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...

When I first started at my LTC facility I worked night shift. One night I went in for my shift and learned a lol in room 137 had passed away a few days prior. This lol was known to call 911 if her meds were late or call light wasn't answered in a timely manner. She even called once because she couldn't reach her tv remote. About 3 hours into my shift I received a call from a 911 dispatcher who says to me "Florence just called again but hung up. I tried to call back and didn't get an answer. I just wanted to make sure every thing is ok." I politely told him that was not possible because she had passed away earlier that week. He suggested we go check the room to make sure one of the other residents had not gotten in and called. On my way down the hall to her old room I grabbed one of the CNAs to go with me. We entered the room and seen that her family had all of her belongings boxed up and sitting in the corner of the room. Sitting on top of one of the boxes was her phone. It was not plugged into the phone jack nor was it even near the jack. We were both pretty freaked out. I receive 2 more calls from the dispatcher that night reporting hang up calls. After the second time we went down to the room and removed the phone. After the third call the local PD was sent to investigate. They searched the room thoroughly and found nobody and no explanation for the calls. They were pretty freaked out too.

CharlotteSophia said:

Anyway, first off, regarding the above post, this is the THIRD time on a ghost forum that I've heard someone describe the state of Minnesota as creepy. I've lived in MN my whole life and I LOVE that! Of course, I don't think it's creepy (now, New Orleans, Boston, San Francisco, they seem to have a creepiness in parts, but MN? The whole state?) But it's home, so of course to me it's normal. But I think that's great to hear ?

I know I'm responding to an old post here, but I've had a creepy experience in Minnesota too. My mom and I were visiting, and we were driving around back roads in a rented car. I'd neglected to bring a compass (never again!) and we'd gotten ourselves turned around. We were going past an open field and my mom says something like "I see this Tall Thing out there" and for some reason that really freaked me out. The moon looked huge and creepy, and the shadows were strange and it was just very odd. I never found out what the Tall Thing was either, but it seemed like a shadow and it scared me beyond all reason.

In the daylight, Minnesota was beautiful. We were up near Ely. This is indeed somewhat nurse related, Nurse's Aide related anyway, because both my mother and I have been in that profession.

Nurseynurse369 said:
When I first started at my LTC facility I worked night shift. One night I went in for my shift and learned a lol in room 137 had passed away a few days prior. This lol was known to call 911 if her meds were late or call light wasn't answered in a timely manner. She even called once because she couldn't reach her tv remote. About 3 hours into my shift I received a call from a 911 dispatcher who says to me "Florence just called again but hung up. I tried to call back and didn't get an answer. I just wanted to make sure every thing is ok." I politely told him that was not possible because she had passed away earlier that week. He suggested we go check the room to make sure one of the other residents had not gotten in and called. On my way down the hall to her old room I grabbed one of the CNAs to go with me. We entered the room and seen that her family had all of her belongings boxed up and sitting in the corner of the room. Sitting on top of one of the boxes was her phone. It was not plugged into the phone jack nor was it even near the jack. We were both pretty freaked out. I receive 2 more calls from the dispatcher that night reporting hang up calls. After the second time we went down to the room and removed the phone. After the third call the local PD was sent to investigate. They searched the room thoroughly and found nobody and no explanation for the calls. They were pretty freaked out too.

That's a pretty freaky story.

WKShadowRN said:
Our fast track is in the old ICU of the building and the exam tables move on their own, head up and down, whether someone is in it or not. We had biomed check it out and they "fixed" it or said nothing was wrong. I've had to unplug them so patients won't be injured.

We have to tell patients daily that their bed is possessed. It's kind of a joke, but then it stops when we unplug, I think. *sigh* I have yet to see it happen while unplugged. Until then, the line is "there's a short but we check it and it's fine."

Never count on something being unplugged to stop ghosts from messing with them

One of the cable guys that came to our old haunted house said that he was at another house where the tv kept coming on even though it was unplugged.

humglum said:
I'd have to say nurse managers. I've heard they exist, but I very rarely see one.

That's never true at my hospital except for one particular unit! The nurse managers answer all the call lights between themselves and the staff member they are looking for! Helps that they're the ones supposed to enforce that policy. One insane day the house supervisor herself came and pushed a patient to CT because it was urgent and transport couldn't come.

Specializes in Oncology (OCN).
TheGooch said:
Never count on something being unplugged to stop ghosts from messing with them

One of the cable guys that came to our old haunted house said that he was at another house where the tv kept coming on even though it was unplugged.

Not nursing related, but has to do with the post quoted above. We lived in a house where peculiar things happened from time to time. I'm not a big believer in ghosts or the paranormal. I'm what you would call a skeptic. (But I love this thread!) I think most things have an explanation. It's just the analytical way my brain works. Anyway we had a smoke detector that would randomly go off for a few seconds at a time. No fire, no smoke, nothing. The first couple of times we didn't think much of it but it consistently happened over a period of weeks. We changed the battery thinking that was causing it. It continued. My husband checked the wiring for a short. There wasn't one. It continued. So he took the battery out. It still went off. Pretty freaky. So he completely took it down and removed the innards from it and took the innards out to his workshop (separate from the house) leaving the outer shell on the counter. Later that night after we were in bed (but not asleep) we hear the smoke detector go off. Yep--it went in a dumpster across town that night!

Cricket183 said:
Not nursing related, but has to do with the post quoted above. We lived in a house where peculiar things happened from time to time. I'm not a big believer in ghosts or the paranormal. I'm what you would call a skeptic. (But I love this thread!) I think most things have an explanation. It's just the analytical way my brain works. Anyway we had a smoke detector that would randomly go off for a few seconds at a time. No fire, no smoke, nothing. The first couple of times we didn't think much of it but it consistently happened over a period of weeks. We changed the battery thinking that was causing it. It continued. My husband checked the wiring for a short. There wasn't one. It continued. So he took the battery out. It still went off. Pretty freaky. So he completely took it down and removed the innards from it and took the innards out to his workshop (separate from the house) leaving the outer shell on the counter. Later that night after we were in bed (but not asleep) we hear the smoke detector go off. Yep--it went in a dumpster across town that night!

Cool story.

Ok, I have finally finished reading all these wonderful stories so I must add one of my own. I have many from over the years starting in childhood and continuing to present. I was a medic in the Air Force and since retirement, work in a hospital as a telemetry monitor tech.

This story isn't a ghost story but on a scale of 1 to Twilight Zone rates Bermuda Triangle.

When I was stationed in Italy, I was on call with another medic. We had to take a young lady to a large hospital due to her having night sweats, a cough and a suspicious chest x-ray. When we arrived at the facility, we were escorted to another building behind the hospital by local paramedics. They had a badge to get us in the building, put us on the elevator and sent us to the second floor. When the elevator doors open, the three of us walk out onto the respiratory illness ward. The only lights are on over the nurses station. All the patient rooms are empty and we can't find anyone. We get back on the elevator thinking that the paramedics sent us to the wrong floor. We go to the 3rd floor (no floor higher than that) and it is ambulatory surgery, everything is locked up and no lights are on. we go back to the 2nd floor and still no nurses, no patients, it is empty. We stop on the 1st floor and it is all office space that is locked up. We head back to the ground floor ( 0 ) and I look at the directory. 2nd floor is the respiratory illness floor. I call our Italian liason and tell her we can't find anyone. She basically says don't be ridiculous they are waiting for the patient. We get back on the elevator and go back to 2nd floor. When the doors open all the lights are on, there are patients in the rooms, and nurses and aides, very busy place. A nurse that spoke English greeted us and wanted to know what took us so long as they had been notified by the paramedics that they had put us on the elevator and sent us up. The patient did not want us to leave her there but me and the other medic filed our transfer paperwork and beat it outta there. We couldn't come up with a logical explanation for that all the way back to base.

It was definitely a strange occurrence. I have more stories. Will post more later.

Ok, one more before I call it a night.

At my first assignment after training, I was at a base hospital in northern California. We had the usual stuff, call bells that went off when no one was in the room, tvs turning themselves on, etc. After about a year and half of working Med/Surg, I was reassigned to the ER. Late one Saturda afternoon, we got a call from the person that handled our education and training. He had come in to catch up on some paperwork. His office was on the 2nd floor which had been our old maternity ward. He said a call bell had started going off and he couldn't get it shut off. I told him I would head up and see what I could do. When I got up there, he had left so I was alone. I looked at the board and saw that the call bell wasn't going off on the old maternity ward (now all office and storage space) but rather in the old labor and delivery area. I went back there and wasn't able to shut it off at the board so had to go into the delivery room to turn it off. When I did that, I heard a loud crash in the room next to me. I ran out and although I saw nothing, ran into something that I could feel but not see. It was oppressive and cold and I started running and it followed me. I could feel it breathing down my neck. I jumped in the elevator and it did not come with me. When I got back to the ER, everyone said I looked like I had seen a ghost. I wouldn't tell them what happened. About 3 wks later, we called the OR team in for an emergency surgery. One of the guys came in and said he was going to the old Labor and Delivery to get something needed for the case that they had started storing down there. About 10 min later he came back, white as a sheet. I asked him what happened and told him y story. He said when he got off the elevator a man was standing there. He thought he was lost as we had a med/surg ward and an ICU but when he spoke to the man, he just smiled and walked around the corner. The surg tech followed him around and he had vanished. There was no where for him to go. All the offices were lock and the closest stair were way down a different hallway. Neither of us would go back to the old Maternity floor alone ever again.......

Specializes in Psychiatric nursing; Medical-Surgrical.
coot said:
a nurse who is a friend of mine told me a bout a patient she had that had been sick for a while and she had went in the patients room to get her vital signs and the pt was lifted off the bed just a few inches and she said that there was a black shadow that covered the room and as the pt died it was llike the shadow left the room and a very cold even spookey draft followed she says and i believe that u can tell a pt has either went to heaven or the devil him self has come to claim his soul. nursing gives u a total different look on death and the higher power

I have so much to add to this....I have seen some patients die and yes you can tell those who went to be with the Lord.

Ndy-RN said:
I have so much to add to this....I have seen some patients die and yes you can tell those who went to be with the Lord.

Yes, please do.

I've had so many paranormal experiences in haunted locations. I can "tell" if there's an evil presence just walking into a room. This experience has been confirmed on so many occasions that I know it's not my imagination.

Specializes in Psychiatric nursing; Medical-Surgrical.

I believe that ghosts are demons and deceiving spirits. The bible tells us of heaven and he'll and there is no two was about it. I have seen "them ghosts" before and some come like they are kind and as soon as I rebuke them invite name of Jesus Christ they either go and never come back or reveal their true form (horrible) before they vanish. Sometimes you sense their evil strongly and how miserable and sad these evil spirits are and sometimes you can smell them. The smell is like rotten rotten eggs or burning sulfur. See Satan is very cunning and deceitful. He comes to steal,kill, and destroy. He will come in anyway to deceive mant.Rebuke him in the name of Jesus Christ and be free. You who is living have more power than the dead and evil spirit's in the name of Jesus Christ.

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