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...

MaryAnn_RN said:
One night I was caring for a dying male patient. He was scared and I spent quite some time with him, trying to calm and reassure him. Eventually he calmed and I left the bedside and went over to the nurses station which was about 15 feet away. As I sat down I glanced over to him and there was a black shape standing over the bed, looking down at the patient. I was terrified, and am sure it was something evil.

Is this real? It sounds so unbelievable, but I'm finding myself believing you. Was it clear picture, was it human shaped?

Peachy720 said:
**jaw drops**

I swear I've heard this or something similar before - this can't be real... can it?

My girlfriend is a nurse, and I occasionally ask her to tell me some of her paranormal stories.

About the only one I've been able to get out of her is when she attended the passing of a friend of hers in the hospital.

She says that everyone in the room could feel the friend's spirit looking down on them as she passed.

I never believed my dad's supernatural story, although now I do. He's nearly 80yrs old, and is so sincere, and so adamant that what happened when he was a boy, really happened. He's so serious, he warned me never to play with the supernatural, and I have avoided it, but this is the first time I've shared his experience outside the family. If you can't trust your own father, then you can't trust anyone.

He was one of 8 kids, a good catholic family, although his mother was from Inverness in Scotland and had a crystal ball and used to tell fortunes - an interesting combination of religion and the occult.

Anyway, one day him and his brothers and sisters got hold of their mother's ouji board and began fooling round. Sure enough it spelt out silly things, and they all accused each other of moving it, and then it told them an aunty they didn't like was going to arrive, and it spelled out some bad words describing her. The kids had a laugh, and then one looked out the window to see if it was true, and sure enough, walking down the driveway was their aunty.

The kids were a little freaked, but then began to accuse each other of knowing she was coming over, which they each hotly denied.

Then my dad said 'it's the devil' - and to this day, dad swears this happened.

It spelled out 'bright boy' with no one touching it.

nursingaround1 said:
I never believed my dad's supernatural story, although now I do. He's nearly 80yrs old, and is so sincere, and so adamant that what happened when he was a boy, really happened. He's so serious, he warned me never to play with the supernatural, and I have avoided it, but this is the first time I've shared his experience outside the family. If you can't trust your own father, then you can't trust anyone.

He was one of 8 kids, a good catholic family, although his mother was from Inverness in Scotland and had a crystal ball and used to tell fortunes - an interesting combination of religion and the occult.

Anyway, one day him and his brothers and sisters got hold of their mother's ouji board and began fooling round. Sure enough it spelt out silly things, and they all accused each other of moving it, and then it told them an aunty they didn't like was going to arrive, and it spelled out some bad words describing her. The kids had a laugh, and then one looked out the window to see if it was true, and sure enough, walking down the driveway was their aunty.

The kids were a little freaked, but then began to accuse each other of knowing she was coming over, which they each hotly denied.

Then my dad said 'it's the devil' - and to this day, dad swears this happened.

It spelled out 'bright boy' with no one touching it.

Gosh!

I have more stories. I'll share them in the near future.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Nayk0105 said:

I tell you one thing though. Do NOT ever get attach to materialistic things in life. Be it a jewelry, a chair you sit on (in your old age), a house, a car, or anything like that. I knew why my grandpa wouldn't go his own way coz he was *obsessed* with the house. That's explained why unfavorable look.

An interesting story but a bit of preaching at the end -- unnecessary and unbelievable.

Ruby Vee said:
An interesting story but a bit of preaching at the end -- unnecessary and unbelievable.

Yeah, I may be preaching but I am describing it the way it is. I knew how much my grandpa was obsessed with that house. Read more of my stories below.

Specializes in geriatrics,med/surg,vents.

Not a nursing but a patient story, I had been in the hospital 5 months 3 months in ICU, when my Dad died. After I got out I was at my parent's house sitting in the living room all alone when I saw my Dad standing in front of me. I remember thinking it couldn't be him and I didn't want to address him as "Dad" because I thought I was seeing things. I simply said, "hey, what's up?". And he said "i just wanted to be sure you were alright" . Then disappeared.

1st one:

This is not really a story with ghost involved. At one time, I was a realtor. You may not know that realtors don't work for themselves. They work under a broker unless the realtor is also a broker. When I was studying for the exam, there was a broker holding supportive classes for students (whom I later went on and worked for him). He was discussing topics with students and at one point he mentioned about haunted houses. Some students asked if it is real and he replied "oh, yeah, that stuff is real", word for word. I am guessing as he gains more experience (10 years to get broker license?), he came across some of those.

2nd one:

To this day, I know of a monk, Theravada Buddhist monk. These are his personal stories. He was in several different countries in southeast asia before coming to US. Sri Lanka was one of the countries. There, he encountered a widower with kids and she was asking help to help her (then deceased) husband. So one day, the monk called up the ghost, asking him why he (the ghost) hadn't passed on. The monk found out the reason was the ghost was attached to his family, protecting them whenever he had the opportunity. After that, he held prayer sessions for a couple of weeks and the ghost disappeared/moved on. I know there are some contexts that I haven't explained and I rather not unless you ask.

3rd one:

The same monk. As he was a little younger, he was in very rural area of Burma (now Myanmar). There he encountered a ghost along with other padawans (young monks that had only a few years of monkship). The funny thing was that ghost roaming around their monastery was the former head Abbott (aka senior monk). Yeap in Theravada Buddhism, things don't get discriminated. If you screw up, you screw up and you'll end up paying for it. This is very similar to my grandpa story above. The monk was very much attached to his monastery and later when he died, he ended up around it and couldn't moved on. This is a bit long story especially with the context to explain. So I'll cut it short. Eventually, the ghost moved on or at least stop the haunting after the next head monk talked him out of his attachment.

4th one:

This one is from a movie, a real life story. The title is Rescue Dawn with Christian Bale and Steve Zahn. You can watch it yourself. My point here is about attachment. Near the end, Bale and Zahn, the 2 escapees, ended up in a farm where they encountered locals. Locals immediately killed Zahn but Bale escaped death yet again. Bale ran for several hours or so and he got tired and took a nap. When he was about to wake or half-awake, he found himself literally talking to his dead friend Zahn. I don't think Dieter Dengler (real life POW) or the director made that up. My only explanation is Zahn was so mentally attached to escaping and Bale that he ended up following Bale even after he was killed.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Nayk0105 said:
Yeah, I may be preaching but I am describing it the way it is. I knew how much my grandpa was obsessed with that house. Read more of my stories below.

The stories are great. I'm just objecting to the preaching.

1) I had to exorcise demons on what I thought was a quiet night

2) I shift exchanged into a day shift on a weekend while family members were visiting. Some young kid starts freaking out that he is seeing ghosts and points at something she can see from the window. I heard an "OMG" from a staff member, so I went to the window to take a look. The KKK was having a rally which just so happened to go past our nursing home.

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