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...

Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

I had a private duty patient ask me, "Who is that standing at the foot of the bed?" She and I were the only ones in her apartment. There was nothing there but a blank wall. I asked her who it looked like, and she described a man with long brown hair and a beard, who "kind of looked like Jesus."

I checked her pulse and found it thin and thready. Called her family and they all hot-footed it over there. All were present around her bed and I left the room to give them privacy. But the patient called out for me and her daughter came out to get me. When I went in I took her hand and asked her what I could do for her. She said, "I'm ready to go home now. Will you take me home?" I said I would and that I was ready anytime she was ready......she said "OK, thank you."

And then she took her final breath.

Personally, although I had a bit of a skin crawl when she first asked me about the person at the foot of the bed, I was glad, because it allowed the family to assemble 'in time'.

Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.
been there,done it said:
Thanks for the goosebumps ? It's time to retire after a 12 hour shift ;)

I've been a nurse for 33 years and had some doozies.. but THAT is EEERIEE! Nurses are so often present at the time of death we are bound to experience unusual happenings.

My eeriest.. a zipped up body bag moving, more than one patient looking past me and talking to deceased family members right before passing.. and noting asystole on the monitor.. walking into the patient's room and "Stairway to Heaven " playing on their radio.

Hang on to your "cap"... have a feeling you are particularly receptive and in for some more "unusual" death scenes.:nailbiting:

HEY! You can't mention a moving body bag and then walk away! Did anyone check it out? It wouldn't have been ME, I can tell you that with every fiber of my being, but why was it moving?

Specializes in ICU.

I would have screamed if the body bag started moving.....I always hate being alone when I am doing post mortem care......I don't think I would ever do it again if I saw that.

Curious minds NEED to know......dont leave us hangin'

Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

I had a dead man sit up, on Halloween! Working night shift and this gentleman passed away, apparently he still had that one big breath of air left in him and as he exhaled it he sat bolt upright in the bed. I don't think I have ever jumped backwards so far or so fast in my life.

Specializes in Home Health (PDN), Camp Nursing.

We had a resident in LTC who move in that day, I was on 3-11 and the cna reported to me that the resident didn't want to be put in bed. I went in to see what was up. I asked her if the bed was ok, or if she just liked to stay up late, or if she was having any physical distress. She said to me "that lady won't let me in" I started assessing her mental status, as she had no history that would cause hallucination. She aced it was completely oriented. I asked her to tell me about the lady and she said "she's a big fat lady with one leg and a big thing on her neck". She had just described the previous occupant of the bed who had died the day before. An obese, amputee with a goiter.

I told he I would call the house supervisor to get a new bed tonight.

When I was in nursing school I was caring for a lady with dementia. While I was talking to her, something in her bathroom fell over. She and I both looked at the bathroom and then she looked at me. She said "that's your grandfather in there. He is married to the woman standing in the corner". Both my grandparents had passed away years ago! Needless to say, I was completely freaked out.

BuckyBadgerRN said:
HEY! You can't mention a moving body bag and then walk away! Did anyone check it out? It wouldn't have been ME, I can tell you that with every fiber of my being, but why was it moving?

I was cleaning up the room after an unsuccessful code on an end - stage COPD patient. Of course it was dark out, and I was alone in the room.

Caught a slight movement out of the corner of my eye and thought I was imagining it. The movement became stronger and I HAD to unzip the bag. We re-coded him, he "lived" for 2 more days on a vent.

Looking back, I realize the gazillion doses of epi kicked in .. and perhaps he had to come back so someone could say good by.

Specializes in Infection Control, Med/Surg, LTC.

My experience deals with our nurses residence while I was in nursing school. In the early 70s, I attended a Catholic 3 year nursing diploma school. We were required to live in. The residence was a 4 story stone building that started life before the Civil War as a jail. During the Civil War and until thru late 1940s it had been the hospital. It was sandwiched between the current hospital and the convent. The nuns would walk from the hospital thru the residence to the convent. On the second floor there was a door leading from the residence to the convent and they would walk up the first flight of stairs to get to it. During my time there were only 5 nuns in residence there, their motherhouse being in Pittsburg. At some point in time an elevator had been installed, one of those with the inner gate door that had to be manually opened when reaching the floor. It was also the only access to the basement where the laundry room was at.

The only time students were allowed to use the elevator was Fridays when going home for the weekend with luggage and Sundays when returning, or when going to the laundry room. The house mother used it on weekdays but was not in residence on weekends. The nuns NEVER used it.

One weekend I was the only student in residence. I was from Chicago and was attending a school in WV so home on weekend was not an option. I did have family in MD but had to take the train there and simply didn't feel like it. Besides, there was a chance to make extra money by working: from our second year we were frequently called to work as either a nurse or aide when the hospital was short. I worked many night shifts as the 'nurse' with an aide on one of the floors. Call it slave labor. We'd earn $1.25 an hour, the minimum wage back then. Thought we were hot stuff. But even better, we were able to hit the floor running upon graduation.

So, I was all alone in the residence, sole owner of the one TV. Was loving life. Did not get called to work. I go to bed. Last nun into the residence locks the door. My room is right next to the elevator. So just who was riding up and down in that elevator? I kid you not. I laid in bed listening to the door clanging open and closed and the elevator going up and down all night! Never was so scared in all my life. Got up and put my chair under the door knob - no door locks on our doors. Like that was going to keep out a ghost? I knew it wasn't any of the sisters. No other students in residence and no house mother. And the elevator had been locked on the first floor and was to stay that way until Sunday evening when students returned. I had done my laundry on Thursday so someone could go to the spooky basement with me - we never went down there alone. You had to walk through labyrinths of narrow, dimly lit passages to get to the laundry room. Once there it was a cheerful, well lit room with lots of windows, and you could go out a door to the outside, walk to the main entrance to get back to your room. But when you finished you had to relock the outer door and travel back through the spooky labyrinths to get to the elevator again. So no one would have been using the elevator to accessing the laundry at night even if anyone else was there. And the sisters had their own laundry in the convent.

Needless to say for several weekends after I boarded the train and headed for family! I did stay in residence alone again but never had that happen again. Just other minor stuff I could make rational excuses for.

The building still stands but has not been in use since the school closed. I was in the last graduating class. The nuns sold the hospital and went back to Pittsburg. The hospital was converted to apartments for disabled and elderly and the nursing residence was sold. Because it is an historic building the buyer wants to restore it and it was totally gutted a few years ago. It still sets as an empty shell. People have told me there have been reports of lights seen in the windows at night - neat trick since there is no interior, floors or stairs supposed to be left. I don't know if the elevator remains. It has also been placed on the Ghost Walk the city has during Halloween.

Ttt merry christmas everybody

Specializes in Critical Care, Neuro-trauma.

I currently switched hospitals to a very old but major level 1 trauma center which has recently undergone some major transformations including closing and moving their old med surg unit to a different floor and using those old rooms as on call rooms and break areas for physicians, ect. Well our nursing students use computers that they keep down in those rooms so that nobody else can access them. As I was retrieving it for them one morning they continuously told stories about an old call light that was on which stated that a nurse was in the room with a patient. So I go down myself and sure enough this call light was lit up with nobody in the room. I checked all the rooms for the computer and it could not be found. So I returned upstairs and notified their instructor. Not long after she goes downstairs and retrieves the computer from the same room I checked multiple times and when they logged into it, there was a name of which nobody could recognize in the login information. So creepy.

Love that last story ....this thread has been going for 16 years WOW

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