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...

CrystalMarieisme...this is not a ghost story but just a response to your post.

I am so terribly sorry for your loss. My sister had SJS and received horrible care (ironically at the hospital I work for). I watched her suffering day in and day out and it was excruciating. I am lucky in that she survived and fully recovered. I know on some level what you witnessed and know that you were of deep comfort to her. Let her be a comfort to you now.

My ghost story happened during my student years when I had one of my placements in a medsurg floor in an old hospital wing. I was just finishing off my evening shift and was on my way to the ladies change room. Some of my colleagues were already there, so I walked a long corridor to the change room. All of a sudden a notice a young boy run past me like he was being chased and it freaked me out bc he kinda startled me. So I watch as the boy run in towards the corner of the hall into the girls change room. I quickly ran to the room bc I mean there are all my nursing friends getting changed. As I got into the change room, I quickly asked my colleagues where the little boy went. They all just looked at me weirdly like I was crazy. I literally looked through each stall and bathroom but no trace of the boy. Even my friends were all freaked out. I even freaked myself out. I mean what would a little boy be doing in an old med surg floor at 11pm by a long dark hallway?

You all so so easily heebie-jeebied out.

I hope I get to hang around and be a ghost for a while after I kick the bucket. I'd have so much fun! I'll do things like make the ice machine suddenly dispense buckets of ice, open and close doors, make myself look like a big black blob on the ceiling, and make the printer spontaneously spew out multiple sheets of paper with the words "GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT" printed all over it.

Specializes in Gerontology.

I always said I'd come back and haunt the hospital. I'd help the good nurses - calm agitated pts, help pts where I could. I'd hide the call bells on the pts that ring to have their water jugs moved 1 inch to the left.

For the bad, lazy ones, I'd sneak up behind them and put my icy hands on their necks. Or ran around ringing every call bell I could!

Specializes in Cardiac, ER, Pediatrics, Corrections.

This was a good laugh! Haha

Specializes in ICU.

If I come back as a hospital ghost, I want to do compressions. Can you imagine everyone standing around, hands off the patient for a rhythm check, and the patient's chest starts compressing by itself?

I wonder how many crash carts they'd need in the room after that... assuming anyone was still awake to fetch them. ;)

Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

I think I would just go bother some managers and a CEO or two...

You all so so easily heebie-jeebied out.

I hope I get to hang around and be a ghost for a while after I kick the bucket. I'd have so much fun! I'll do things like make the ice machine suddenly dispense buckets of ice, open and close doors, make myself look like a big black blob on the ceiling, and make the printer spontaneously spew out multiple sheets of paper with the words "GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT" printed all over it.

I'm with you on this! I think it would be so much fun to be a ghost!

No responsibilities like working or paying bills, being able to be invisible and scare the crap out of others, no needing to find a place to live and worrying if you could afford it. I mean, all the crap that one spends time worrying about when you have a body just isn't there when you're a ghost. Being able to fly-just think of all the places you can visit that you never had a chance to visit when you had a body.

I have been in nursing for over 20 years and boy do i have a lot.but to just get started, this incident occurred less than 48 hours ago.i am at work,night shift,and around 0200 in the morning a patient puts on call light requesting a clean diaper change.i was alone at the time and cna on break so i obliged. As i was finishing the request ,i went into patient bathroom to wash my hands.i saw no need to turn on light for enough was coming from patient overbed light.i proceeded to face basin and turned on water and instantly i felt it.a presence standing in the bathroom behind me and the most strangest thing occurred. Never in all encounters had this happened. The presence touched my left butt cheek. It shocked my breath away.i turned to look and became so frightened that i dashed out the room.walking back to the nurses station my mind was debating,did this just happened to me?as i was washing my hands the thought entered my mind,the presence had to be male to touch me of all places my butt.i didn't mention incident until next night with another worker and instantly he said"room 17 does have activity for the patient by the window in the room call them demons".he stated that the patient says there os a.demon in the bathroom and he sees it quite often.well that morning i felt it and i will never forget it.true story.

I stumbled across this site a week or so ago and have been reading every chance I get. I just love all these stories. I am not a nurse but am very fascinated with the end of life process. I myself am not afraid to die just don't want to go through the process if you know what i mean.....LOL! I have always heard about people seeing loved ones when death is near, had a family friend who's young child talked about seeing his fishing buddy who he later picked out as his father's first cousin who had died tragically 30 years prior, and many other tales my grandmother shared. I will share with you what I have witnessed personally.

My parents bought and old home in town and moved it to the family land out in a rural area where we lived. Once demolition was done and construction started it was just a shell that consisted of just the heart of the house. Two bedrooms was added on to the North end and bathrooms, closets, and laundry to the South end. It took a few years to finish the house as my dad worked on it along and along and I always had a weird feeling about it when I was there alone. After moving in I would always sit in the recliner in the living area. From that point I could see down into dining room and down the hall. I would always see things darting about out the corners of my eye. I never could make out any specific shapes but they always seemed shadowy. My mom and sister said they had seen things also. I didn't really think anything about it until one night I realized we were not the only ones living there. I was going through a rough patch of sleeping (sleep apnea) and would often lie awake trying to fall asleep because I would always have to nap when I got home from work. My mom was sleeping in the guest room next door because of my dad's recent surgery. My room was setup that my bed was on the opposite wall facing the door with the door on the right. My door always had a distinct noise on opening like it stuck a bit so I was always aware when it was opened. On this particular night I thought I had heard my mother up stirring about in the room over and down the hall and I thought nothing of it. Next thing I know I felt the bed move as if someone had sit on the side of the bed behind me. I remember saying "oh, I didn't hear you come in. Is something wrong" as I rolled over to talked to my mom. Well to my surprise no one was there. I laid there shocked for a moment then proceeded to quickly get up and go sleep in the floor in the guest room with my mom. It only happened that once but I still continued to see shadowy thing about the house. I was scared for a while to stay in that room but I finally announced one day that I was ok with whoever was there. I did however ask them not to scare me.

A year or so later.

The house has an open floor plan with living room/kitchen in one long room with a big opening to the dining room and down the hall. I was cooking at the stove facing away from the living room. My sister was standing just inside the kitchen area near the living room and my mom was at the end of the hall where it enters the dining room. My mom and my sister were arguing about something that needed straightening in the dining room. It was a pretty heated argument and all of a sudden my sister screamed and I turned around to look and she was the color of cotton and could not speak a word for a few seconds. Finally she got her wits about her and said that as she turned around to say something else to my mom she saw a man standing behind my mom in the hall. She could not describe his face but said he was wearing brown/khaki pants, blue shirt, and boots. That really freaked us all out. Needless to say the argument quickly ended.

Those are the two major things that have happened to me personally. The only thing else I can remember is that my mom got a rescue dog from a friend and after first moving in she would go crazy and barking and chasing things in the hall. The kind of crazy where the hair on her back stands up and she is about to eat something alive...(dead in this case)....LOL She don't do it anymore but it was pretty common for a few months.

I love this thread almost a decade & its still going

Specializes in Adult and Pediatric Vascular Access, Paramedic.

I wasn't a nurse at the time, I was only about 16 or so, but one night I was in the kitchen at home with my mom and sister and I smelled the perfume my Nana use to always wear. I knew she had advanced stage cancer, but my parents were divorced and I wasn't close to my father or that side of the family so we didn't know she had died that very night I smelled her perfume randomly in the kitchen. It was like she stopped by to say goodbye! It was so weird. I was the only one that smelled it...

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