What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?

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...

[Christy1019, ASN, RN]

A lot of the nurses in my unit have talked about how the "back of the SICU" is haunted. I never really thought much about it, being a bit of a skeptic. Now that Halloween is approaching, their stories of witnessing the ghost have been amping up, One night while I was back in the "pit" of the SICU, where the ghost allegedly is, they started up with the stories again. This time I guess I was feeling cheekier than usual and piped up. I said something about how they are just being silly and impressionable and that most of their stories sound like they could easily have explainable causes. They all just shrugged and laughed and warned me that I would learn.

The following night I was in the pit again, this shift I was working with a brand new agency nurse. At one point I was standing in my patients room, preparing to drop an OG tube when I saw the agency nurse walking down the hall toward me. As she approached my room, she stopped abruptly and screamed "get away from her!". Stunned, I realized she was yelling this towards me! I turned to look behind me, and the only person there was my ventilated and sedated patient calmly lying in bed. I looked back at the nurse and she just looked confused. She said "I swear I just saw a man standing right behind you, like an inch behind you, leaning over you like a total creep!". Unsettled I looked around, and decided she must have seen the bair hugger behind me with the blanket draped over it and thought that was a person (granted it was nowhere near me). No sooner had I said that, the lights went off in the room, the patients bed alarm went off, and the tv turned on full volume!!!!! I turned them all off as quickly as possible yelling OK OK YOU'RE REAL I GET IT - I'M SORRY!!! I haven't had a problem in that room since, but it's only been a few weeks...

Umm they would have to call a code brown if that happened to me lmao

[Hygiene Queen]

Really people there are no such things as ghosts, demons, Angels or gods LMAO

Awwwww!!!!

Now, I'm sure there's a good explanation for all of it.

Goodness knows, I've had my share of peculiar experiences.

Is there a scientific reason?

Probably.

But until we get it all figured out...

Let me have my fun!

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

This one time I was walking down a dark alley and felt something warm behind me, I turned around and there was nobody there, I thought it was a ghost until I realized that it was my taco dinner just escaping my body like a smelly ghost.... Really people there are no such things as ghosts, demons, Angels or gods LMAO

LOL too funny...my SIL calls them Barking spiders.

I don't know I have met some people that are the devil incarnate...LOL

No one is saying they are real...this is a fun thread with interesting stories that has been going on a LONG time and one of my favorites. People like to be scared.

I LOVE Halloween!

ps. God, angels, and the Devil are very real to some people and NOT the topic of this thread.

[liberated847]

LOL too funny...my SIL calls them Barking spiders.

I don't know I have met some people that are the devil incarnate...LOL

No one is saying they are real...this is a fun thread with interesting stories that has been going on a LONG time and one of my favorites. People like to be scared. I LOVE Halloween!

ps. God, angels, and the Devil are very real to some people and NOT the topic of this thread.

A fair point :-)

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

liberated847 said:

A fair point ?

I live by Salem MA....it is my fav time of year

[firstinfamily, RN]

This isn't a real ghost story, but it always gives me goose bumps. I had a patient who was recovering in ICU, was intubated on a vent, he had a cardiac arrest at the ocean side on the beach. Where he was located on the beach there was an EMT, a nurse and a MD who all worked to provide first responder CPR. The man was elderly and when he was extubated he was very angry. He was alert and responsive enough to follow directions, reply to questions etc. When I approached him about why he was angry he told me that he was "seeing the bright white light and trying to follow it, there was glorious singling in the back ground, and he wanted to go further into the light. Something kept pulling at him and he was upset that he had been brought back." When he told me this I totally emphasized with him but also informed him that he was not done on this earth. There was a reason he had his arrest where people could provide life support to him, because his job was not done here. He did better, eventually went home and lived at least another 10 years. It was the first time I had a patient share an outer-body experience with me. There is a point where a dying patient is in between worlds and I guess mentally they are still active whether subconscious or not. I always think of this particular patient when I am caring for elderly patients who wish they could die.

[carrad47]

For 13 years I worked as a night supervisor in a rehab./LTC facility. It was my job to go down every night to ;the kitchen and bring up food for the staff. I always had a feeling that I wasn't alone there, so I always said "Hello all" when I walked in. One night I had things on my mind and didn't offer my usual greeting. As I was leaving a voice clearly said "Well, Hello" in that voice the elderly will use when they feel ignored. I apologized for not having said hello and left quickly shaking and with

goose bumps I never forgot to greet them again.

[MeghanCate80]

In a nursing home where I used to work, a woman named Phyllis died. Her bed didn't get filled for a couple of weeks. Right after she died, her call light started coming on. Or her bed alarm would go off. (These alarms have pressure sensitive pads, and go off when the resident gets out of bed.) Every time one of the staff would go into the room to turn off the light or alarm, her roommate would say, "That's Phyllis. They took her body out, but SHE never left." One night, we were having one of those all-Hell-is-breaking-loose kind of nights. On top of it all, that light and alarm were going off more than usual. When I went in there -again!- to turn off the light, I said, "Phyllis, I know you're still here. But we're having a REALLY busy night. Can you please stop turning on the light and alarm?" Not another problem for the rest of the shift. I started doing that every night. Always worked. The problems stopped when a new resident was admitted to that bed.

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

This isn't a ghost story, really, but it's definitely the creepiest thing that's happened to me so far as a nurse.

This happened a few months back. It was about the fifth or sixth time this patient had come back to our ICU and I had interacted with her. I'll call her Anna just for kicks. Anna was a chronic noncompliant dialysis patient. You all know the type - "I went on vacation" or "I had something else to do" or "I just didn't feel like going to dialysis yesterday." I'd given her AMA papers to sign a few times myself - she was a trip and if she wasn't getting exactly what she wanted, she just left. We'd inevitably see her again a week or two later. I liked taking care of her because I thought she was funny when she wasn't being obnoxious. I'm sure all of you who regularly take care of noncompliant patients know what I mean. Anna wasn't my patient this time, but I was in the room because my coworker wanted help rolling her to get a dirty sheet out from underneath her.

Anna was always a little short of breath because she had COPD and heart failure as well, but this time she wouldn't even let us lay the bed down. She started hyperventilating, looked me dead in the eyes, and clutched my arm so hard that her nails drew blood and said, "Something's wrong." She kept muttering that something was wrong and she wouldn't let go of my arm or look away from me. The monitor showed her heart rate creeping up, and up, and up - 110s, 120s, 140s, SVT in the 180s and all the time she wouldn't let go of my arm and was looking me dead in the eye. I kept telling her to try to relax and just breathe, but she just kept looking at me with the most naked expression of sheer terror I have ever seen on another person's face. My coworker asked me to stay with her while he went out to call the physician and the family. SVT went to V-tach and V-fib pretty rapidly. I watched as her eyes bugged out of her head and her mouth formed a perfect rictus of fear. I kept watching as her eyes went out of focus, her pupils dilated, and she stopped breathing, lost a pulse, and finally let go of my arm. We ended up coding her for a few minutes, but the code ended pretty much as soon as a physician finally hit the floor and realized who we were coding and how poor her prognosis was anyway.

Now, I've seen people die before. I have seen people on the vent lose a pulse. I have seen out of it, unconscious DNRs finally pass in their stupor. I have done postmortem care. Dead bodies were not new to me, but this was totally different. Making eye contact with Anna while she died was unnerving. I know she felt horrible, I know she couldn't breathe, and I know she was probably experiencing that feeling of impending doom they drilled into our heads in nursing school, but I wonder if she saw something other than me at the end. That look of terror in her eyes and expression of fear on her face was so strong that I still wonder if the last thing she saw was hellfire... or something worse.

[pookyp, LPN]

This isn't a ghost story, really, but it's definitely the creepiest thing that's happened to me so far as a nurse.

This happened a few months back. It was about the fifth or sixth time this patient had come back to our ICU and I had interacted with her. I'll call her Anna just for kicks. Anna was a chronic noncompliant dialysis patient. You all know the type - "I went on vacation" or "I had something else to do" or "I just didn't feel like going to dialysis yesterday." I'd given her AMA papers to sign a few times myself - she was a trip and if she wasn't getting exactly what she wanted, she just left. We'd inevitably see her again a week or two later. I liked taking care of her because I thought she was funny when she wasn't being obnoxious. I'm sure all of you who regularly take care of noncompliant patients know what I mean. Anna wasn't my patient this time, but I was in the room because my coworker wanted help rolling her to get a dirty sheet out from underneath her.

Anna was always a little short of breath because she had COPD and heart failure as well, but this time she wouldn't even let us lay the bed down. She started hyperventilating, looked me dead in the eyes, and clutched my arm so hard that her nails drew blood and said, "Something's wrong." She kept muttering that something was wrong and she wouldn't let go of my arm or look away from me. The monitor showed her heart rate creeping up, and up, and up - 110s, 120s, 140s, SVT in the 180s and all the time she wouldn't let go of my arm and was looking me dead in the eye. I kept telling her to try to relax and just breathe, but she just kept looking at me with the most naked expression of sheer terror I have ever seen on another person's face. My coworker asked me to stay with her while he went out to call the physician and the family. SVT went to V-tach and V-fib pretty rapidly. I watched as her eyes bugged out of her head and her mouth formed a perfect rictus of fear. I kept watching as her eyes went out of focus, her pupils dilated, and she stopped breathing, lost a pulse, and finally let go of my arm. We ended up coding her for a few minutes, but the code ended pretty much as soon as a physician finally hit the floor and realized who we were coding and how poor her prognosis was anyway.

Now, I've seen people die before. I have seen people on the vent lose a pulse. I have seen out of it, unconscious DNRs finally pass in their stupor. I have done postmortem care. Dead bodies were not new to me, but this was totally different. Making eye contact with Anna while she died was unnerving. I know she felt horrible, I know she couldn't breathe, and I know she was probably experiencing that feeling of impending doom they drilled into our heads in nursing school, but I wonder if she saw something other than me at the end. That look of terror in her eyes and expression of fear on her face was so strong that I still wonder if the last thing she saw was hellfire... or something worse.

My friend who is a cna,told me a story about her patient dying. She knew him from since she was a little girl and said he was always a mean man. Well know he's on hospice and dying. She was all alone with him at home. She said he hadn't opened his eyes for weeks and couldn't move his body at all. Well she was sitting by his bed and she said he say straight up! She was shocked as he hadn't moved in months (also did not speak)and was contracted in places, so It was hard for him to move. She said she saw terror in his eyes. He was screaming for help. She said his body slammed back into the bed and his head started shaking back and forth (like the way you shake your head 'no') going 50 mph. She said it was like out of a movie. Then she said it stopped and he just died right then. She said she got her behind out of there!

[TheGooch]

This one time I was walking down a dark alley and felt something warm behind me, I turned around and there was nobody there, I thought it was a ghost until I realized that it was my taco dinner just escaping my body like a smelly ghost.... Really people there are no such things as ghosts, demons, Angels or gods LMAO

[liberated847]

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