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...

Don't remember if I posted this before so I apologize if it's a duplicate. Nothing to do with nursing, but it's a kind of a heart-wrenching, very human story. Many years ago I took a trip with some scuba diving friends to the Caribbean. Since they were all big scuba divers and I was a flippers and goggles dog paddler LOL, we stayed on the island of Tortola known to be a scuba diving Mecca. Toward the end of our vacation, we relocated to st. Thomas for the shopping and the pizza, and we stayed in an old old hotel. Seems like it was called the 1849 or the 1846. One other gal and I shared a room. Next morning after breakfast, I mentioned to her that I had had nightmares. She gave me an odd look and said that she had too. We compared notes and found that our nightmares were similar. We had heard many many people moaning and sobbing. I could feel their emotions. They were terrified, they were in pain...and they were bewildered. She and I checked out of the hotel. As we were on our way down the stairs with a porter helping us with our baggage, I reflected on the fact that this really was an old hotel, and that the walls were very very thick, the rooms were tiny, and the floor plan was downright maze-like. I ask the porter if this had originally been built as a hotel and he reluctantly said no. "What was it?", I asked. It had been a slave market

Specializes in CMSRN.

Where I work small things happen all the time. Never bothers me.

The other night while working, a name popped up on the monitor at the nurses station. This happened between 2-4am. I recognized the name and I had taken care of this patient too. He did not pass and I knew he was still alive but very sick. His name popped up in a room he was never in.

Am I the only one that comes back and re-reads these stories. I started out as user Phantomfirefly73, and posted a few stories. I would love to read more. This thread is amazing. :)

I hope the mods here don't mind if I relate a ghost story that's not directly "nursing related" other than the fact that my girlfriend is a nurse and I talked her into taking one of those paid ghost tours.

Okay, so far?

Back in 2013 when I first started dating her we got onto the subject of her nursing ghost stories before I ever discovered this thread. Of course her confidentiality requirements don't allow her to discuss much that is work-related, but she was able to tell me enough that it stoked my desire to fulfill one of the items on my bucket list: to take a real ghost tour with authentic ghost investigators just like on the TV shows.

So, in this town there is an old hotel that dates from the Old West. It's been a hotel, a bank, a brothel, and other things during its history. It's a historic landmark and a local ghost investigator society is allowed to charge customers to accompany them on a genuine ghost investigation. So I paid the money and we showed up for the "tour".

It's important to note that one of my trademarks is that I wear an Australian slouch hat (looks like the classic movie green safari hat with puggarree). On this particular evening, the sun had gone down and I decided to leave it in the car for the ghost tour. To most people it looks like a "green cowboy hat" if you're not familiar with the old Tarzan movies. I was the only one in the group to wear such a hat to the tour, even though I left it in the car. This will become significant in a while, you'll see.

During the ghost tour, we were invited to silently walk through some of the corridors on the ground floor of the hotel. I was born with a "gift." I can walk into a haunted building and sense if there is an evil presence there. While walking in one of the corridors, I definitely felt the presence of something totally evil that did not want us there. Others in the group noticed it too.

As the evening progressed, the ghost investigators did the usual "parlor trick" of placing a flashlight on a table with the head mostly unscrewed, so that the "spirits" are supposed to answer questions by turning the flashlight on and off. They did this through several questions. At one point, they tried to contact the spirit of a famous local murder victim. The murder was never "officially" solved, although a book was written by a man who claimed to have solved the murder. He claimed that a man who lived with his mother was the killer and the investigators had totally missed it. So at one point during the "contact" session with this murder victim, members of the audience were allowed to ask the spirit of the deceased girl some questions. Most asked about the political intrigue surrounding the murder, etc. When it became my turn to ask, I asked if she had been murdered by the the guy with the two dogs who lived with his mother. The flashlight flashed once for "yes". This is something that probably could not have been faked because unless you've read that author's book you would never believe the murderer was someone other than the people named in the official narrative. Had the ghost hunters somehow been able to fake the answer to that question, they almost certainly would have had the flashlight flash two times for "no."

The investigators also made it a point to tell us that the spirits in that hotel like to mess with electronic devices. Several just wouldn't work right during the tour. This will become significant toward the end of my story.

The ghost investigators contacted the spirit of a little girl who made a toy move. At one point a flashlight left in an adjacent room turned on so brightly that it lit up the adjacent room like a huge spotlight was turned on! We went back into that room and there was the lowly Maglite sitting on the table. No spotlight. When people started asking the child ghost questions like, "What's it like on the other side?", the spirit suddenly shut up and didn't want to talk anymore. Can't reveal there's a Heaven and Hell, kid, is that the deal?

As we went upstairs, no one was left on the ground floor, and yet we saw one of the flashlights turn on and stay on as we ascended the stairs.

On the top floor, the ghost hunters contacted a prostitute that had lived in the hotel. As they asked the spirit questions, several women felt their hair getting brushed by something invisible. The ghost hunters just laughed, and said, "She doesn't like women for some reason." At this point they asked the spirit, "Is there any man in this room you do like?" The spirit answered audibly through one of those spirit boxes, "COW...BOOOOOYYYYYEEEEEEEE." Remember I had left my safari hat in the car, and how I had described it as looking like a green cowboy hat to a lot of people?

There were several more minor things like cold spots and more women getting their hair brushed, but eventually the evening ended and my girlfriend and I went to our separate homes.

Days later, my girlfriend frantically called me one afternoon to ask if I had experienced anything strange at my house. I said, "No, why?" She explained that a radio she left in her daughter's room had turned on spontaneously while her daughter was in school. Upon inspecting the radio, we found that the alarm was turned off, and the switch was set to "manual", meaning you had to move it to the on position with your hand.

A few nights later, as I was lying in bed, I was awakened by the sound of the carbon monoxide alarm going off. Note that this was the time of year when it was still too warm to have the furnace on. There should have been no source of carbon monoxide anywhere in the house. Later that night, I felt the same evil presence above my bed that I had felt in that hallway of the old hotel. I saw what looked like an indistinct black shape moving across the ceiling. Quickly I shouted at it, "In the name of Jesus Christ you were not invited into this house and I command you to leave."

Neither my girlfriend or I have had another incident, but we don't go on ghost tours anymore, either.

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

(To Doc WorkADay)

I had somehow missed this, but enjoyed reading your story. Without going into detail (which would take the better part of a week, undoubtedly), I am a practicing Catholic who has experienced what no one could deny was an encounter with evil. It was targeting my young son. My husband - an engineer and a very logical, linear thinker - witnessed the entire encounter. His world view changed 100% after that, and it was the turning point in our family. It was a watershed moment that proved to us that God and satan are real, that the preternatural world is not just the musings of some ancient superstitious men. That said, you reacted to the attack in the only way that would have been effective. However, these beings do not usually go down without a fight, so be vigilant and please, never go looking for this kind of trouble again. You are wise to forgo any further ghost tour-type activities because, although they're usually done all in fun, the powers of evil are no respecter of men, and they will take any opening you permit by consenting to contact them. Just to be clear, I am the most normal, boring person there is, and if this can happen to me and my family, it can happen to anyone. Satan's most effective weapon is to convince people he does not exist and lull them into a sense of safety or unbelief. When they let their guard down (as in the case of dabbling in occult-type "games," seances, Ouija, witchcraft, etc) his minions will get a foot in the door. It may not lead to anything obvious such as what you or I experienced. It can manifest in a myriad of ways which lead to destruction. At any rate, thanks for sharing your story!

Hello! This is not medically related but it is a pretty weird ghost story. Growing up as long as I can remember I was always sensitive to the paranormal all the women in my family are. I was about 16 and living at home when this happened. I was upstairs cleaning my room when I heard what I thought was my mom calling me. Sounded just like the way she would yell my name. (forgot to mention I had my music turned up loud.) I ran downstairs and when I walked into her room and asked her what she needed she looked confused and said she never called me (my mom is a jokster I thought she was kidding) i went back up to my room and turned my music back on but down a little . not even 2 minutes later I heard the same voice call me again. I chose to ignore it this time. When my brother got back home later from wherever he was I told him what happened and he said he had heard it too. Growing up in a family full of sensitives you get a lot of advice. After I told my mom what happened she said she figured it was my great grandmother which is weird I was young when she passed about 6 and I was very much afraid of her. Not to mention the house she lived in was heavily haunted by my great greandfather. I have Plenty of family ghost stories. I actually have a new one every time I visit my brother because his house is haunted (Not by bad spirits). I enjoyed your stories. Given more time (Currently full time Medical Assistant and working on my Bachelors Degree in Psychology for grief counseling and full time mom) I will get you guys more stories! Keep them Coming!

Specializes in School Nursing, Ambulatory Care, etc..

With Halloween being next week, I thought I'd bump this and see if anybody had a story. :)

I have had many things happen over the years. I normally don't share due to fear of people thinking I am crazy but something just happened to me a few weeks ago. I got a job back on a medical floor after 15 years, so I was in a learning lab for the first week. I am unfamiliar with the manikins but had heard the new grads talking about how advanced they were. So, earlier in the day I had walked into a classroom that had been an OR and I almost said out loud, "There's a ghost in here" but luckily I bit my tongue. I am brand new to this health system and didn't want anyone thinking I am insane.

Later on, we went into a room with the manikins and I was supposed to do an assessment and scenario. I listened with my stethescope and could clearly hear the heartbeat. I was counting it and said, "wow, this heartbeat is really clear".... I did not notice the shocked looks. I put my stethescope back onto the chest of the manikin and heard the heartbeat sort of slowly fade away. I looked up and people were staring at me.... I covered my tracks, Laughed, said I must have been mistaken etc, but super weird experience.

In our facility, we used to have a resident that loved watching/listening to loud cartoons. Ever since she has passed away, the TV in her room, as well as others, turn on every once in a while to the same TV station at the same maximum volume. While it seems likely that a living person is doing this, nobody knows who it is...and therefore, we joke that it is the ghost of the deceased resident.

Ok this is my story christmas 2016 I was hanging around in my garage & I had a pic of my mom on the bench from her funeral you know the big

Portrait kind , I stared at it and said " come on mom if your here give me a sign not the dust ball in a pic sign but an unmistakable sign that you

Are watching over me.

Well I forgot about it and I was hanging in the kitchen with my sis & my gf & her daughters we were standing there ^& the huge bluish sparkly

Explosion happened just over our heads .

I was like what the hell was that ??? Then I realized what I asked for lol.

After that I went to the garage again and said " mom that was awesome but I still need one more thing to prove it >

As I go back into the house I hear " what the f$$$$k as my gfs daughter is holding a string of christmas lights in her hand

They were colored lights she plugged them in to see if they worked & they did .

Well she hung them up & plugged them in & they were clear ?????? She freaked out , I just smiled & looked up in the air

I admitted an elderly gentleman earlier in the day to our rehab unit. He was completely alert and oriented. No dementia. At one point, he casually mentions that he sees ghosts. Ooook....fast forward to end of shift, I was in his room changing a dressing on him. He mentions a lady next to me. Ummm....I was the only one in the room with him.

He briefly seemed surprised that I saw no one. He, in all seriousness, shrugged and said, "Well, she's right next to you by the door."

After this, I called my patient's daughter to question if he ever hallucinates. She said, "oh, is he saying he sees ghosts? He's done that his whole life."

The facility I used to work for has been open since the 1960's. At one time, it provides many services, to include surgery and L&D. Now, 24 beds and a small ER. I personally didn't experience a lot. One time saw the door swing shut to a patient's room. Thought the CNA's were in there to turn a ventilator bed bound lady, and I thought ' great time to check her bottom!' Only to open the door to an otherwise empty of staff room. Another good one was the small chapel lights were operated by a dimmer turn style switch, and one morning I watched them brighten, dim, and brighten by themselves. They changed the switch the next day, but another co-worker reported a similar experience.

The second floor used to provide psych services, and one co-worker remembers numerous times of seeing a woman cross the hall from room to room, but to investigate and find nobody there. Went up there one night, and using a Snapchat filter, kept getting two pair of glasses of the filter to appear without faces behind them. Many people report the sound of an infant on the second floor in the former newborn room.

The ones that for me were the multiple patient accounts. The automatic paper towel dispensers going off when you were too far away... One patient witnessed this with me in his room. The Gtube connectors being turned to the wrong position when you KNEW you had it in the correct position before you left the bedside. Patients describing a nurse that by uniform or appearance matched no one currently on staff. The call light system was an old box at the front desk. Sometimes it would chime, but the pt in that room was not able to use the button to trigger a call. Other times, there would be these horrible sounds coming from the box.... Not every time, and not always the same rooms. So makes me want to rule out old wires crossing and ' just an old system ' I don't think there was ever a time I felt threatened or scared, though. Just a whole lotta little things that were

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