What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?

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...

[Christy1019, ASN, RN]

Cheyenne RN,BSHS said:

I have several but will share this one. Our security system has video cameras all over our hospital and the 2 office building attached to our hospital. The guard was a friend of mine back in the day when we could take smoke breaks and she came and got me one day and said I "had" to go with her to see what the camera had taped during the night. The video was playing and then you see in this empty hallway the perfect outline of a young woman in a long floor length night gown holding a baby in her arms and she walks out of one wall, across the hallway and into the other wall. We freeze frame the picture and there the outline is, looking all like a cloud or mist. You can see it is a lady with a baby. She doesn't really freak us out, she has a comforting feel about her. Come to find out back when our facility did deliver babies it was in that office building according to some of the old timers. They said there was a young mother whose baby was stillborn and there were complications and she died the next day. They didn't let the momma's see their dead babies back then and she cried and cried. It was rumored she could be seen in the hallway of the old baby wing searching for her baby and you would hear crying and then it would stop when she found her baby and she would hold him and seem to rock him in her arms and walk off humming to him. I have the still photo somewhere on disc. There were other pictures that showed up like that with a snap shot and someone standing in the background that was not really physically present.

If you can find the old pictures I'd LOVE to see them!

[Tiffofirechick]

At my current hospital, the original building has been turned into mainly admin with 2 patient care areas. When I worked over there and would come in super early, often the elevator would open for me so I could walk in and push the button to go up to my floor.

Problem is, those elevators don't have pressure sensors and are older than I am. Plus, I didn't even touch the up or down button. And I was always by myself when it happened. When I asked my friend in security about it he just got a sheepish grin. He knew others had the same unseen presence providing the same kindness. I just started saying "thank you" out loud when it happened. (It was usually when I was in a rush or had a big project so I appreciated the support.)

So, I got a promotion and moved to the other side of the hospital. The person who took my place very hesitantly asked me this week: "Did the **** building elevators ever just start opening for you when you came into work in the morning?" I just smiled.

[largeangel]

I have seen a few things, and I am really loving this thread! One of the first things I saw happened to me back when I first graduated from nursing school back in 1994. I was working graveyard shift with an LPN who actually was showing me the ropes, although I was over her. The hospital I worked at was an OLD psychiatric facility, and the unit I worked on was a big, open room with curtain dividers for privacy, although those were hardly ever pulled, at first. You could stand at the front of the ward and see all the patients at one glance. At the far end of the room were the more rowdy of the group of patients, they would reach and grab you if they could. It was a little darker back at that end of the room. One night, I was sitting at the desk, and I looked up just in time to see what looked like a patient going from a squatting position to a standing position. The figure was all black, and once it stood up, it moved to my left towards the corner of the room, and into the wall. I asked my LPN if she had seen it, and she just looked at me and smiled. She said, "you will get used to it". After that, I tried to avoid staring at the back of the ward. I was afraid of what I might see!

[StrwbryblndRN]

The elevators at my work do that for me too. It was not all the time but enough to make you wonder. I say "Thank You" out loud too.

[Toastedpeanut]

I've been reading these for days & holding out. I'm gonna explode if I don't share.

Before I became a nurse I worked at an ante-bellum garrison on the Mississippi River. I think construction on the place began in the late 1700's. It was once used as a military hospital, and the engineers found buried Indian remains twice, along with a group of buried horse bones. We knew the history tied to this, it wasn't a legend or myth or anything. Back in January of 1815 & the time around then, everybody in this part of the country banded together to stave off a final attempt by the British to take America via Lake Borgne & the Mississippi. A lot of the people who fought for the cause were Indians from the families who lived there long before post was set up. The bones that were found belonged to some of these families, so we involved the local tribe in the repatriation and general handling of these remains. The horses had been shot and buried by their owner, (who was either depressed or insane, I'm not clear which). Right after he slaughtered his horses & buried them, he hung himself. This was on the back part of the post, right by one of the canals that busted during Hurricane Katrina.

I was sitting in my tiny office one day during a bad storm. This was right after the hurricanes flooded the post. Most of the employees were moved up river to another facility, as for now the repairs would have to be done- and it would take years. Well it was a holiday, but I didn't have the day off because I had just started working & hadn't accrued any time. I thought I was the only one in the building, but I heard somebody running up the stairs & breathing hard. The halls were dark & I was enjoying the sounds of the storm, but I went out into the hall to see if I could help, and there was nobody there. I knew what it was...

You can just feel it all around you whenever you're walking around the post. I called the MP at the gate & he said everybody had gone home early. The longer I worked there, the more history I learned. There was a late 20-something female who had hung herself in the tree on the front lawn of one of the buildings. The tree is still there today. I don't think the one with the heavy breathing was female though. One of the wives told me in the ante-bellum house where they lived before the storm, there was a resident ghost. It's just something even visitors accepted. A lot of officers rented out rooms in the two remaining towers, and they'd be woken in the middle of the night to the sound of armies marching. Nobody made a big deal though, because what can you do?

Here are some old pictures of the post buildings:

I grew up & went to elementary school right across the river from this (the school was torn down in 1998 & made into a suburb - yuck!)... well part of this battle took place on the school grounds. You can still see the trench from google Earth. We found some musket balls/bullets, and other remnants from this period in time.

Another story: When I was 8 years old, I was lying in bed at night, trying to fall asleep. I didn't have a nightlight on, but my eyes had already adjusted to the dark, & there was a touch of moonlight coming through my window. I could see an ashen face in the hallway looking at me, kind of like she was peaking at me from the hallway. I thought it was my mom, so I called out Mama? Nothing. She didn't change facial expression, didn't move, nothing just kept staring and smiling at me. Well I got so scared that I froze! After the minutes wore on, I gradually pressed my back against the wall & slid into the crack between my bed & wall. I mean, I didn't wanna close my eyes for a second ‘cause I was scared she would be before my eyes in a flash. Somehow I managed to fall asleep after what seemed like hours. The next day I asked my mom if she'd watched me from the hallway & she said no. I remember feeling like I was mad at my parents for making me sleep in a house with a ghost, but I let it pass. Well one year later I was going through old photos with my mom & grandma, & I came across a photo from the 1910's or so. I told them, This is the lady who was staring at me from the hallway that time. My mom looked at my grandmother in a shocked way. I had never seen this lady before, but they told me then & there, This was your great-grandmother. She died in 1950. We never really talked about it much, because again: what can you do?

I remember being a lot more scared of things as a child, & I'm not quite sure why. Things like the woods (even that name freaked me out), cemetaries, old houses in the French Quarter & uptown… I always felt something. And as the years went on, I'm no longer very afraid of these things ‘cause I don't feel like presences will hurt me. It makes me wonder if we really do see more things as children… are we more sensitive to the spirit world when we're kids? I've also felt like I've been places before, but in a different body & a very long time ago. I started believing in reincarnation at a young age because of this, but my Catholic faith says that reincarnation isn't real. So when we do have these feelings, are we experiencing something our ancestors felt? So many questions, but no answers. I don't think science will ever be able to touch this.

My first experience as a nurse: I was taking care of an elderly patient. She was hostile with everybody and always grumpy. Her daughters were with her most of the time, but she could no longer even carry on a conversation with them. Well her daughters went off to lunch, and I went into her room to give her some medicine. She was sitting upright in bed with the most beautiful smile on her face, talking to an empty chair. Again, I knew what this was...

I didn't tell anyone about it, but I knew she was talking to someone she had known a long time ago, who had since passed on. I really believe this.

[CFitzRN, ADN]

I really enjoyed this. COOL pictures too. I found myself nodding at a lot of your post. I absolutely do think that children are more sensitive to the supernatural. I also think fear is a beacon to demons, and children tend to fear a lot. I was a very fearful child too, and I experienced a lot of 'stuff.' But after living for 51 years and seeing my share of crap, and learning spiritual warfare, I have almost no fear anymore, except about things like my children dying or suffering, but not of satan or demons. I am Catholic also, very devout and practicing, and I have 4 sons. One of them is what I call a "sensitive." He has experienced more crap than you can imagine. I've read about some of the Saints, and how they were attacked (literally attacked - mentally AND physically) by demons during their lives. It is sobering, the thought of how real the spiritual realm is. It's not just stories in a really old book. We are fighting forces of evil and we need to know how. But I digress here. Anyway, thanks for sharing your compelling stories. P.s., my husband of 29 years went to Tulane University. I loved visiting down there; such rich history, such amazing people and places.

[CFitzRN, ADN]

Okay, literally seconds after typing my post above, I received the following email (mass email for Lent from Fr. Richard Heilman):

"THIS DAY WE FIGHT

Spiritually speaking, the devil is doing all that he can to catch us isolated and unarmed on the battlefield - no spiritual armor, no spiritual weapons, and no comrades in the heavenly realm to fight alongside of us. In other words, the reason evil is promoted so effectively today is because we're ignoring God's offer of supernatural strength and power and ignoring the mightiest of all allied forces: the Communion of Saints.

C.S. Lewis wrote, "Enemy-occupied territory - that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage."11 The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us: "This dramatic situation of 'the whole world, which is in the power of the evil one,' (1 Jn 5:19; cf. 1 Pt 5:8) makes man's life a battle: 'the whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield, man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God's grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity' (Gaudium et Spes, 37:2)" (CCC 409).

Are you ready to do battle? In the movie, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Aragorn calls his men to throw down the gauntlet against the forces of evil. Let this call be ours:

'My brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me! A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the age of Men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight!' "

Just found that pretty coincidental and thought I would share.

[Toastedpeanut]

Wow, this is quite an awesome coincidence! The only psuedo-explanation I have is that "the forces are at work." I'm not an eccentric by any means, but I've experienced just a few things in life that will forever make me wonder. My first time around the academic bend, I went to the school right next to Tulane. I used to eat lunch on Tulane's campus, right under the centuries-old Live Oaks. In fact, a lot of the trees in the pictures I posted are still there on the garrison today. For me, these old trees are a perfect place to connect with the past. When I was a child I'd go to City Park often, & spend the whole day under those trees. I could see & smell the past: The roads before they were paved, the smell of dust as a carriage would go by... thick black smoke from the smoke stacks of ships before emissions were regulated... the odd sensation that the scent of a magnolia stirs. This brings up my question of seeing the past through the eyes or our ancestors. Mine have lived here hundreds of years, & if you think about it, our cells were existent in those people back then. I guess this is what it means when you're grieving, & somebody says "She'll continue to live within you." I used to get frustrated when I heard this, but it's true. Their DNA, their cells are still alive, but within us only,& no longer the aggrieved. Maybe this is the cause of the odd memories, who knows?

It was a pleasure to share!

[nursejoy1, ASN, RN]

We have a nursing skills fair every year and a couple of years ago, our respiratory therapist was set up at a table beside mine to check our nurses off on trach care and suctioning. One nurse came from the floor and had her O2 sat monitor in her pocket. While she was demonstrating trach care, she placed the monitor on the mannequin's finger. I heard the RT gasp and say "This dummy has a pulse and a sat" I laughed and she said "No, really." I went over and looked and there really were numbers on the display. I removed the monitor and replaced it on the mannequin's finger again, and again, there were numbers on the readout. It was very weird.

[Hygiene Queen]

nursejoy1 said:

While she was demonstrating trach care, she placed the monitor on the mannequin's finger. I heard the RT gasp and say "This dummy has a pulse and a sat" I laughed and she said "No, really." I went over and looked and there really were numbers on the display. I removed the monitor and replaced it on the mannequin's finger again, and again, there were numbers on the readout. It was very weird.

That freaks me out. I hate mannequins! Thank you, Twilight Zone:

"Marcia!"

"Maaarcia!"

"Maaaaaaaaarciaaaaaaaaa....."

(Okay, that clip has a little bonus at the very end, which I could have done without, but there ya go )

[Angelicpurl]

I worked in a small rural hospital many years ago. The aide laid the telemetry monitor on the bed in preparation for an ER admission.

We were SO small that it wasn't uncommon for a floor nurse to have to help the ER at night. I went after the patient. Charge nurse entered info into monitor on her desk. As we came around the desk, the charge nurse grabbed my arm & hissed, whose rhythm is that???

We had no one else on monitor....needless to say, we got patient in another bed with another monitor.

[DocWorkaday]

nursejoy1 said:

We have a nursing skills fair every year and a couple of years ago, our respiratory therapist was set up at a table beside mine to check our nurses off on trach care and suctioning. One nurse came from the floor and had her O2 sat monitor in her pocket. While she was demonstrating trach care, she placed the monitor on the mannequin's finger. I heard the RT gasp and say "This dummy has a pulse and a sat" I laughed and she said "No, really." I went over and looked and there really were numbers on the display. I removed the monitor and replaced it on the mannequin's finger again, and again, there were numbers on the readout. It was very weird.

I'm willing to believe a good ghost story as much as the next person, but couldn't that have just been malfunctioning equipment?