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...

TheGooch said:
I've always thought it would be cool to be a ghost. No constraints of a physical body so you can basically go where you want to. You could basically fly through the universe. Or visit people that you don't like and scare the crap out of them.

I don't see them as things to be afraid of.

I don't see them as things to be afraid of either. Well, except the ones that didn't like me and visit me to scare the crap out of me. lol

vanilla bean said:
I don't see them as things to be afraid of either. Well, except the ones that didn't like me and visit me to scare the crap out of me. lol

I lived in a haunted house a few years back. There were times when I doubted my sanity. They can be more of an annoyance-especially when they want to be noticed. We once had a candle fly across the room for no good reason. It was securely fastened in the candleholder and there was no way it could have gotten clear across the room and hit the wall with a "thud". I woke up one night and heard a woman sobbing. I used to always find the washing machine lid up. I got fed and told them to stop doing it-that never happened again.

What was more of an annoyance was people associating the move "Poltergeist" when I mentioned we lived in a haunted house. No,no one was sucked into another dimension though the closet and we didn't have a killer clown.

I love these stories! So interesting and creepy too! Thanks for sharing.

Just wanted to let you know that I just love this stuff.

Awesome thread! I joined just so I can comment.

I've had a number of haunting experiences, some health care related.

I used to be a home healthcare worker for a nice older lady with MS. She used to talk about her deceased cats still coming around to see her, and her other cats. I saw them more than once, shadows moving barely within the range of sight. In broad daylight, too! She also had a male ghost who smoked a particular kind of tobacco - one day the screen door rattled, and I smelled the tobacco. She did too and told me it was her visitor. There wasn't anyone else around who smoked that kind of tobacco and the air was completely clear before the haunting. This too happened in mid afternoon, in broad daylight.

I lived for a time in an old house built in 1897. There were creepy feelings upstairs, especially in the half-attic. I never liked that place, it always felt like something horrible had happened in there. The cats would sometimes react as if they were being chased. And I would often wake up feeling really creeped out for no particular reason.

Downstairs, things were friendlier. We had a ghost we called "the Lady of the House." She was an older lady, who we were sure used to live in the downstairs bedroom. When she was around, we'd smell lavender perfume, something neither of us wore. If you fell asleep in "her" bedroom with the lights on, sometimes she would turn them off for you or turn the heater on. She would turn burners off sometimes if you left them on. Dishes or pans would rattle in the kitchen, and once a pot of rice flew off the stove and landed in the middle of the floor. We'd sometimes greet her when we came home from a long trip.

Honestly, that was one haunted house.

I still have some ghostly visits from my old cat on occasion. He'll curl up on my bed, or brush against my leg, or come trotting down the hallway in shadow form. I loved him dearly and he loved me just as much. Oddly, his apparition feels warm, not cold. I'm convinced that cats aren't inclined to obey limitations after death any more than they are when they're alive.

Specializes in Postpartum, Med Surg, Home Health.

Oh my goodness how creepy

Specializes in L&D; GI; Fam Med; Home H; Case mgmt.

It's good that this thread has been revived just in time for the season of All Hallows. Please share your ghost stories with us!

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.

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