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...

All_night said:
... I love stories of the supernatural! This is definitely one of my favorite threads. I could have finished reading it all in less than the several months it took, but I didn't want the stories to end. Please keep them coming people :D

I have had many experiences with "ghosts" (if you can call them that), or spirits, that are not "nursing" related, and so I haven't posted any more of them on this thread because I don't want to hijack this into a generic "ghost" story thread. But yes, I always find such tales fascinating, too. Some of my hair-raising experiences are the only reason I believe such things: I've been there first-hand!

I occasionally prod my girlfriend to tell all her nursing ghost stories, but she's really skittish about being afraid to violate her confidentiality rules, so I may not get many more out of her.

While reading all of these stories, it go me thinking about how I really don't want to leave any "energy" behind. I don't want to haunt my loved ones or anyone else for that matter

I wouldn't mind freaking a few people out with my impish residual energy... but I'd like to move on after I've had my fun!

On another note, several months ago a well-loved long term client had passed away. Her daughters stopped by our building to tell us "thank you". While I was giving hugs and conversing with the daughters, I felt fine... at first.

I began feeling a heavy presence. I mean, it was heavy. This feeling was peculiar and lasted several minutes after the daughters had left. At one point, I even felt lightheaded and tingly as I walked alone down our hallway past a particular spot the client hung out in often. The hairs on my arms were standing on end! I immediately thought it was our deceased client. I know... I know...

No, I didn't see anything crazy but I can only emphasize this feeling like our former client was there. I worked with another gal who is rather "sensitive" and she was eager to tell me she felt the same thing. We think the daughters "brought" their mom with them when they came to visit.

Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Not a ghost story per se, or maybe it is. In either case it's not creepy but comforting.

My uncle died last year after a 3-yr battle with colon CA. He never had any kids so my cousin and I were really close to him. He spoiled us rotten. Anyway, he went into hospice in May of last year and died close to 3mo later. I was in a review class for the FNP certification exam the day he died; I got the phone call before leaving my hotel room. He had died just a few minutes before 4am.

I called my cousin and told her that he'd died early in the AM, and she responded, "Well, that explains the dream I had about him early this morning. I dreamed I was at the house [my grandma's house where all of us grew up, including my uncle] and he was there. He was marching in a parade in the livingroom and he was surrounded by light. He turned to me and his face looked just like it did when he was in his 20s, and when he turned to me he smiled his million-dollar smile. Then he waved to me and turned to walk away."

My cousin, my grandma, and I believe to this day that it was him coming back to let us know that he was leaving but that he was happy and alright. I am not a woo-woo kind of person, but I don't have any other explanation for it.

Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.

Allow me to begin by saying that, I'm not a superstitious person nor I believe in ghosts. With that being said, right after my graduation and receiving my license I began to work at the same hospital where I did my clinical at. At this level, I managed to work the night-shift from 11pm to 7am once a month, one night during report I was told that we had one room empty which was 209 a private room. At around 2:30am, as I was making my rounds the call button came on loud and clear from room 209. Needless to say, I went to investigate since it shouldn't have been occupied, and as I entered the room the light from the street allow me to see without turning on the lights, that's when I saw a man sitting on the bed reading a book. Naturally, I ask did he call for a nurse and why was he reading in the dark? but he didn't respond, so I went for the light switch and looked back to request an answer from this pt. but my heart stood still for a second, as I realize there wasn't anyone there!!!

Unquestionably, I never brought it up during my report nor I mentioned it to anyone, not even to my coworker who was working on the other side of the floor. Nonetheless, the rest of my shift went on without any major events.

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.

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. :)

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

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.

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.

+ Join the Discussion