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...

[LiamJohnson]

How many times have I seen people die in my arms, it's quite painful to experience! And every time you don’t know what to expect, someone twitches, someone sees strange things! But I still wish everyone to be a little happier, I support you in our difficult work!

[NotNurse]

I'm not in the nursing field and a retiree.  But I have read with great interests all the stories told in this forum and was anticipating for more.

I just watch the 2019 movie 'Doctor Sleep' by Stephen King and there was a hospice scene that reminds me of some of the stories told here where a cat would go to residents that are about to pass and where one even said he saw his death love ones just before he past.

Thanks to those who had contributed and those that had kept this forum alive.  Really looking forward for more stories.

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

On 1/24/2022 at 7:55 PM, NotNurse said:

I'm not in the nursing field and a retiree.  But I have read with great interests all the stories told in this forum and was anticipating for more.

I just watch the 2019 movie 'Doctor Sleep' by Stephen King and there was a hospice scene that reminds me of some of the stories told here where a cat would go to residents that are about to pass and where one even said he saw his death love ones just before he past.

Thanks to those who had contributed and those that had kept this forum alive.  Really looking forward for more stories.

If you think the movie was good read the book. Read The Shining first as Dr. Sleep is a sequel!

 

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

Since childhood I have had many experiences that have led me to believe I am sensitive to certain energies. I have encountered things that can be called ghosts in the home I grew up in which was built by prison inmates and whose owner was later murdered in the house. He was a benevolent spirit who often intervened when my abuser became particularly cruel. My first "Job" in healthcare was as a Candy Striper (Anyone remember those) in a Catholic hospital that was originally a tuberculosis sanitarium. I have felt and seen things that cannot be explained by coincidence or science. I mostly don't tell these stories because people write me off as a nutjob.

A few years ago I attended a nursing conference in Phoenix AZ. I stayed in the oldest continually operating hotel in the city. The lobby actually looked like something out of American Horror Story: Hotel. I inquired of the desk clerk if the hotel was haunted and he invited me to a moonlight Edgar Allen Poe reading on the roof which would be followed by a seance. I eagerly said I would attend. It seems that a guest had committed suicide by jumping from the penthouse roof and there were rumors that the bodies of two children who went missing in the 20's were later found in the basement. The clerk told me that sometimes at night guests would report children's voices and the pitter patter of little feet in the hallways. 

So after the seance that night when I had retired to bed I heard what I thought sounded like children's voices in the hallway. I had seen no families with children in the hotel and initially thought it was someone's television. Finally unable to sleep I opened my door and softly said "Can you guys knock it off, I need to rest for a conference tomorrow. I'll be happy to entertain you tomorrow night!" I went back to bed and did not hear a peep for the rest of the night. I might add that I don't drink or do drugs.

Hppy

 

[londonflo]

I am an avid reader of Ghost Stories. At least 2 centuries ago, ghost stories were a tradition to be told on Christmas Eve Night. In the last century Charles Dickens wrote his story of Scrooge that has kept this tradition alive. I live in the US but subscribe to Britbox streaming and this year Britbox had the best Ghost Story that was shown on Christmas evening. "Mezzotint"  My husband and I really enjoyed it!

[Dani_Mila, BSN, RN]

My first nursing ghost story. I worked nightshift at a SNF/rehab facility and I was told by the nurses that I would see some patients that appears out of the ordinary and not to be surprised. At 1AM, the hallway was empty, lights were dimmed. My preceptor and I were getting a pain medication for one patient at her med cart. I was talking to her and I looked down in the empty hallway, I saw a young black woman with a pink blanket over her, she was wearing shorts and socks. The face was visible but she was so far away I could not see it clearly. She ran so fast in one of the patients room, I thought it was a CNA slacking off. I asked my preceptor if she saw the young woman passed by. She said no. So I tried to investigate. I went to the rooms that I had thought she went to and found them to be empty. I went to another room and a female patient was watching TV. I had asked her if she had walked outside the hallway. She told me "Honey, I can barely walk. I broke my hip". I was like ?. Other rooms were empty. I could swore I had seen a young woman darting across the hallway. It was the only thing I spoke about that night. Then, my coworkers told me that seeing things especially at night was normal since they said that many patients had died there. The next day, I had found out that a young black woman did die on that floor due to complication and the room she went to was the room she died at. I was super freaked out!

[londonflo]

10 hours ago, Dani_Mila said:

My first nursing ghost story.

You have a start of a great nursing Ghost story. Write it up as a short story....just like you did here. Ghost story compilations are made up of these short stories. Have her put her finger to her lips or something that shows she sees you. Give some history, even if made up. 

[NotNurse]

hppygr8ful said:

If you think the movie was good read the book. Read The Shining first as Dr. Sleep is a sequel!

I actually had watch 'The Shining' starring Jack Nicholson a long time ago and I also know 'Doctor Sleep' is the sequel.  What puzzled me is why it took almost 20 years for the sequel!  That 'thing' (woman or man ghost) in the bathtub appears to be the same character and may even be played by the same person.  Both movie very well made in my view.

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

1 hour ago, NotNurse said:

I actually had watch 'The Shining' starring Jack Nicholson a long time ago and I also know 'Doctor Sleep' is the sequel.  What puzzled me is why it took almost 20 years for the sequel!  That 'thing' (woman or man ghost) in the bathtub appears to be the same character and may even be played by the same person.  Both movie very well made in my view.

There are cuts from The Shining that have been cleverly inserted into Dr. Sleep and the lady in the bath tub was one of them. 

[donnydilaudid]

I worked in a sleepy little SNF for a few years and started out on the night shift.  I had a resident on hospice, end stage CHF and CKD, who was confused.  He'd call the nurses station instead of calling his wife by accident.  I'd tell him, "Mr. XYZ, you've reached the nurses station, this is DonnyDilaudid, your nurse.  I'll come in and call your wife for you."  It would happen like clockwork nearly every night around midnight for a few weeks.  He deteriorated, as expected, and eventually, he died.  For three nights after he died, the phone in his room would ring in to the station around midnight - nobody on the other end.  On the third night, my third of three in a row, when the phone rang into the station from his room, I said, "Mr. XYZ, this is DonnyDilaudid.  I'll come let you out."  Went into the room, opened the window for a few seconds and shut it again.  No more phone calls from an empty room after that!  The aides and I were spooked!

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

donnydilaudid said:

I worked in a sleepy little SNF for a few years and started out on the night shift.  I had a resident on hospice, end stage CHF and CKD, who was confused.  He'd call the nurses station instead of calling his wife by accident.  I'd tell him, "Mr. XYZ, you've reached the nurses station, this is DonnyDilaudid, your nurse.  I'll come in and call your wife for you."  It would happen like clockwork nearly every night around midnight for a few weeks.  He deteriorated, as expected, and eventually, he died.  For three nights after he died, the phone in his room would ring in to the station around midnight - nobody on the other end.  On the third night, my third of three in a row, when the phone rang into the station from his room, I said, "Mr. XYZ, this is DonnyDilaudid.  I'll come let you out."  Went into the room, opened the window for a few seconds and shut it again.  No more phone calls from an empty room after that!  The aides and I were spooked!

By any chance was your patient Irish?

Hppy

[donnydilaudid]

hppygr8ful said:

By any chance was your patient Irish?

Hppy

I believe that was his ancestry!