What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?

Nurses General Nursing Nursing Q/A

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 worked in a rural hospital built in the 1950's. It was built on the site of an old children's home. The facility to this day still has that old 50's feel to it even with the updates it has been given. I had been working there about a year when one of the older nurses told me her ghost story. Our med surg unit is L shaped. She worked night shift and was given assigned the rooms at the very end of the unit. IT was a busy night and she had come out of the last room at the end of the hall way. She looked into the room across the hall and there was a woman in the bed. Before she had gone into the room the other room was empty. She said she walked over to the door and the woman sat up and said that she was waiting for her. The nurse told her she would be right back and the woman laid down. She went up to the nurses station and began chewing out the charge nurse for putting a new admit in the room without telling her. He informed her that there had not been any new admissions for a few hours. They both went down to the room and it was empty.

Okay, I have one too. But it's not really a ghost story. It's more of a God story.

When my younger sister's marriage ended, she and her pre-school age son moved back home to live with our mom and dad. It was a difficult time. Jane was angry that life had not turned out as she had hoped, and she was under a great deal of stress being a single working mom. Adam was deeply affected by this change in his life. There was so much sadness and confusion in his young heart. We all feared that he was depressed. He was afraid to sleep alone, and my dad often lay in bed with him until he fell asleep. Both Jane and Adam started seeing a family therapist to help them deal with their pain.

One day, Jane was in the shower while Adam played in the house. Mom (Adam's grandma) was in the garage doing laundry. While in the shower, Jane heard a distinct voice urgently tell her to scream her son's name. She immediately did. She screamed out "Adam" at the top of her lungs. My mother heard the scream from the garage (it was attached to the house), and ran into the house to find Adam hanging by his neck from the stair rail. He had tied the sash of his little bathrobe around his neck, tied the other end to the bannister, and had climbed over the railing.

Mom got him down, removed the sash, and found that he was still breathing. His neck had burn marks from the sash, a visual reminder to us of how close we had come to losing our precious boy.

Jane says she knows that God warned her that day and saved her son's life. On at least two occasions following this incident she saw what she believed to be an angel in the house and when Adam told her that he had seen something in the house that frightened him, he gave the exact same description.

Jane is remarried now to a wonderful man. Adam is all grown up and learning how to drive. We believe that God sent extra protection to that little family during a time when they needed it most.

I'm sorry, but how in the world does a pre-school aged boy know how to hang himself on purpose?

Before becoming an lpn i worked as a cna in a ltc. One night during an 11-7 shift the aide i was working with went into a room to change one of the residents in there. She rolled the woman on her side to change the brief and the womans roommate let out an ear piercing scream. The aide quickly turned to see what was bothering the roommate and after a few seconds brought her attention back to the resident who was on her side she was changing... who was now dead. She died with her eyes wide open and her mouth wide open in what seemed to be a silent scream. We dont know what was in that room that night but the roommate refused to stay and refused to talk about what she saw but she spent the rest of the night crying in the hallway. Needless to say i couldnt wait to get the.post mortem care done and get out of that entirely way to eery room!

Keep them coming! These are so interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.

My fav thread !

Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.

I don't know how he would know ?

Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.

I worked in a nursing home and the room was for 2 pts , my patient was dying I pulled the curtain between the beds for privacy . After I pulled the curtain a few moments the pt passed away ..when he took his last breath the curtain shook in back of me . It was like his spirit shook the curtains it was coming out of his body ... I was scared and ran out of the room!

Wow! so many , I would also like to share some of mine.

First I will admit that I have encounters not only in hospitals, and had these even when I was younger.

Here are some of mine I have experienced when I was a student.

It was our ( my group) first time for hospital rounds . It was morning shirt 6 am-2 pm . However our group, not wanting to be late, arrived at dawn about an hour and a half before 6. its a government hospital a small one too. As we were climbing up the stairs our group passed by an old man wearing formal attire, I greeted him he didn't replied and maybe because it was too early and he still haven't had coffee. Then after another floor, we were climbing to the next and last (The elevator was not for student o we went up the stairs up to the sixth floor) we passed by the man again going down and I did the same greeting, no reply again but I was wondering how he did it. Then I reminded myself of the elevator, he had used it I guessed. What bothered everyone else ( cause I usually just shrugged it off when these happen to me) was who I was greeting. So they laughed at me upon reaching the sixth floor and putting our things down at the student area. Our preceptor was there and asked why they were laughing. I told them what happened. then they got scared. A male student even grabbed me and said 'but we were the only ones using the stairs, no staff,patient or support system there because they used the elevators. We never passed a man..not a soul, no one" then my preceptor corrected him saying 'Maybe not a man, but a soul'

Same hospital but a year had passed, this time we were on graveyard shift. At the sixth floor ( this was were the student area was for the whole hospital) Our preceptor was giving a light lecture. its about 12 am when he stopped and asked how everyone was doing (it was our last day of rotation) and joked if we studied for his prepared exams. He asked this because our shifts with him had been eventful. We were seated across an old nurses station. When we started laughing the door of the old nurses station opened suddenly like someone dashed out. I didn't see anything this time but I felt the air got heavy. few groupmates ( I had a duty before or personally knows my case) look at me some even whispered 'what is it' I said I didn't know but told them we should not be too noisy. Our preceptor then without looking at it (the door) apologised for disruption. the door then closed very slowly by itself.

one last share ( three is long enough :D )

We were actually at our classroom, we were discussing about REM and NREM sleep, our classroom was a former office of the college of nursing so it still had the old Dean's office which now is a storage room. it was about 7:45 pm and yes we were the last block on the whole floor. We were the only block for that day to have evening classes up to 9 pm. Our professor was discussing a bit and we were enjoying the class so we were a bit noisy due to the interactive discussion. i was seated up front so you could imagine our faces when we heard a loud knock coming from the walls of the old dean's office. About the Dean who occupied that before. She was the first ever Dean of the college since foundation and the only Dean to utilised that room and her time was 45 years ago from our time. Of course we went home, knowing she is strict and doe not like it when classes run late.

have lots more but I hope you like these :)

Specializes in Geriatrics, Cardiology..

I blocked ghost/spirits out of my head for years u til I was doing my 8:00pm med pass in the 100's hall. I heard a loud crying of "boo hoo hoo!" Over & over and I stopped, locked the med cart and checks all rooms. The residents were either asleep or saying to me "no honey I'm fine" I dismissed it and moved on!

We got another hospice pt admitted and within a week she went to actively dying and on comfort meds and measures... I loved her. She had three daughters who never left her side. We grew close and in the final days, they said that I was the only one she would call by name. So sweet. She passed on my 8:00pm med pass and 30 minutes post I heard "hey, Sam, it's me" loud like a megaphone was in the hall. It was her voice and I got down onto the floor and a CNA walked down the hall and I told her "I think I am going crazy!"

Things were fine and I was passing the upstairs meds three weeks later.

The charting room is locked per nurse and med aid keys.

First floor cna came to me in a panic asking if I left the chatting room unlocked. My answer was no. And why? She said her and another cna found ALL 90 resident charts on the floor.

They picked them up.

I thought that was super weird. Even more so when one cna told me of a resident who passed away in the room behind the charting room who used to bang on the wall to the charting binders to get attention... HMMM.

Same room where the call light kept going off and the executive directors even walked in with me to turn it off once. The door was locked prior.

:-S

This one is from a friend-- she swears it's true.

Her dad is a hospice nurse. He got a call from the agency that a patient was in the process of dying and was expected to pass very soon. They asked that he attend to the family. Apparently the nurse who was supposed to be there could not make it for some reason. He complained that it was all the way across town, and it was not his usual day to work, but he went anyway. When he was nearly there the agency called him to say the family had reported that the patient had passed but to please go there and help with family support and start postmortum care. When he arrived he introduced himself by saying "Hello I'm Marty, I'm from Hospice." My friend said the family's mouths fell open and the all looked shocked. He apologized that their usual nurse could not make it. They said, "No that's not it. Grandma kept mumbling that Marty was coming. We thought she was just talking nonsense but here you are!"

Chills!!! I love all these stories!

Let's start by saying I don't believe in ghosts, or at least I didn't. I worked in an older hospital and in a totally locked icu unit. I was in the locked Med room getting meds for one of my patients, when I heard my name. Loud enough that I answered it. When I realized what had happened, I rushed out and asked my co worker if he had called me (he was in another pt room) and looked at me crazy.

Another time, I was in an empty or room in the same unit. I had some down time so my tech was showing me a particular braid. We were alone, and suddenly hear three knocks on the wall next to us. The room next door was empty, and the only other pt there was intubated.

Needless to say I'm a bit of believer these days.

We have a very mentally disturved pt that has been there for many years. This pt very so often comes up wt allusinations and things of that matter. Well this pt claims to see some disfigurated mentally disturved kids down the hall, that keep running and making noises down the hall! I always thought Poor pt is all cray and seen things. Well there had been several pt specially the ones that are mentally invalance or the ones that are about to die that claimed to see those difigurated childrens down the hall taking their blankets off, jumping on their beds etc. One pt that did die right in front of me told me to not leave her by herself bc everytime someone leaves the room those kids come back inside and do not let her sleep, i asked the pt what do they look like she said around 7-10 years old boys & girls very dirty looking white clothing , but torned and dirty and they have disfigurated faces and missing limbs and sometimes they peel their face right infront of me. We have heard the story Several times throught the years I honestly do not know what is going on, but mayve prior to the custructions of this facillity there were kids burried under that landfield ? Only God kmows...

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