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...

Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
donnydilaudid said:

I believe that was his ancestry!

It is an Irish Custom that all windows in the room of a dying person be opened to prevent a soul from be trapped at the moment of death. 

Specializes in retired LTC.

I just got to shivering!

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Not super scary but the other night in my clinic, the automatic (locked) door kept opening and shutting at the end of my shift. No one was there each time. I finally said "JUST STOP IT ALREADY I KNOW YOU ARE THERE" and it stopped.

hmmmm.

Hi, I LOVE THESE!! I am an RN with my own hospital ghost stories!! I’ll include mine below! I’m writing a book of Nurses ghost stories! Send me your story! Please make sure it reads well and has good punctuation! 

[email protected]

I was working graveyard shift at a small hospital. I had several experiences over the few months I worked there. I had seen a male patient in a gown walk across an empty room (glass room fronts) one night when we had a really low census. We also had a prison wing that I heard whistling coming out of when it was closed with no patients or workers inside. When I first started, I kept seeing someone in my peripheral view, standing in the doorway of a room that a patient had passed away in, just days before I started. I also had my stories featured on season 1 of haunted hospitals! ???

Specializes in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.

2 small stories, no crazy ghost events, just weirdness:

Worked at a 100+ year old hospital. Worked night shift as a lift tech and had a couple "weird" experience, but the one that creeps me out is this. My buddy and I were doing our nightly rounds. We walk to the end of the hallway, quite far from any patient room or staff but it has a bathroom. Needed to take a #1 so my buddy hung outside while I went inside and did my business. Nothing out the of ordinary happened during my business. Headed out the door, that thoroughly closed. My buddy and I round the corner and after no more than 5 steps we hear the door open and close. We both stopped, looked at each other and thought it was weird because for one, not many people use this restroom late at night and two, there was no one near use nor did we hear anyone else walking around. We turned around and went to check just out of curiosity. Went in the bathroom, nothing there, no sounds, nothing out the ordinary. Just creepy. But for sure, clear as day we heard the door open and close after I left when it had closed.

Another night when I was floated to another nursing unit, we were all chatting about ghost stories about the hospital. Later that night, myself and our unit secretary were just chatting in the nursing station when our touch screen monitor that has the 24/7 EKG goes bonkers. It starts beeping crazily. So on that monitor, we have a mouse attached but it is also touch screen. Whether you use the mouse or the touchscreen, you will see the mouse cursor move along your movement. When this event happened, that mouse cursor was going all over the place clicking icons. The mouse was right in front of my friend and she was not even close to touching it. Funny enough, earlier in that night when we were all talking about ghost stories, some were saying that there was a little girl people have seen on the unit both at night and during the day who is known to mess around with things. Maybe this was her. The event last about 30 seconds, nothing else occurred the rest of the night.

RNPolly said:

Going back to the topic of a dying person choosing the time of his/her death or "holding on" for a certain time or event to pass or occur before passing, I'm convinced that this is possible.

My family held a 4-day vigil at his hospital bedside before my dad's death four years ago. My sister had promised him that she wouldn't leave him, and she didn't, even sleeping on the chair in his room (I preferred the bench in the waiting area). Thursday was a busy day of non-stop visitors, relatives, friends, who were aware they were saying good-bye. My dad was never conscious the entire hospitalization, and I'm sure he hated the attention, but I know that it was important support for my mom, who was still living in denial. Friday was quiet; just my mom, sister, and myself. No apparent change in my dad's condition; nothing to indicate imminent death, so my sister and I wandered down to the hospital cafeteria to grab a tray to bring back to the room, leaving my mom at the bedside briefly. Wouldn't you know that's when my dad chose to pass, alone in the room with my mom (which freaked her out, of course). I'm convinced he wanted privacy, to be as alone as possible, with just my mom there and not my sister and me present.

I know this is 500 years later, but I just stumbled onto this thread LOL Anyway, my mom had a hemorrhagic stroke at home. My husband found her and called 911. She was not conscious during her stay either. We tried some interventions, but with the seizures and uncontrolled bleeding, there was little hope. We made her a DNR and she moved to hospice where she was gone in less than 24 hours. She moved to hospice the day before my sister's birthday.  My sister was heartbroken that she might pass on her birthday. She is a very emotional person, and she and my mom were very close. My sister, brother, husband and I decided to all spend the night on the pull outs in the room. About 11pm on May 24, we had all started to doze off. Then we heard scratching on the walls, which woke everyone up immediately. The scratching went from one wall to another wall, and after a few minutes stopped. We all laid back down, but then the same thing started up again about 1130pm. This time banging from wall to wall. I told everyone it was probably her telling us it was time. We all got up and gathered around. My sister said she needed to go to the bathroom. It wasn't 30 secs after my sister left the room, my mom took her last breath. It was 12:02 am on May 25. I truly believe she waited until not only it was not my sister's birthday anymore, but until she left the room because she knows she would have had a difficult time watching her last breath. 

Mscoolmug said:

I know this is 500 years later, but I just stumbled onto this thread LOL Anyway, my mom had a hemorrhagic stroke at home. My husband found her and called 911. She was not conscious during her stay either. We tried some interventions, but with the seizures and uncontrolled bleeding, there was little hope. We made her a DNR and she moved to hospice where she was gone in less than 24 hours. She moved to hospice the day before my sister's birthday.  My sister was heartbroken that she might pass on her birthday. She is a very emotional person, and she and my mom were very close. My sister, brother, husband and I decided to all spend the night on the pull outs in the room. About 11pm on May 24, we had all started to doze off. Then we heard scratching on the walls, which woke everyone up immediately. The scratching went from one wall to another wall, and after a few minutes stopped. We all laid back down, but then the same thing started up again about 1130pm. This time banging from wall to wall. I told everyone it was probably her telling us it was time. We all got up and gathered around. My sister said she needed to go to the bathroom. It wasn't 30 secs after my sister left the room, my mom took her last breath. It was 12:02 am on May 25. I truly believe she waited until not only it was not my sister's birthday anymore, but until she left the room because she knows she would have had a difficult time watching her last breath. 

Oh, I so understand this; experienced this with my mom's passing 10 years ago.  She was semi-conscious for the 2 weeks before her passing but would sometimes ask, "When is Christmas?”  She passed away at 12:20 a.m. on Christmas morning; I know she was hanging on until Christmas, for some reason.  I had read anecdotes people shared of hearing angel wings when their loved ones passed, and I was so disappointed not to see or hear any signs of her transition to her heavenly home.  ☺️

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

I know this is 500 years later, but I just stumbled onto this thread LOL Anyway, my mom had a hemorrhagic stroke at home. My husband found her and called 911. She was not conscious during her stay either. We tried some interventions, but with the seizures and uncontrolled bleeding, there was little hope. We made her a DNR and she moved to hospice where she was gone in less than 24 hours. She moved to hospice the day before my sister's birthday.  My sister was heartbroken that she might pass on her birthday. She is a very emotional person, and she and my mom were very close. My sister, brother, husband and I decided to all spend the night on the pull outs in the room. About 11pm on May 24, we had all started to doze off. Then we heard scratching on the walls, which woke everyone up immediately. The scratching went from one wall to another wall, and after a few minutes stopped. We all laid back down, but then the same thing started up again about 1130pm. This time banging from wall to wall. I told everyone it was probably her telling us it was time. We all got up and gathered around. My sister said she needed to go to the bathroom. It wasn't 30 secs after my sister left the room, my mom took her last breath. It was 12:02 am on May 25. I truly believe she waited until not only it was not my sister's birthday anymore, but until she left the room because she knows she would have had a difficult time watching her last breath. 

The scratching & banging on the walls is pretty freaky 😳

Chad_KY_SRNA said:

We had a resident that had been hollering staff members names and banging on the wall instead of using her call light the night she passed away I had helped clean her up and then went to empty the soiled linen cart as I was emptying the cart I heard her scream my name and I ran out of the soiled linen room and did not go back in there alone.

While not a ghost story, this is a life-after-life story.  My mom died in 2006.  This was the first major loss for me and it devastated our family, as everyone knows that moms are the heart of the family.  So, about 1 month after she died I, for some reason, decided to nap upstairs where my phone and answering machine were.  Well, the phone kept ringing and ringing.  So I got up and unplugged it.  After that the answering machine kept going off, so I got up and unplugged that, too.  And wouldn't you know it, the phone rang and went immediately to answering machine WHILE I was standing there holding all the power and telephone cords!!  I simply said "neat trick, mom, I love you, too". 

2 days later I got in the car to go to my son's kindergarten graduation.  The radio then proceeded to play a Janis Joplin song (her favourite song) on a station that focused on "80's, 90's and today"; it had never played Joplin before! I knew she was coming with me to graduation.  With a tear in my eye I drove to the school.  I grabbed a seat in the 4th or 5th row, and even though it was crowded in there, the seat beside me remained empty (I shower regularly, LOL).

My dad died in 2020.  None of us kids were there and I was the most upset as dad & I had gotten really close after mom died and talked on the phone frequently (we were across the country from each other).  The very next night, a 9-1-1 call was made from his now-empty apartment.  Police, Fire & Ambulance showed up; my dad got the full meal deal.  It was his way of letting us all know at once that he was okay (and was probably anxious to return to his Welcome Home party on the Other Side).  I believe, as Sylvia Browne used to say, our job here is to "do as much good as you can, help out as much as you can, then shut up and go Home". It's my mantra for life.

As for more sightings/events happening at night, Sylvia explained that this was due to moisture or dew and that we are electrical beings and the moisture helps to manipulate things. Makes sense to me anyways.

Please remember, all of those who are grieving, that even though it may be years and years on earth before you see your loved one again, in God's Time it is but the blink of an eye.

Blessings you beautiful beings!

Oh, and all those accounts of some people dying with a terrified look on their face, oh my, that is terrifying.  Makes me be a bit better of a person, or try to, y'know? Whew.

CFitzRN said:

The scratching & banging on the walls is pretty freaky 😳

I sure didn't care for it 🤣

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