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...

Nurse Valium said:

My favorite ghostly nursing story was actually experienced by my husband who is also a nurse. He was working at a small private hospital on a med/surg unit in a large metropolitan city. One of their "frequent fliers" was a woman named Louella who always requested the same room at the end of the hall if it were available at the time of her admission. Louella's husband Roy was very loving & doting and they refused assistance with her personal care when she was a patient as Roy did everything for her. The only time Roy left the bedside was to step to the nurse's station for a cup of coffee & inevitably before he returned to her side, Louella would be heard calling "Roy....Roy..."

Eventually Louella died at that hospital in "her" room.

Many months later a salesman is traveling through the state, experiences chest pain & pulls into the hospital. He was treated & placed in the same room that Louella had always requested. Younger, awake, alert, oriented & non-medicated.

My husband said that during the night the patient called the nurses station and asked if someone could "please help that lady so I can get some sleep."

The nurses hadn't heard anything but quickly made rounds to see if someone needed assistance. No one claimed to have called out & no one else heard the disturbance.

Shortly thereafter the patient calls the nurses station again requesting that someone "please make her shut up so I can get some sleep."

Again, made rounds, didn't hear anything, didn't see anyone that needed help.

The next call to the nurses station the patient asked if someone could "please help her find Roy so she will be quiet." My husband said that even then the staff wasn't unusually alarmed & even discussed the possibility that it was coming through the air conditioning vent & was maybe someone on another floor that was calling out.

The NEXT call to the nurses station, the patient says "She says her name is Louella & she needs help finding Roy." Everyone at this point is quite freaked out having known Louella & the history. Hubby says that a seasoned nurse walked into the room in question, opened the window (the inch that they will) and said very loudly "Get out Louella! You have to leave now."

My husband worked at that facility for another year & they never heard another peep from Louella.

That was a good one, I worked in a hospital where it was part of a post code to open the window a crack. As a new manager I had never heard of it but there was no changing it!

megkirpas said:
I dont know if that would do anything. I mean they are not neseccerally (spelling?) sent by the devil.

I should have been more clear.

I meant to bless the room and ask God to send someone to take these souls over to the other side.

Wont hurt.............ya know.

Specializes in Labor and Delivery.

I work labor and delivery. We have a separate unit for antepartum. This unit used to be the old ICU, years and years ago. I've seen tons of things out of the corner of my eye, but when you try to look staight at them they are gone.

The 1st thing I saw- At one point the NICU was overcrowded and was using our old nursery as a step-down unit. I was floated over there for the night. I was alone at one point when the other nurse took a dinner break. We have automatic doors that are pretty loud when they open and I had never before and never since seen them open on their own. Anyway, I was feeding a baby with my back to the door. I heard it open and all i could do was glance over my shoulder and say, "I'm almost done here, I'll be w/ you in a minute". I saw a man standing there in a long brown coat. I know he was looking right at me. I was all of 2 minutes putting the baby back to bed. The doors never opened again. I turned around a there was no one there. I immediately called the other nurse and told her she needed to come back. It was the longest 5 or 10 minutes of my life waiting for her to come back.

2nd- Not long after that I was working on the antepartum unit. I had heard several stories of a young girl with long blond hair on the unit that several had seen. I saw a girl walk into the patient kitchen. She was wearing a hospital gown, but it was all white, ours are white with blue flowers or pink. She was young and had long straight blond hair. I knew she wasn't one of out patients. I sat there and waited a while to see her come out and ask her if I could get her anything. She never came out. Another nurse saw me sitting and staring at the kitchen. She laughed at me and went into the kitchen. Nope, nobody in there. Hmmmm...

3rd- I had also heard that room 434 was haunted. All the older nurses had a story about that room. All within a few weeks of each other 3 of us had our stories. One nurse told me she had a pt next door who called her to the room and asked her to tell the people next door to please quit slamming the dresser drawers. She said everytime they slammed it they would ram the dresser into her wall and she couldn't sleep. You guessed it, no pt in that room. Another nurse had a pt in room 434 and said that the pt called her to the room. She asked if the nurse had been in there at all recently. The nurse said "no, why?". She said she was sleeping and heard her toilet flush and the sink come on. She got up to check out the bathroom and found no one, so she used it herself (mistake). She said while she was in there she heard someone come into her door and move furniture in her room (the rooms are really small, so usually you have to move things to get to the dresser or computer). There were only 2 nurses on that unit that night and neither had been in there. We moved that pt's room that night. Lastly, I had a pt that was in 434 and went to the other side for delivery. We then moved her back for bed control. She requested a different room. She said right before she went into labor her 3 y/o son told her that he hated her room b/c it was too noisy. She asked him what he meant and he asked her why she didn't see all those people standing around talking. She also said that close to that time she had her blinds turned one direction and noticed they were opposite. She put them back the way she had them to keep the light out and looked a little later and they were opposite again. We let her pick a new room.

Ahhhh....There are so many more. I hate working that unit alone. I've had call lights go on and off, TV's turn on right in front of me.......One time I heard a TV on in the breast pump room (for employees). It was really loud and I went to ask them to turn it down. I heard the channels changing as I walked towards the room, the volume was on full blast. As I knocked on the door the TV turned off. I went back and got the key to the room and it was dark, no one in there at all. I screamed my way all the way back to the desk....

hee hee

Specializes in Labor and Delivery.

ooohhhh...I forgot one more good one that happened to me.

I was in charge one night (we charge LDRP/nursery/antepartum). I went to check on the ante unit and the CNAs were acting goofy. They were giggly, but not middle of the night silly/tired. I asked what was up and they said they heard the ghost talking and the nurse with them was calling them names and saying she didn't hear anything. We stood and laughed about it for a little while, they never did tell me what they had heard it say. By this time the unit secretary was with us. Suddenly we all heard a scream and a man (no men on our unit EVER) saying "help me". The nurse on the unit said, "ok, I heard that one". I looked a the techs and said, "what should we do". Then, we heard it louder and clearly coming from the end of the hall. We all took off down the hall. I assigned a tech to each side of the hall and told the secretary to stay at the top of the hall. The other nurse and I went to the back to check the stairwell. We all ended up meeting at the last room on the unit. For the 3rd time, coming from that room we heard a man say, "help me" and scream. We all went flying in there. Now, I sit here laughing b/c that woman was so scared. She was alone and sound asleep and picture 4 of us in the middle of the night slamming into her room. She sat straight up in bed and said, "what what what". I said, "are you ok? we heard someone calling for help". She was like, "i was sleeping, it wasn't me." I played it off and said, "let's go check the staircase it must have come from the other side of the hall" (remember, I had personally checked the stairs) and I apologized and apologized and apologized. She forgave us...thank God or we would have had to move her room in the middle of the night. LOL, not funny, but I'm shaking thinking about it all over again.

StatBlues said:
I should have been more clear.

I meant to bless the room and ask God to send someone to take these souls over to the other side.

Wont hurt.............ya know.

O ok sorry I misunderestood. I was thinking the thought was "this is evil" not "O these poor souls" or something like that.

Specializes in Case Management.

Sorry, I just don't want to let this thread die, pardon the pun.

When my grandma was diagnosed in the early 80's with leukemia, she was treated at one of the best and largest teaching hospitals in the city. She received the latest treatment, but back then, cancer treatment was not as advanced as it is now. She fought the good fight, and when it was her time she was resigned that she had lived a full life and was ready to go.

In the end, she went into multiorgan failure, and the sight of her all swollen and in a coma was too much for me, I broke down at her bedside and I was inconsolable. A young nurse and mother, I had had my share of treating the dying, but when it is your own family, it is different. My mother and grandmother had an agreement, if there was some way for Grandma to let her know she had passed, she would do so in a way that Mom would recognize. As it turns out, I was alone with her when her heart rate dropped to the 30's, and death was indeed very near, a called out for my Mom who was calling her brother on a phone outside the curtains, As my mother stepped around the curtains, I whispered, she is going. Mom said, Patti, what is that smoke coming out of her head. I thought she was thinking I set Grandmas hair on fire. I did not see the smoke. But my Mom did and swore she was looking at my Grandma's spirit leaving her body. I didn't really believe her, however, when the resident approached my Mom about donating Grandma's body to medical science for teaching, my mom said she would check with my Grandfather who was at home, exhausted from the daily trips to Pittsburgh, he had stayed home this day. When she dialed his number, she only received static, she tried several times, and continued to hear static on the line, and the calls were not able to go through. Knowing Grandma like we did, we were sure that she was making her feelings known. She always used to say, "You know Patti, when I was young, I was a flapper" she was all proud of how she looked. Knowing what those medical students do with the cadavers, I am sure she did not want to have her body treated that way. So anyway, fast forward 5 years or so, My grandfather hit the lottery, for a good amount, it came out to about $30,000 a year, enough to take care of his needs along with his social security, etc. A couple years later, he started losing his ability to care for himself, and Mom made the decision to place him in assisted living. It just so happened that at that very time a new assisted living facility was opening up in the town where Mom lived, and the money he won in the lottery with his social security was just enough to cover his expenses in this new facility. We are pretty sure Grandma played a part in it from up there. I keep hoping Grandma will throw me some numbers some day soon.

Specializes in Labor and Delivery.
gr8rnpjt said:
I keep hoping Grandma will throw me some numbers some day soon.

Maybe she could throw some my way too. :chuckle

When I first started working as an LPN I worked the night shift at a LTC facility. There was a young woman I cared for who was in the end stages of MS. She was basically in a vegetative state. About a week after she passed away I saw her. She was wearing a pink, silk nightgown. Her posture was erect, arms hanging straight at her side. Her hair looked so soft and shiny. Her complexion so clear and glowing. I saw her walk right past me. It was the most wonderful experience...to see her healthy and whole again. It wasn't at all scary, and to this day brings tears to my eyes to think how beautiful and peaceful she looked. I have debated about whether to tell her mother, who occasionally still visits other residents, about what I witnessed. I wouldn't want her to think I was some kind of nut.

Many other strange things would go on at night. Call lights would go off in empty rooms. We would hear doors opening and closing. And one night while sitting in the breakroom, there was a knocking sound on the wall...and on the other side of the wall was an office that was locked!!

Working the night shift definitely made me a believer!!

dawnb70 said:
When I first started working as an LPN I worked the night shift at a LTC facility. There was a young woman I cared for who was in the end stages of MS. She was basically in a vegetative state. About a week after she passed away I saw her. She was wearing a pink, silk nightgown. Her posture was erect, arms hanging straight at her side. Her hair looked so soft and shiny. Her complexion so clear and glowing. I saw her walk right past me. It was the most wonderful experience...to see her healthy and whole again. It wasn't at all scary, and to this day brings tears to my eyes to think how beautiful and peaceful she looked. I have debated about whether to tell her mother, who occasionally still visits other residents, about what I witnessed. I wouldn't want her to think I was some kind of nut.

I think you ought to tell her mother. I had a dream once about a girl who died in a car wreck. In my dream she came back to tell me she was ok, I shouldn't worry about her. I told her mother, and she said that the dream brought a lot of comfort. So she might think you're a nut :lol2: but it could be comforting, too.

I had a resident that choked on a mouth full of food, after 19 or 20 attempts at the heimlich manuever the obstruction was cleared but not before she lost consciousness. After taking several good breaths this fiesty little lady looked over at us and said "I'm back" well I about died myself.

murph said:
That was a good one, I worked in a hospital where it was part of a post code to open the window a crack. As a new manager I had never heard of it but there was no changing it!

My mother had travel to France and visited Lourdes (where the are Virgin Mary sightings). She brought back a rosary for a friend of hers who wanted to give it to her ailing mother-in-law. The friend's mother in law's name was Alice. Not long after my mother gave her friend the rosary, her friend called to tell her the most amazing story.

Alice was very ill and in the hospital. The whole time she was there she was holding her rosary from Lourdes, and one night said to my mother's friend that she saw The Virgin Mary standing in her doorway. My mother's friend didn't see anything. The next day or so, Alice declined and slipped imto a coma. The family was with her one night when they heard a womans voice over the hospital's PA system saying, "Alice. Alice." Later that day Alice died. My mother's friend asked the nurses who had been using the PA system to call Alice. The nurses looked a little freaked out, because they said, they had been investigating it since they had all heard that womans voice. But they said that no one had used the paging system. They had no explaination. Trippy, huh?

At the end of each hall we use a room for linen storage and geri chairs, etc. My first week on the night shift I went to get linens and as I turned to leave I thought I saw a young ladie with shoulder length straight black hair sitting in the geri chair with a blanket on her legs. I stopped and whirled around and nothing was there. My hair stood on end and I got out of there as quick as I could. I never mentioned it because I didn't want anyone to think I was a nut, and I've never heard anyone talk about ghost at the hospital.

I didn't go to the storage room for several days.

melissa

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