What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?

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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...

Not really a ghost story but I worked on a behavioral health unit during nursing school. Every morning we would ask the patients how they were feeling emotionally on a 1-10 scale (suicidal patients were most common on that unit). I asked one patient, a middle aged man in his mid 50s, no serious health issues except being depressed/suicidal, how he was feeling. He said he felt like a 3. I asked him what was bothering him and he said "I don't really know, I just don't feel very good today." He went down the hall to his room and I went on about my business. A few minutes later he came back up

to me and said that one of our geriatric patients had wandered down into his room. I went down there to get the geriatric patient. I had just gotten the geriatric patient back to his own room and sat down to begin charting. The middle aged man's roommate came running out of the room and told us to come quick his roommate had passed out. He had a massive MI. We coded him for about 30 minutes but we couldn't get him back. It just freaked me all the way out that he knew something wasn't right and had a massive MI not even 15 minutes later.

My story is also not medically related so to speak or quite as spooky but here goes. I've always had some sort of belief in ghosts, afterlife, etc. My family thinks I'm nuts but whatever.

When my grandpa (dad's dad) died it was early in the morning while I was getting ready for work. I was downstairs, running around and I stop cold in front of the phone. Just before it rang I knew who was calling and what it was about. My grandpa's gf was calling to tell us that he had just passed.

When my grandma (mom's mom) died my mom and aunt were taking care of her. Me and my dad were at home talking about that call that comes when they've passed and how we were afraid of when that call would come. It was the same thing as before. Just moments after we had just talked about that call, the phone rings and both of us just knew. I later found out that she had been waiting for my uncle's permission. He has Down's and wasn't ready to let her go yet. It wasn't until he told her that he'll be alright, Jamie and Sara (my mom and aunt) will take care of him, that she left.

strawberryblonde said:
He had a massive MI. We coded him for about 30 minutes but we couldn't get him back. It just freaked me all the way out that he knew something wasn't right and had a massive MI not even 15 minutes later.

this is also such a cautionary tale. we sometimes brush off the little things - like someone saying they just don't feel right (and after all, the patients are the ones who know their bodies the best) - and it can turn out to be huge.

pattiraiteri said:
When I was in college in nursing school I took a course called death and dying. I had to go to a autopsy and I had to go to a funeral home embalming. I promise you if you did not die in the hospital you are dead in the autopsy after they get done. OR YOU are dead for real after the embalming. So no one is buried alive by the time they get done with you!

Not everyone's body is autopsied or embalmed...

I work night shift in a large nursing home/hospice/psych facility. We have an operator who got a call one night from the assisted living apartments. The patient said she needed help to go to the bathroom. The operator stated she sounded "weak and slow". The patient gave her apartment number and her name. When the operator called the CNA who worked in the assisted living building, she was told that there was no one by that name who lived there anymore. She died 3 weeks ago.

@TuggaWar You mentioned hearing what sounded like your mom or your mom hearing what sounded like you.

A similar thing happened to me. I was home sick with a bad cold while my parents when out to visit my grandparents (to pick up my birthday presents, ironically.)

i woke up facing the big mirror on the wall of my room. The mirror was opposite my doorway that opened into the hallway. I saw in the reflection that the decorative lights in the hallway were on and it appeared my dad was bending over putting something in my room. I assumed they had just got home and he was delivering my gift. My dog was staring straight at this too and I know for sure I was awake. i went back to sleep.

later on I woke up to them actually coming home. That's when I realized what I saw was not my dad.

Okay, I had to create an account to offer up my two experiences. I am not a nurse but my current workplace is said to be a former hospital of some sort. Kinda counts?

First experience: When I was in college, 1992ish, I had this buddy who would tell me he could see ghosts and all that. Of course I was dismissive in a polite way - I didn't really believe him. At the time, I lived upstairs in this up/down duplex rental, the landlord living downstairs. There was a very narrow back staircase that led to the basement, with a washer/dryer and storage privileges. The house had been built around 1900, had a fieldstone foundation and a dirt floor, except for an area where the washer and dryer was. There was one or two small windows typical of basements. So, whenever I would have to go to the basement to do laundry or to get something, I always had this creepy feeling that I wasn't alone, that I was being watched. I never liked being down there, even when there was sunlight streaming through the windows.

One Saturday night, as in many, my buddy calls and says "hey, lets go get some wings and beer". I tell him to head over, and when he gets there I tell him I have to wait a bit til my laundry dries. We chat for a bit, then he follows me to the basement so I can retrieve my clothes. I turn around, and he is at the top of the landing, looking into the dark recesses of the basement with this look of fear. I ask him what's wrong, and he tells me "I don't like it down here. There's something down here and it isn't a good something. I'm going back upstairs" I had never told him about the creepy feelings I got, nothing. Well about laid an egg in my Levis as I ran up the stairs about as fast as I could. Afterward I did tell him, and started to not doubt him as much.

The second story took place about 3 years ago, when I had been at my present job about 2 weeks. I work in a government building that was built in 1950. It now houses a large, important department of the state in which I live. When I started, the basement was empty, except for the mailroom at the end of the hall by the walk-out loading area. Apparently there were toxins down there and crews had finished remediating it. I had gone to the break room to get a soda or something, and as I opened the door to the stairwell, I see a guy walking down the lower flight of stairs. Being new, I was curious who it might be, so I started down the stairs and looked over the rail and there was no one there. There's a fire door at the bottom of the stairs that would have been in the process of closing, but it was fully closed. I double-timed it down the stairs and went through the door into the elevator lobby where two hallways take off.. I looked down both hallways - nobody there. I got my soda and went back upstairs to my 2nd floor office, and my supervisor worked next to me, and I asked him "Has anyone ever seen anything strange here?" I gave NO specifics. He turns around in his chair with this sly grin and said "Why, did you see the ghost?" He proceeds to tell me that a lot of people through the years have seen ghosts in that building, seen lights go on and off when the building was locked, etc.

I have other stories involving my grandmother, but I'll start with those.

Okay, I have a little time to tell about a few incidents I have experienced involving my grandmother. I never knew any of my grandparents except my maternal grandmother, who died when I was 12. She lived alone in an apartment complex for older folks in a town about 45 minutes drive away. She would come up many Saturday mornings and stay through Sunday evening. She would always get home about 7pm, when Wonderful World of Disney came on TV. Our family ritual back then was to watch Disney and eat Pillsbury turnovers. Anyway, back then anything farther than shouting distance was "long distance" and you got charged up the wazoo to make calls. So to save money, my grandmother would call the house and let the phone ring once, then hang up. That was her signal to us that she made it home.

When she died, things didn't get back to normal for a few weeks as you can imagine. When we finally settled back into our routine a month or so later, we'd be getting ready for Disney, and the phone would ring - once. We all just kinda looked at the phone, then went back to watching TV. After about the third week in a row that this happened, I happened to be next to the phone and answered it when it rang at 7pm Sunday night. There was no one on the line - no dial tone, nothing. It then dawned on me, and I said it out loud to my family.. I guess Mema is calling to let us know she made it home. After that it never happened again.

The second event was years later when my youngest brother had his second son. My parents and I had gone to visit him at his house in Virginia, and I was sitting on the sofa taking some pictures with my point-and-shoot film camera (before the days of 12mp iPhone 7 cameras), and my dad was sitting with their little Maltese dog in his lap, and my 18-month-old nephew was standing in front of him. The dog was gently licking my nephew's nose in a manner that seemed strange for a dog. I immediately raised my camera and took a picture, then I took a second picture without moving the camera. However, between the two pictures, I had this thought that came into my head. The thought was me saying "I wonder if Mema can see her great-grandkids." It was the weirdest thought to have at that moment. About two months later when I finally used the roll and had the film developed, I flipped through the pictures and when I got to the first picture (which was perfectly clear), the same thought came back into my head. Then as I went to the second picture, there was this white mist emanating from the area where the dog was kissing my nephew. The mist took up most of the frame and looked like it had substance, and was densest at that spot. Now I should mention that I had taken several advanced college photography classes by then, and developed my own film and made my own prints, so I am very familiar with film anomalies like light leaks and what have you. I checked the negative and there were no leaks or chemical anomalies. Whatever that mist was, the image of it went through the lens to the film and was within the frame. I think what happened was that my grandmother put the question in my head, then answered it on the second photo.

The third event many years later shares some similarity to the picture event. I had just gotten married and we moved across the country, staying with my parents until we could find a place to live. The dog form the previous story was now old and suffering from lymphoma and had been receiving chemo. She had bladder control issues and had peed on the living room carpet in quite a few places. To help earn our keep, my wife and I were in the process of cleaning the stains with a Bissell Little Green Machine as my dad came home and my mom and him took the dog to the vet because she had stopped eating again. We continued cleaning, and after a while I had this vision that was brief, but as vivid as reality. I looked up into my parents' open bedroom doorway, and saw my grandmother from the side, with the dog at her feet. She bent forward at the waist with outstretched arms, and the dog jumped up into them. As this was happening, I hear this dialogue in my head, where I asked her to take care of the dog, to which she replied "Don't worry, she's here with me." And that quickly, it was over. I am sitting there perplexed, thinking "What the hell was THAT?" About 15 minutes later, my parents get home and my mom runs to my wife and hugs her, sobbing. The vet has put the dog down because there was no hope for her. That kinda freaked me out, honestly. I knew that the vision marked the exact moment that the dog passed, and my grandmother sent a message that took me two weeks to relay to my mom once she was at a point where I felt I could tell her.

I once watched an interview with that medium John Edward. I've always been skeptical of him and people like him, but during this interview he was asked how he gets his information. The way he described the fleeting visions he gets was exactly how I saw my grandmother.

a21chdchic said:
Having worked in Hospice for awhile, I know how common it is for people to talk to family members who have already passed on, prior to their own death.

I've been reading these many posts where the same thing occurs over and over.

I've never really been afraid of death. But I realized through these posts, that I don't have anyone to meet me on the other side. It has deeply saddened me. I have a daughter who God willing, will go after me. But other than that, I don't have anyone. My mother will go to hell, she is very evil, and I never knew my father. Maybe I'll have pets who will meet me, if they can care for humans. However pets do seem to prefer the company of men, sh**, guess I'm out of luck.

I believe that they will greet you in leaps and bounds, so happy to be back with their Momma again.

Animals in most cases, have a purer heart than humans, and can have no sin. So why shouldn't they be there to meet you with glee upon your return? wave.gif.f76ccbc7287c56e63c3d7e6d800ab6c

Ok, I posted a couple of stories a while back so in the spirit (pun intended) of keeping things going and the fact that Halloween is coming, I will post again.

I was stationed at a base in NM and worked in the hospital that was downsizing at the time to a "super clinic" (Day surgery, Women's Health, Family Practice, Peds, Dental, Optometry). I had been assigned to work Day Surgery and had an office next to the nurses station. We had set up shop so to speak in what had once been Labor and Delivery. Old delivery rooms were the holding and recovery rooms. I was still setting up my office one afternoon about a week after moving into this area. I was listening to the OR team talking and carrying on down the hall in "the bullpen". I decided to take a break and go hang with them for a few minutes. The bullpen was literally less than 50 steps away from my office. As I approached, everything fell dead silent. The bullpen had windows that stretched the lenght of the hall from ceiling to about 3 feet from the floor. The lights were off, the door locked and no one insight. I went back to my office and immediately started hearing talking again. I decided to go home for the day.....Another time, when I was working nights for Ambulance Services, it was my turn walk around doing a security check. I always started on the third floor and worked my way back to the bottom. When I got on the elevator and pushed the button for 3, the elevator stopped on 2. I stepped off thinking I was on 3. As I turned my head, I realized I was on 2 and also realized it was freezing. Every window in every office was wide open and all the office doors wide open. I radioed the 2 medics downstairs and had them contact Security Forces. They arrived, didn't find anything out of place or anyone else in the building. We secured everything. The medic that did the security patrol 2 hours earlier said everything was locked up tight. Security Forces sent a patrol over for the next round and found everything wide open again. They were at a loss as to why and thought we were pulling a prank on them. They stayed this time and waited for rounds again. Again, everything was wide open. They relocked everything and left and told us we were on our own.

SawAghost said:
Okay, I have a little time to tell about a few incidents I have experienced involving my grandmother. I never knew any of my grandparents except my maternal grandmother, who died when I was 12. She lived alone in an apartment complex for older folks in a town about 45 minutes drive away. She would come up many Saturday mornings and stay through Sunday evening. She would always get home about 7pm, when Wonderful World of Disney came on TV. Our family ritual back then was to watch Disney and eat Pillsbury turnovers. Anyway, back then anything farther than shouting distance was "long distance" and you got charged up the wazoo to make calls. So to save money, my grandmother would call the house and let the phone ring once, then hang up. That was her signal to us that she made it home.

When she died, things didn't get back to normal for a few weeks as you can imagine. When we finally settled back into our routine a month or so later, we'd be getting ready for Disney, and the phone would ring - once. We all just kinda looked at the phone, then went back to watching TV. After about the third week in a row that this happened, I happened to be next to the phone and answered it when it rang at 7pm Sunday night. There was no one on the line - no dial tone, nothing. It then dawned on me, and I said it out loud to my family.. I guess Mema is calling to let us know she made it home. After that it never happened again.

The second event was years later when my youngest brother had his second son. My parents and I had gone to visit him at his house in Virginia, and I was sitting on the sofa taking some pictures with my point-and-shoot film camera (before the days of 12mp iPhone 7 cameras), and my dad was sitting with their little Maltese dog in his lap, and my 18-month-old nephew was standing in front of him. The dog was gently licking my nephew's nose in a manner that seemed strange for a dog. I immediately raised my camera and took a picture, then I took a second picture without moving the camera. However, between the two pictures, I had this thought that came into my head. The thought was me saying "I wonder if Mema can see her great-grandkids." It was the weirdest thought to have at that moment. About two months later when I finally used the roll and had the film developed, I flipped through the pictures and when I got to the first picture (which was perfectly clear), the same thought came back into my head. Then as I went to the second picture, there was this white mist emanating from the area where the dog was kissing my nephew. The mist took up most of the frame and looked like it had substance, and was densest at that spot. Now I should mention that I had taken several advanced college photography classes by then, and developed my own film and made my own prints, so I am very familiar with film anomalies like light leaks and what have you. I checked the negative and there were no leaks or chemical anomalies. Whatever that mist was, the image of it went through the lens to the film and was within the frame. I think what happened was that my grandmother put the question in my head, then answered it on the second photo.

The third event many years later shares some similarity to the picture event. I had just gotten married and we moved across the country, staying with my parents until we could find a place to live. The dog form the previous story was now old and suffering from lymphoma and had been receiving chemo. She had bladder control issues and had peed on the living room carpet in quite a few places. To help earn our keep, my wife and I were in the process of cleaning the stains with a Bissell Little Green Machine as my dad came home and my mom and him took the dog to the vet because she had stopped eating again. We continued cleaning, and after a while I had this vision that was brief, but as vivid as reality. I looked up into my parents' open bedroom doorway, and saw my grandmother from the side, with the dog at her feet. She bent forward at the waist with outstretched arms, and the dog jumped up into them. As this was happening, I hear this dialogue in my head, where I asked her to take care of the dog, to which she replied "Don't worry, she's here with me." And that quickly, it was over. I am sitting there perplexed, thinking "What the hell was THAT?" About 15 minutes later, my parents get home and my mom runs to my wife and hugs her, sobbing. The vet has put the dog down because there was no hope for her. That kinda freaked me out, honestly. I knew that the vision marked the exact moment that the dog passed, and my grandmother sent a message that took me two weeks to relay to my mom once she was at a point where I felt I could tell her.

I once watched an interview with that medium John Edward. I've always been skeptical of him and people like him, but during this interview he was asked how he gets his information. The way he described the fleeting visions he gets was exactly how I saw my grandmother.

-this story made me cry.

Here's a really creepy ghost photo from an old hospital:

Ghost Photobombs Group Photo at Haunted Newsham Park Hospital

NewcastleParkGhostFI.jpg

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