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...

I wouldn't say this is a very "spooky" story like some of the ones I have read on here, but it's the only one I've got (so far!)

I worked for a home health agency as a CNA, and one of my clients was in her mid 90s with COPD and on palliative care. A day or two before she was admitted to a hospice facility, she was having conversations with people who weren't there, and she told the night CNA a girl was standing at the foot of her bed staring at her, and to get the girl out of her house. I don't believe there was anything "supernatural" about this, though. She was on morphine and we all know what effects morphine can have on people. Her health took a turn for the worst and her case manager admitted her to a hospice facility. Since my client's husband was deceased and her nieces and nephews (next immediate kin) live out of state, I stayed with her at the hospice facility so that she wouldn't be alone until her family could fly in. I was told her nieces would be arriving that night around 2000. Although she was non-responsive, I was talking to my client and kept telling her, "Your nieces are going to be here at 8 pm tonight, only X more hours. Just hold on until then." Unfortunately 2000 came and her nieces hadn't arrived. At 2005, I turned around to wash my hands, and when I turned back my client had passed. She had held on until 2000.

The nieces got into town at 2100 and stopped at my client's house first to drop off their bags and also have a drink to toast their aunt (the RN was unable to get a hold of any of them to tell them their aunt had passed.) One of the nieces took three iPhone pictures of them toasting their aunt, and in all three pictures (taken from different angles and facing different directions) there was a white streak of light in each. The nurse finally got a hold of them and when they arrived they were already informed of their aunt's death. They also showed me the pictures, and I told them their aunt had passed at a little after 2000. We figured, since the pictures were taken at 2100, my client was "there" with her nieces for their toast to her. They were understandably upset by her passing, but I think the unexplained streaks of white light in those pictures comforted them to some degree as well.

This place in working at now is a SNF. Its prob 40 yrs old and I'm not sure if the original building was a medical facility or what. .I'm doing NOC charge so I've got 2 units in a circular building and about 27 PTs. Just last week I had patients in both units asking about the children playing in the hall. One was complaining they were keeping him up and another lady was talking to them. The lady has dementia but the guy on the other side is just there for pt and still practices law part time..the week before we had people calling a gold colored puppy into their rooms. Again more than one person asking about the puppy on the same night.. I don't know ..kinda weird..but As long as were just talking kids and puppies I'm not too freaked out lol..one lady was seeing the devil devil which disturbed us Lol

Specializes in ER, PACU.

I have never had an experience at work..Until a few weeks ago. I was assigned to the last 2 rooms at the end of the hall in the ICU, and when I was in the last room, I saw from the corner of my eye, a man walk past the room but the direction he was walking was towards the end of the hall, other other side of the wall would be the outside. He walked by so fast it only lasted a split second. Not scary but creepy.

We have a door with an alarm that acts up when a resident is actively dying or has recently died. It started acting up a few weeks ago, with no resident who was obviously at that point. We wondered who it might be. A CNA looked over at the door and said "You, stop it". It did.

A resident who was out at the hospital passed an hour and a half later.

Specializes in Gerontology.
We have a door with an alarm that acts up when a resident is actively dying or has recently died. It started acting up a few weeks ago, with no resident who was obviously at that point. We wondered who it might be. A CNA looked over at the door and said "You, stop it". It did.

A resident who was out at the hospital passed an hour and a half later.

That is creepy!

These are so awesome. Love em!

I worked at Wilford Hall Medical Center (now WH Ambulatory Surgical Center) on Lackland AFB for two years before they moved us over here to SAMMC, and believe me, that place (it's about 60 years old) is full of creepy stories. I experienced a few weird things there myself but I think this story is a lot cooler. :)

I was recently back there on a temporary duty assignment and working the night shift (we have an aeromedevac facility there now). I got bored - we had no patients but were required to staff 2 RNs there regardless - and went for a walk to the vending machines downstairs.

I ran into a couple of the construction guys near the elevators and they were talking about the paranormal team that was doing some investigating on the 8th floor (told you this place has a reputation). I asked them if they'd ever seen anything weird and one guy, who said he'd been at WHMC for more than ten years, told me this story.

They are currently taking out a lot of the CAT5 cable/copper cable that's running through the building as its slated for demolition in 2015. So this guy was working in between the 5th and 6th floors pulling cable. The cable was being fed to him from the ceiling above him - he couldn't see the guy feeding him the cable. Our dude was taking the cable coming down from the ceiling and coiling it on a big reel. So above his head the cable suddenly goes taut. Our guy pulls on it and says, "Hey, Joe, what's the holdup?" to the guy up in the ceiling that's pulling the cable out to send down to him. The cable starts feeding down again, and a few minutes later it goes taut again. Again our guy pulls on it and says, "Come on, keep sending it." So the cable begins filtering down to him - and again it goes taut. So our guy gets a bit peeved and shouts, "What the hell's going on up there, Joe - keep sending it down!" For a moment nothing happens - and then suddenly the cable FLIES at top speed from the ceiling down to our guy, who can barely keep up on his end. Finally it stops - it's at the end. He shouts up - "Joe, what in the world was that all about? What's going on up there?"

There's a tap on his shoulder and he whirls around.

Behind him is Joe, THE GUY HE THOUGHT WAS UP IN THE CEILING, who says, "I don't know - what's up?"

Just finished reading this fascinating thread, thanks for all your experiences. I'm interested in the ones where people who have passed "do things" after they are dead :p like the one where the gentleman scratched his nose after already being confirmed!

Please share! :)

I worked at Wilford Hall Medical Center (now WH Ambulatory Surgical Center) on Lackland AFB for two years before they moved us over here to SAMMC, and believe me, that place (it's about 60 years old) is full of creepy stories. I experienced a few weird things there myself but I think this story is a lot cooler. :)

I was recently back there on a temporary duty assignment and working the night shift (we have an aeromedevac facility there now). I got bored - we had no patients but were required to staff 2 RNs there regardless - and went for a walk to the vending machines downstairs.

I ran into a couple of the construction guys near the elevators and they were talking about the paranormal team that was doing some investigating on the 8th floor (told you this place has a reputation). I asked them if they'd ever seen anything weird and one guy, who said he'd been at WHMC for more than ten years, told me this story.

They are currently taking out a lot of the CAT5 cable/copper cable that's running through the building as its slated for demolition in 2015. So this guy was working in between the 5th and 6th floors pulling cable. The cable was being fed to him from the ceiling above him - he couldn't see the guy feeding him the cable. Our dude was taking the cable coming down from the ceiling and coiling it on a big reel. So above his head the cable suddenly goes taut. Our guy pulls on it and says, "Hey, Joe, what's the holdup?" to the guy up in the ceiling that's pulling the cable out to send down to him. The cable starts feeding down again, and a few minutes later it goes taut again. Again our guy pulls on it and says, "Come on, keep sending it." So the cable begins filtering down to him - and again it goes taut. So our guy gets a bit peeved and shouts, "What the hell's going on up there, Joe - keep sending it down!" For a moment nothing happens - and then suddenly the cable FLIES at top speed from the ceiling down to our guy, who can barely keep up on his end. Finally it stops - it's at the end. He shouts up - "Joe, what in the world was that all about? What's going on up there?"

There's a tap on his shoulder and he whirls around.

Behind him is Joe, THE GUY HE THOUGHT WAS UP IN THE CEILING, who says, "I don't know - what's up?"

I like this one. I was born there, I wonder if I got any "visitors" like some of the little ones in this thread.

" Nice ghost free office" HA! That's what I thought I was getting into. Instead I was stuck in a place where you ALWAYS felt a presence. Corporate recently shut down our clinic,but, while I was there the office staff and I were convinced something was there. The building has lots of windows and lots of glass. I was always catching a glimps of something out of the corner of my eye. And there were many days/evenings when I'd have to admit defeat and get the heck out of there. We would hear things and try to locate them, but, the sound would keep moving like we were chasing something. In fact, in the 2 years we were open we went through 4 office manageres. I decided not to mention anything to the last one. Withing a week, she had come to me to ask about "weird noises". It got to the point where I wouldn't stay in the office alone.[/quote']

You aren't by chance in San Antonio? I've heard our corporate office building is haunted.

This is kind of long winded, but anyhoo....I was on nightshift back in february this year, and I (being half way between believer and sceptic) decided to call on the ghosts. Just in my head, I wasn't sure how the other two would take to this! So I was standing in the corridor waiting for the computer that's attached to the wall to load up - takes forever. I was standing listening to the other two nurses having a conversation and looking down the corridor towards the door that leads to the stairwell, I was about twenty feet away from it. Now when you go through the door to the stair, there's a wall directly on the right that the door bangs off, and the stairs are on the left, and a wall straight ahead. The light was on (but quite dim as the light is on the wall down the first flight of stairs). I don't know why but I felt the need to keep looking through this window. I eventually looked away for a second, and when I brought my eyes back to it, after a couple of seconds a tall black shadow in the shape of a man went past the window, towards the wall, not the stairs! I kept my eye on it, and nobody went back down. I thought it was a lost patient as the stairs lead directly to two medical wards below. When I went to investigate, nobody was there! The same night, standing in the same place shortly after this, the other two nurses were having a conversation and talking over the top of one another. I heard my name, whispered, as clear as day. The doors to the bays were shut, so it couldn't have been a patient, but the possibility was always there, so I dismissed it as that (even though no patients buzzed anywhere around that time thus didn't want attention). It wasn't until I was on night shift the two night s ago with a senior staff nurse who's been on the ward for around twenty years, who told me that one night she had heard her name whispered too. And to top it off, when I went to borrow something from the medical ward down the stairs, the SN from that ward asked if I had come down the stairs. I said yes, and asked why, I thought maybe we weren't supposed to use it at night or something. This wasn't the case. He told me it was haunted. Now I'm creeped out! I'll be taking the long way round to the medical floor from now on.

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".

That is something I would have loved to experience especially if it was something that not everyone was capable of visually seeing...I kind of wonder if there is a meaning behind not being able to see this glow?!? Hmmm, very interesting!!!

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