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...

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.

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.

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.

Specializes in ICU.

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.

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!

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

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Specializes in CEN, CFRN, PHRN, RCIS, EMT-P.
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Touché

Specializes in family practice and school nursing.

More stories???

I used to work agency and worked a few nights in a small hospital in Northern Kansas. I was scared to death to go anyplace alone as there were often shadows. The nurses that were regulars seemed to be used to seeing shadows and apparitions of a little boy playing in the breakroom and tv's that came on in a certain room in the dead of night. While working at the same facility a few months later I was doing paperwork at the nurses desk and kept looking up thinking someone was standing at the desk waiting on my attention. Thinking that it was most likely a cna or a resident I looked up and nobody was there. This happened 3 more times within a 2 hour time frame. The last time it happened, I looked up and saw a flash of color go backwards as if it had been sucked into a vaccum. Immediately as I stood with my mouth hanging open, the door to the med room behind me slowly started to close and all of a sudden as I watched slammed shut so hard that the items on the med cart fell. The rest of the night I sat unblinking. When the charge nurse came in the next morning, I said you are going to think I'm nuts, but.........she said "Oh well they must not want you here." She was as spooky as whatever I had seen the night before so I refused assignment from there on out at this place. No desire to go there ever again.

Pookyp.....This story is something I have seen as well but on the other end of things, I once took care of an elderly cancer patient who had suffered a long time. She slowly stopped talking then stopped responding then stopped opening her eyes and had no movement for many weeks. Every evening her husband would stay. Being elderly himself, our staff became worried for him as nobody sleeps well in the hosital and he was in a recliner, you know the scenario. That evening, his wife was my patient so my co-worker, the patients sons and I talked her husband in to going home to have a good meal and decent nights sleep. The patient had been having increasingly rapid breaths and falling hr for many weeks. Her bp would get next to nothing but she wouldn't pass, she would always come back. That night, as I did her 0200 vitals, the rapid breathing continued, as I did my bp check, and unhooked my equipment, this lady who had not moved in weeks sat slightly up, extended her arms in greeting, smiled and passed away. The look on her face was pure elation. I related this to her family later on and they felt she had seen her families and bloved pets and the were so relieved. Since that time, I am more comfortable with death and talking about death. I felt badly as her husband had left and she had died, but he was so sweet and said "Sweetie, don't you feel bad. I wanted her to find peace and relief and if me leaving was what she was waiting for, I wish I had left weeks ago." Love my patients and their fams!

Pushing meds during a code one night in the ER, something caught in the corner caught my. I looked over and there was a floating, sparkling version of the elderly lady we were working on standing in the corner. She had a small smile on her face. After the code, which was successful, two of the older ER nurses came up to me and said, "You saw her ,didn't you? We saw you do a double take". I replied that I had and asked if they thought everyone had seen her.. the older of the two said, "Generally people will only see what they allow themselves to see".. It was not the first time or the last but it was the most incredible and the fact that two others on the code team saw her, astounded me!

Specializes in OB, critical care, hospice, farm/industr.
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".

I have seen this as a hospice nurse. It's uncanny in the original sense of the word.

I also had a nun at the sisterhouse look THROUGH me, get really excited, say "Oh, it's YOU!" and then lie back to die a few hours later.

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