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...

Specializes in Intensive Care and Perianesthesia Care.

Man, I love these! Can't believe I just found this thread. It's my first nursing job in med/surg, code blue a few doors down, not my patient but I run to help. CPR has started and the nurse doing compressions is this tiny little thing so I ask if she wants me to take over, she doesn't hesitate to take me up on the offer. The patient is an older gentleman, I guessed mid eighties, there's these two middle-aged ladies who quickly leave the room (later find out that they're his daughters). The code team shows up. The doc walks up to the opposite side of the bed from me and starts to ask me questions about the patient that I don't know the answers to. So I look at him, and while I tell him that I'm not the patient's nurse, I notice this older lady standing by the window that I didn't see when I first walked in. She's in her eighties, wearing this blue and black sweater with a gold chain around her neck and we meet eyes for a second. She smiles at me. Now, you know that smile you might give someone that's kinda subtle and is really more a sign of sympathy than anything else? This was not that kind of smile, rather this lady actually appeared joyful, which I thought was weird. So this happens in just a short second or two and I get back to doing compressions. The guy never ends up getting ROSC and the efforts are eventually terminated. I hang around to help this nurse out with cleaning everything up. By this time the whole team is gone and it's just me, this nurse, the two daughters, and this man's body. The lady I saw, who I just assume is this guy's wife, is not in the room anymore. I'm gathering some of his things and I come across his glasses, I turn to the daughters and ask if Mrs. X would like to take them. They say no and begin to tell me that Mrs. X died just the summer before. So I apologize and explain that I just assumed that the lady with them was his wife, to which they appear confused and tell me that they came by themselves and that they were the only people in the room the entire day. No one recalls seeing a cheerful elderly lady standing by the window, or anywhere else for that matter. I like to think that maybe it was his wife just happy to be together again.

Specializes in ICU.

I’m absolutely gutted that I have reached the end of the thread. Come on folks let’s have more stories please x

Has anyone started watching Haunted Hospitals & Paranormal 911 on Travel Channel? Lots of nurses sharing their spooky stories...

I'm not a nurse or a doctor. But this thread has intrigued me.

I've 3 stories related to hospitals that I've experience and one during a wake.

My had an burst artery in his chest. This was when I was 25/26. I rushed to hospital finding my mom and sister already there. I remember reaching out mentally to him. The emergency folks was trying to revive him after his heart failed 2-3 times. I remember feeling in my hands that my dad's spirit left. When we were finally asked in to view my dad, my mom and sis still thought he was okay lying peacefully. I remember telling the doctors and nurses thanks for the effort they put in but I already felt him pass 20 minutes ago. They had a shocked face when they heard that.

I also seemed to have a way to know when a person will die in hospital.

A few years ago, my mom health been failing, my sis came to me to ask me if we should send my mom to hospital. I looked up and said she won't be coming back home this time. My mom was in hospital and was dying as her organs were slowly shutting down. Many relatives came over on Sunday to visit her and she(my mom) was very agitated and said repeatedly she wanted to go home. My relatives (most are Christians) said she might die tonight as she wants to go home to heaven. I got annonyed, I stretched out my hand and felt her energy, and then said "No she will die in 3 days most likely at night" True enough she died on Wednesday at 11pm.

Last year my uncle was in hospital and he had a severe lung infection. So for the first week or so they forbid visitors. Finally when I went to visit him, I realised he is going to die in 5 and a half weeks give or take. Over the subsequent weeks, he got better and started to walk and joked so everyone thought he was going to get out. At around 5 weeks, he suddenly got the infection again and died 2 days later. It shocked all the doctors how fast he faded.

Last story. This was during a wake. The person that died had cancer, she was my sister's good friend. I met her a few times during her last months. She was wasting away. During the wake, I approached the coffin to pay respects, I looked up and saw her standing across the coffin. I nodded to her and she came over and linked arms with me. She looked fully healthy and fleshed out very unlike the wasted look she had before she died. As with usual wake practices we sat at the round tables and she started to tell me stories of the people arriving at the wake. Later some of those people mingled with us and those stories that she told me, actually was retold by them. So I had validation she was tell me the truth.

No I wasn't afraid as it wasn't somebody I didn't know. She also looked happy, I think I was the only one that could see her hence she could talk to someone. Oh just for clarification, we talked mentally, I didn't have to vocalize the thoughts. I didn't really feel the arm linking, just like a light brushing sensation.

just happened to me last week

I was in visiting my gf at healthpark in ft myers

I opened the bathroom door & caught a glimpse of an

old women standing at the sink , freaked me out

Specializes in Psych, HIV/AIDS.

Just bumping this thread...

I had lived in our house for almost 30 years before we constructed a new dwelling on the same property. In our old house, built in 1897, shortly after we moved in, our spoons started disappearing. I thought perhaps our 9 year old daughter was either taking them outside for one of her projects or even taking them to school. We ended up buying cheap non-matching spoons just to have some to use for everyday eating purposes, (it was that bad).

The mystery has finally been solved: when we were dismantling the old house, I frequently saw a middle-aged lady in the drive snapping pictures. I finally went up to her to see why she was so interested. She said she used to visit in the house with her grandparents and wanted the pictures for historical purposes .

She then went on to say that her grandparents had a disabled son who had cerebral palsy!! The son died in that house. Mystery definitely solved! Because you know he was only fed with spoons most likely.

Meanwhile in our new abode we are being bombarded with not only spoons of a different pattern but also forks and knives we have never seen before.

Specializes in cardiac.

I was at work on my cardiac unit, it was 6:00 p.m., and we had gotten a patient from the ED. He was an elderly man that was in horrible shape, he looked like he was dying. My friend who was his nurse had paged the Dr to receive orders. His call light was continually going off. The first time it rang I thought it was his neighbor in bed 2 because the patient was severely obtunded, my coworkers and I figured it wasn't him who pressed the call light. We went into the room to cancel it and I had remebered that the patient in bed 2 was discharged, so the only person in the room was the obtunded ED patient. I walked out and thought nothing of it. The call light went off again. I peaked in the room and the patient was still obtunded. I turned off the call light figuring that maybe he was laying on it and it accidentally got pressed. A while later the call light went off again. My friends and I all walked in the room to see why the call light kept going off. We all figured that he was either laying on it or something was hitting it. When we walked in the room we noticed the call light was no where near him. We freaked out but told ourselves that it couldn't be a scary coincidence.

Well, the call light kept going off every 5 minutes. We kept turning it off. The patient progressively looked worse and worse. We continued waiting for MD orders but he was taking a long time.

At 7:30 p.m. at the end of our shift the patient passed. He was DNR and DNI so when he coded they only called an RRT and no compressions started. The MD who responded to the RRT pronounced him dead.

We had no issues with the call light inside that room until the patient entered it. As soon as he entered the room, the call light kept going off non stop. It stopped ringing when he died.

Watching scary movies and reading these is an interesting combination, especially right before bed...

I was assigned a patient during my final clinical rotation before graduating nursing school. She was a pleasant elderly and frail individual. I entered her room during my rounds and she had the blanket pulled over her face, knuckles grasping the edge of the blanket. I announced myself and she pulled the blanket down enough to make eye contact with me.. I asked if she needed anything, if she wanted me to close the blinds. She pointed to the other corner of the room and said that there was a man behind the curtain that won't leave her alone. (It was a two bedroom and the bed closest to the door, the privacy curtain was completely closed around the bed.

The hair on my neck and arms instantly stood up, but I opened the curtain completely so that she could see no one was there.. she nodded and I left the room. I was passing meds and again made my way back to her room, she again had the blanket over her head. I calmly announced myself and asked if she needed anything, she pointed at me and said "You can tell that man to stop bothering me.." I asked her, where is the man? She pointed at me and said, "behind you, he's standing behind the balloons." I turned around and through the bathroom door, there was a group of about 20 balloons in the darkness of the bathroom.. I didn't see anything besides the balloons, but the intense feeling that ran through my body (and at this moment of writing this) when she pointed through me into the dark bathroom... I will never forget that..

That clinical rotation could not end soon enough.

wow this thread has been going on since nov 11th 2000 ?

Specializes in My husband is a nurse LPN.
On 8/3/2011 at 3:45 AM, leodoula said:

Hi! This is my first post so please bere with me! it's going to be a long one!

While I haven't had anything happen at work yet,I am a paranormal investagator outside of work. I noticed that Waverly Hills has been mentioned several times. I have investaged it multiple times and it is my "pet" haunted place. I just feel so drawn there. The running joke on my team is I'd rather go to Waverly than eat ice cream and I love ice cream! I've been 5 times in 2 years and know the place like the back of my hand.

Most people know of Waverly Hills from tv shows like Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures and the many documenteries made about the place. Sadly a lot of the history has been drummed up to make for interesting tv and the current owners of the place play right into it. I can understand why..they are making a living off of the building being haunted.The current owners sell tours and ghost hunts for a fee and the money is going to restore the building and eventually turn it into a 4 star "haunted" hotel.But for those of you that may be interested in the real story and in some of the ghosts here you go!

History: I've spent many hours researching this place and this is the most factual info that i have found so far.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium is located in Louisville, Ky and was first opened in 1910 to house TB pts. The origonal building was wooden and could only house 40 pts. This proved to be too small for the ever climbing TB rates. In 1923, it was decided that a state of the art hospital would be built to meet the needs of the state. The doors of the new hospital opened in 1926 and could house up to 500 pts and usually had a long waiting list because it was the nation's top TB ward for many years. The hospital featured a Salon,a library,a gift shop, it's own radio sation and the latest medical advancements. Waverly played a large part in the development of x-rays and many surgeries that we would now concider shocking and brutial.

Remember anti-botics wasn't a treatment yet. The most common treatments for TB were freash air,that the pts got plenty of due to the open breezeways on every floor, good food and lots of rest. The pts beds were wheeled out on the open breezeways rain or shine, warm or cold. They used electric blankets in the winter months to keep pts warm.

Other treatments included-Pneumoectomy, the surgical removal of part or even a whole lung. Phrenic Nerve Crush- The nerve supply cut off to one diaphragm to allow the affected lung to heal. Thoracoplasty- The removal of several ribs (usually 7 to ? to collapse the lung and to permit swelling, this was usually carried out over several surgeries because most Drs only like to remove 2-3 ribs at a time. And Artificial Pneumothorax- the introduction of air into the pleural cavity causing it to collapse.

As you can gather very few made it out alive. Around 8 to 10,000 people died there and at the peak of the TB epidemic the hosptial lost an average of 1-3 pts a day.To keep up pts spirits the Dr's thought it was best that they not see just how many were dying. The hospital is built on top of a large hill. There was a service tunnel that staff used to carry up goods for the hospital from the train tracks below. It also served as a warm way into the hospital for dr's and nurse's who lived off site. The tunnel was rigged with a pulley system so that bodys could be taken out of the hospital with no ones notice. This is where the tunnel became known as "The Death Tunnel" and "The Body Chute".

After the introduction of anti-botics pt numbers dwindled and Waverly Hills closed in 1961. It didn't say closed for long as it re-opened as Woodhaven Medical Services in 1962. Woodhaven was a LTC facility for the elderly and the mentally handicaped. They "specialized" in treating dementia, which at the time was electro-shock. Woodhaven was open until 1980 when it was shut down by the state for pt abuse and neglect.

It has stood open and empty ever since to the elements, to vandals, and to thrill seekers. The current owners bought and opened it to the public for tours and ghost hunts in 2001. They regularly hold a haunted house around Halloween as well to raise money to restore the buliding.

Now for the ghost stories: These are the basic tales told about the place. These are NOT my personal experiances and I will add them later if you'd like.

1. Room 502- There are 2 nurses that are said to haunt room 502. The first was reported to have died in the 30's. Supposedly the young woman was having an affair with one of the dr's and became pregnant.Well being unmarried and pregnant in the 1930's didn't fly very well so she hung herself from a light fixture in the hallway right in frount of room 502. Another verson of the same story goes: that the dr tried to preform an abortion on her and it went wrong and she bled to death. To cover up what he had done he staged her sucide. And yet another version claims that she was unmarried, pregnant, and contracted TB so she hung herself.

The second nurse in 502 either fell,jumped, or was pushed from the window inside the room sometime in the 50's.

2.The 4th floor OR is said to be haunted by a dr,maybe the one who killed the nurse in 502?

3. The 4th floor is also home to "Big Black" a very large shadow figure that is said to go from floor to ceiling, and "The Creeper" a smaller shadow figure that scurries along the walls and ceiling.

4. The spirit of a small boy is said to roam the whole hospital and play with the many toys people bring for him.

5. The 3rd floor is supposedly inhabited by the ghost of an old man and his white dog. A group of cultists brought a homeless man and his dog into the hospital and murdered them. The Police found him the next day after answering the call for a tripped security alarm. They had thrown him down the elavator shaft.

All over the hospital people have reported hearing footsteps, whispering, people talking, seeing shadows, seeing people, smelling food, feeling something touch them ect.

I'm happy to answer any questions about the place or to relay my personal experiances.

I look forward to reading more of your investigations and experience in the paranormal.

Specializes in My husband is a nurse LPN.
On 8/5/2011 at 12:25 AM, leodoula said:

The first time I went to Waverly Hills was a fluke. My SIL knew some people that had payed for an 8 hour private investagation. Over half of the people that wanted to go bailed on them pretty unexpectedly. These tours are not cheap. They are $1000 minium and you can take 10 people in for that. SIL knew I was into "that sort of thing" and told DH about it. He reserved us 2 places with them and gave it to me as a christmas gift. I had to wait until late April to go though.

The day finally came and we arrived at Waverly. It's a very impressive building to see and you can tell that it was once very beautiful (still is). The tour guide lead us into what was once the laundry room for the hospital. It's now an office, gift shop, and meeting area for guests. It was quickly determined that there were only 5 of us that had ever been on an investigation before. The other 4 formed their own group and went off by themselves leaving me in charge of all the noobs. I really wasn't there to "investigate" as much as I was there just to experience the place.

The tour guide takes us outside and lets us take some pics of the outside of the building and then gives us a quick tour of the inside. He fills us in on the ghost stories and "hot" spots as we go. The hospital isn't a small building so you can imagine. We then split into groups and went our separate ways. The first group started out in the tunnel and we started on the 1st floor of the hospital. We worked our way up to the second floor which features the cafeteria, the bakery, the dining rooms and a pt wing. As we were walking down to the cafeteria everyone started to smell bacon. As we got closer to the dining rooms and the cafeteria it got stronger just like someone was cooking bacon. It was almost overwhelming by the time we got there. All 6 of us smelled it. We examined the room carefully and knew that no one had brought any bacon with them.We never found any source for the smell.

We continued on back to the pt wing. Each wing is made up of 2 hallways. The outside hallway is made up of the open breezeway (which the hospital was famous for)with a row od pt rooms behind. The inside hallway is where the closed rooms are. These were the rooms used for dying pts. When you were moved to a closed room you knew you didn't have much longer left. We started walking up the outside hallway, everyone was taking there time, chatting since it wasn't dark yet. I crossed over to the inside hallway and was taking pics of some of the rooms. The group continued forward on the other side. DH came to see what I was doing and he took a few pics as well.We started to walk forward and were going to cross back over at the end of the hall and re-join the group. We were walking when we heard shuffling foot steps behind us. We both turned to look at the exact same time and there was nothing there. We continued down the hall like this. Every few steps we'd stop and it would stop. We were taking pics and giggling about it when the rest of the group caught up with us. After they came it stopped though.

We continued on though out the hospital for a few hours with nothing happening. It got dark and we were on the 3rd floor. We were on the outside breezeway and one of the guys with us told everyone to stop. We all froze in place and he told everyone to look at the end of the hallway. My BIL chimed up and said it looked like there was a person standing there. We all saw a dark shadowy out line of a person. I thought it was an acctual person it was so solid looking and immeadately started running to it.There was no way I was going to let someone that wasn't supposed to be there ruin my evening. DH and BIL took off after me. I got there first and followed it into one of the open rooms and though to the inside hallway. There was nothing there. We split up and looked for a person and came up empty handed.

We took a break after that and had lunch. Afterward we went to the tunnel. We tried doing EVP on the way down and using a K2 meter. We had a few spikes on the k2 but we didn't get any EVPs. We found that the end of the tunnel was open so we went out of it and took pictures of the places where supplies were picked up and bodies were taken away so many years ago. We also found a building and took pics of it. (on a side note the owners and guide both claim that this building is not there even though I've touched it and given them pics of it. Research has lead me to believe it was a power house or water treatment.)

We trekked back up and 2 members of our party was over all the fun of the evening but they kept going. We went up to the 4th floor where we started hearing voices and footsteps all over the place. One of our group members had had enough at the point and broke down so we took her out. After seeing that she was ok and comfortable we went back in and did a EVP session in the children's cafeteria During that time it felt like there were children tugging at the hem of my hoodie and one of the guys we were with kept feeling like he was being touched. We were able to document a cold spot right next to both of us his was 20 degrees colder than the rest of the room and mine was 30.

We then hit the OR on the 4th floor and tried to do another EVP session. We were getting lots of responses on our k2 though. DH was sitting in a metal folding chair holding it. We were getting answers to our questions when all of a sudden the chair felt and sounded like it was kicked hard. We got a few more questions after that and then it stopped. Pretty much everyone was done at that point so we walked out and rested for a moment. DH and I went back in on our own and did another run though of the whole hospital. We found the other group and ended up spending the last hour or so with them. Nothing else really happened that night but it was awesome.

I booked my next trip before we left!

Here are some pics of that night.I did my best to add as much info as possible to them. NOTE: there is some graphic graffiti in the pics if you are easily offended please do not click the links!!! Also these pics are NOT up for debate. They are what they are and have not been altered in any way. They are there to show people what Waverly is like and not to prove or disprove ghosts.

Wow thank you. Loved the picture. Some amazing art work/graffiti.

A long time ago when I was in my late 20s. I had a dream, it was very vivid. I was at my own wake.

I was watching the various people who came to console my mom. Lots of people I didn't recognize. From the conversation, I gathered I died at age 42 from something sudden.

Okay I woke, up thinking nothing of it. But as the years passed.. I started to meet the people in that dream that I didn't know at that time. There were my mom's new church friends. More and more of them I recognized over the years.

So started to believe I was going to die at age 42. I was literally anxious all the time from my birthday to to the next birthday. Thankfully nothing happen.

It seem a very real premonition that dream. I've come to believe that I did change my life over that time leading to my 41st birthday that my fate changed.

Still it was a very spooky year for me.

Well I'm 51 now .. whew..

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