the nursing station at 3am to report their room being full of "steam." As soon as we got down there and turned on the lights... No steam...

There were no pipes, no steam vents near there, nothing....

OooooOOOOOOooooooo!!!!!!!

I don't want you to be sad. Just think "time" is a thing of this dimension. If for example when we die we are not bound by gravity, bodies, time then maybe what we see in our time is not their time perception.

A few years ago on HBO they did a special on hospice and how it helped 3 people. One of them was a small child who had a degenerative condition and was in drug induced coma. He had exceeded the time in hospice when he was expected to die. The case managers/nurses all met and staffed care. They decided the child was waiting to see his mother who had been banned by the father/daughter from seeing him. The mother had left the family after finding out the boy was sick. The father and daughter could not/would not forgive her. They were convinced reluctantly to allow the mother to come see her son. The cameras for HBO were running when the mother held her son and he died in her arms. So yes I think they hold on for their own reasons or the families are not ready to let them go keeping them from releasing.

FYI, I felt a oppressive presence in my bedroom years ago and prayed to GOd to make it go away. I literally saw a filmy thing fly across room out the window. I would have thought I was crazy except my dog Kippy saw it too. He barked at it as it moved and followed it with his eyes until it left. the window was not open.

Several years ago, I read a scholarly book about this issue. Germany actually had 'dead houses' where families were required by law to leave their deceased loved ones on display until burial was an absolute necessity. During all the years they used the dead houses not one person rang the bell, in any location. The accounts of people being buried alive often came about because the silks and satins used to line coffins would 'shatter' and come apart in shreds. If a coffin were opened, it looked very much like a person had clawed at the lining. You can see the shattering on Victorian clothes and on crazy quilts. Victorian ladies wanted skirts that rustled when they walked, and the iron salts used to make silk rustle also would deteriorate the fibers. The author of the book calculated how long a person could be in a closed casket and survive, and basically, there wasn't enough oxygen for a person to survive the funeral and graveside service. And even in the German dead houses, where the bodies were lying in open caskets, no one ever revived, so it's more of a fear than a real possibility.

Does anyone know about dogs after death? I just lost my beloved golden retriever and need this info.

I am convinced dogs have a afterlife. In 2004 my very favorite dog Nikko died. A week or so later I was in my car at a stoplight when I was sure he was in my car in the passenger seat. I could not see him but I could "sense" him. It scared the heck out of me and I told him that I wanted him to go to GOD/light. He did go. I found on near death.com that there was one story about a little child who had a near death experience and she saw both dogs of hers with Jesus. God told her that she had to go back cuz she was not done and she asked if her dogs would still be there when she came back and he said yes. That made me feel so much better. There is a show on bravo where people who had near death experiences relay them (I came back, ie title). One lady died and ended up on a stairway with dogs and cats making their way up. I have to admit when it is my time I hope I am surrounded by my dogs that have predeceasd me. There is a book I read about pets that past on and confirmed for their owners a afterlife. I can't remember name of it.

So this has nothing to do with nursing...

I was attending UT Austin as a pre-nursing student when i found out i was expecting my first child. I was going to class with one of my best friends and we had to go up these escalators stairs. For some reason that I haven't figured out, I was really focused on taking a glance to the left side of the stairs with my head lead over the side. I hadn't been paying attention to anything and for some strange reason I swayed to my right. I had no intention of moving. As i did this, i realised that the 2nd floor was coming up like 5 seconds and I would have hit the concrete ledge.

I don't like talking about it but I can honestly say if I hadn't "swayed" to my right, I would have most likely died. I thank whatever, or whoever was looking out for me that day.

My Grandparents lived outside of Pinckneyville. My cousins RuthAnne (age 11) and Frankie (age unknown at the time) were brother and sister who spent most of their childhood at our Grandparents house. One night in 1969 they were coming home from town and my cousin RuthAnne was struck by a drunk driver - she was thrown from her bicycle and died instantly. My family was in California when we received the sad news of her death.

In 1971 my Dad retired from the Navy and he got a job in the Chicago area. This was great because his family in Southern Illinois were much closer and as a result we spent a lot of weekends visiting them. We spent the night at his parents' house and here is where the ghost story begins.

During one of those visits in the middle of the night my Mom heard a child calling for their "Mommy". Thinking it was one of her 5 children she got up to see if we were okay. We were all sound asleep so she went back to bed.

The next time we visited she woke up with the feeling that something was not right. She looked out into the living room where my two sisters were sleeping and saw a young girl standing there looking down at my younger sister with her arms outstretched. Mom got spooked and hid her head under the blanket. She then realized it was my dead cousin standing out there and peeked her head out from the blanket. RuthAnne was still there. All of a sudden she started to evaporate and went out of the room through the living room wall.

The next morning Mom tells my Dad that we are leaving. Dad, as expected, was mad and asked why. Mom said she saw RuthAnne and was never going to spend another night in this house. And she never did. When we visited again her, my dad and my youngest sister always stayed in a motel. We had other relatives but she refused to stay at their house too. She later told me that she felt uneasy at my Aunt's house. I think that's because she sensed that it was haunted too.

My Aunt lived in Nashville, Ill. Her house had 4 ghosts - her dead husband, the original owner and her little dog, and a little blonde haired girl.

The original owner didn't like anyone sleeping in her room. If you did she would pull the blankets off in the middle of the night. Her little dog was seen by my cousin and her friend. One day while doing homework in the kitchen, in walked a little black dog who went under the table. My cousin and her friend were stunned and when they looked the dog was not there.

My Uncle died in 1976 when a piece of steel fell on him at the steel mill where he worked. In 1979 my Grandpa died and while staying at my Aunt's house my Dad had two ghostly encounters. He had the privilege of having his blankets pulled off of him one night while sleeping in the original owner's room. While sitting at the kitchen table one evening my Aunt told him that every night at a certain time (the same time her dead husband came home from work when he was alive) the back door would open by itself. And sure enough it did at the time she said it would.

My Aunt would later tell me that she could never get anyone to spend the night at her house. She told me that my cousin Cathy, who was very little when her Grandpa died, had made it clear she wouldn't. Seems she had woken up one night and saw a man in overalls standing in the doorway. My Aunt told me she had woken up on several occasions and saw her dead husband standing next to the bed. She told me she wasn't scared and always asked him what he wanted.

No one knows who the little blonde haired girl is. She likes to cry. One night my Aunt woke up to this crying and when she went out to the hallway she saw this very pretty little blonde haired girl standing there just crying. My Aunt asked her if she needed help and when she did she just evaporated. Later when she told my cousin Tina about this ghost Tina said she always used to see her when she was little. My Aunt has passed away and one wonders if she too is now a ghost in her house.

Getting back to my cousin RuthAnne, when my Mom told my Dad that she saw RuthAnne that night his parents said nothing - they just smiled. Everyone thought she was "crazy" but my cousin Steve had an experience that convinced him something wasn't right in that house. He told my Mom that while standing in one part of the living room it got real cold all of a sudden. My sister also thought she was nuts but after hearing some of the stories about "that house" as she put it, she realized that Mom wasn't so nutty. She's never told me the stories though.

As for me, I never thought Mom was crazy because I believe in ghosts and had my own encounter with RuthAnne I believe. During the latter '70s when Grandpa was ill from cancer he and Grandma moved into Nashville. During one of our visits he, Tina and I went to the old house to retrieve some things. It was a hot day. I was standing right in front of the door and when he opened it the BIGGEST burst of cold air shot out of that door as if it was greeting us. The cold air was just not "normal" because the house had been shut up for so long and it was a hot day. I believe it was RuthAnne.

I've heard all kinds of ghost stories from co-workers. Now, I don't believe in ghosts, but when strange things happen, I still find it a little creepy. These are two things that have happened to me:

1. I arrived at work very early one morning, and as soon as I stepped off the elevator a call bell was ringing. I answered it, and it was a resident asking if someone could come into his room and turn the light on. I went into the room and asked what he needed, and he said, "There's a man on my ceiling! Do you see him? Get him out of here!" The resident had the most terrified look on his face. I assured the resident that no one was there. I even pulled the curtain back to show him. He looked frightened and said, "He's right there! Turn the light on! He keeps looking at me!" After I was able to calm the resident down, I notified the night nurse about what had just happened. This resident never shows any signs of confusion and never hallucinates, to my knowledge. It scared me a little, and I did not want to go back into that room.

2. This one is more funny than scary. Our call bells had been malfunctioning one day. I was at the desk when one of them started ringing. I looked at the screen and it showed "209". Room 209 was empty, and had been empty for weeks. I still answered just in case someone had gone into the room and needed help, but I got no response. I hung up and continued working. I thought nothing of it because the call bells weren't working properly and we were waiting for them to be fixed. A few minutes later, the call bell started ringing again. This time the screen showed "209-bathroom." I found that a little weird, but I answered again, and I got no response for the second time. I had to go into the room to turn off the call bell, because the cancel button has to be pressed from inside the bathroom to make it stop ringing when someone calls from the bathroom. The room was empty. Before opening the bathroom door, I knocked to be sure no one was in there. I got no answer, so I slowly turned the knob. As soon as I opened the door, I heard, "Hey!" I gasped and jumped back. I looked up and saw... a resident on the toilet. That was my ghost. :lol2: He said he had gone in there to use the bathroom and he pressed the call light to let someone know he needed help. He said he pressed it again after he got into the bathroom and no one had arrived. I asked why he didn't respond when I answered the call bell. He said he probably hadn't heard me.

I, too, love dogs and hope that when my 14 yr old golden retriever goes, that we will be reunited one day. I am envious of the fact that you felt your dog in the car with you and hope it will happen to me. How are you now?

I just spent an entire evening reading these stories. Great thread. I don't know if I'm particularly sensitive to things or what, but I thought I'd share a couple incidents I have experienced.

I am convinced that all dogs really do go to Heaven and sometimes they come visit us. I had a yorkie who died after 13 years. She had a funny habit of taking pieces of her food and carrying it around the house. After she died, I kept finding pieces of her food in weird places. My husband said she'd carried it there before and it somehow just suddenly appeared. The weird thing was, we moved about a year later and I would still find the food in the new house. Now, I *know* it couldn't have been there all along. Also, at times, she would sleep curled up next to my back and after she was gone, I'd wake up sometimes with a very warm spot on my back as if she'd been laying against me. This continued until we got a new dog. I guess she just thought I needed a dog around to keep me happy.

When I was first in ICU, I was working one night and went to take some meds to a patient down the hall. As I passed an empty room, I noticed the light was on and water was running in the sink. I just figured someone had ducked in there to wash their hands and forgot to turn the water off, so I went in, turned it off and shut the light off on my way out of the room. After I gave the medication, I was returning to the nurses station and when I went past the room, the light was on and the water was running again. A little exasperated, I turned it off again. When I got to the nurses station, I told the other nurses that whoever washed their hands in that room needed to be sure to shut the water off, as it was very wasteful. Everyone laughed and said, oh that's just our ghost, he does that occassionally. No one knew who the ghost was, just that every now and then the lights in that room would go on repeatedly and the sink would turn on or the toilet would flush. Then it would stop for several months. When I went down the hall later, the light was on again. I went in the room and said, "I don't know your name, so I'm going to call you George. And I'd appreciate it if you left the light off". It didn't turn back on again that night.

Another time, I had a patient in that room. One night, she was awake every time I went into her room. I kept asking if she needed anything or was in pain and she'd say no. Finally at about 0100, I said, "Mrs. Patient, it's really late. Are you in pain? Do you need me to get you something to help you sleep?". She said, "Just make that man stop talking to me". I asked, "What man? Who is talking to you?". She said, "I don't know, he's sitting right there!" and pointed to an empty chair. I looked at the chair and said, "George, it's 1 in the morning! Mrs. Patient needs to sleep. Stop bothering her!". She had no more issues and was asleep by 0130.

I am no longer at that ICU, but I experienced episodes in that room during the 3 years I worked there. Usually it would stop if I asked "George" to behave himself. lol I guess he just needed a little attention every so often.

+ Join the Discussion