What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?

Nurses General Nursing Nursing Q/A

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...

Oh, man. What an awesome thread. I just found it today, and there are hundreds of posts. I just spent like three hours reading the first 20 pages. Truly addictive!

I'm not a nurse yet, and my stories aren't necessarily nursing-related, but I have had quite a few weird experiences.

My mom died pretty young, at 57, of complications due to multiple sclerosis. In the two or three weeks leading up to her death, she was in a nursing home where my sister and I kept a pretty much 24-hour bedside vigil going on, with relief periods offered by other friends and family. We kept the room quiet and peaceful; lights dimmed, soft candles glowing, all mom's favorite music playing on her CD player.

There were several instances where she would wake out of a deep sleep and say things like, "I think I'm dying." and then she'd go right back to sleep. As time went on, she started asking things like why my dad and grandpa (who had passed on before her) kept showing up on her TV (which was turned off in favor of music most of the time) and outside her window. We had no idea what she was talking about, of course. There were lots of things like this that happened in that final week or so.

The night she died, the outside hospice nurse (an absolute ANGEL!) we'd hired to help mom through this transition told my sister and me to go home and get some much-needed sleep. It was my wedding anniversary (June 19), and I can remember thinking, "Please don't let her die on my anniversary..." The hospice nurse told us she'd call us if she noticed any changes that indicated the end was near.

About 0100 on the morning of June 20, the hospice nurse called us at my sister's house and said she thought we should come back. Mom's extremities were mottled, respirations were shallow and slow...we hurried back to the nursing home, stood on either side of my mom and held her hands, and cried as we told her it was okay to go, that we'd be fine, etc. She passed at 0300, waiting, I'll always beileve, until my actual anniversary date was passed. (Doesn't matter -- five years later, I still cringe as our anniversary approaches.)

A few days later, we returned to the facility to pick up the rest of mom's belongings. One of the nurses said, "Oh, wait! One of the night nurses wants to talk to you guys." So the nurse came walking down the hall, looking sort of embarrassed. He told us he was on the floor alone the night before my mom passed away when he heard a very, very loud male cough coming from the vicinity of my mom's room. He was at the other end of the hall, he said, and he went tearing down to her room because they'd had a recently admitted dementia patient who liked to wander into female pts rooms and {ahem} "flirt" with them, let's just say.

As he got closer and closer to the room, he reported, he could hear my mom's voice, crystal clear, having an animated conversation with a male, who was also laughing and coughing, a horrible, hacking cough a lot. My mom had pretty much been unconsious in the final days of her life. She was in no shape to be carrying on a conversation. A little freaked out, he slowed his approach to the room and peeked in, entered slowly. Once he got all the way into the room, the coughing stopped and my mom turned her head toward the door and just looked at the nurse before closing her eyes and slipping back into her non-communicative state. He said the room reeked of cigarette smoke, and this, of course, was just five years ago, so smoking was not allowed anywhere in the facility and it was the middle of the night.

He told us he thought it had to have been the ghost of someone who'd come to bring her home, and did we know who it was? We most definitely did...it was our grandpa, her dad, who had died in 1976 of a heart attack. He was a heavy smoker. Like a heavy, heavy smoker, and often had a hacking cough here on earth.

I tend to go on and on when I tell stories, so I'll save some of the other "supernatural-ish" encounters for future posts.

Let's keep this thread going strong!

I work on a lock down unit at a nursing home. It was around 10 pm on 2nd Shift, myself and fellow aid had just got our patient in bed. I was turning on and checking all his alarms, the lights went out. I had shut the door after we entered. It was completely black. Now, I was about 2 foot from the only light switch in the room and the other aid was about 3 foot behind me. I had to flip light back on. When I turned the lights back on my partner was white as a ghost. In the same spot. I asked her anyway "Did you turn off the lights?", she said "No". She thought maybe I was playing a joke. We always have alarms going off when not in use, when turned off, and when people are sleeping "that have not moved a inch". That was the second time a light switch had turned off by itself when I was in a room right by it. I was just glad that this time someone was their to witness it with me. This is my first post. I just started RN program. It is great. I love it.

Specializes in Looking for a career in NICU.

My mother passed away at our house. We had a boston terrier that was in the living room when she died. Now, this dog was normally quiet, he wasn't the yippy type.

When my father was with her, and he was waiting on the ambulance, she took her last breath, and he knew she was dead when she didn't take another...at that very moment, the dog walked into the kitchen and started howling and absolutely would not stop, even after being repeatively scolded. I think animals can sense when someone "crosses over".

My mother, when she was living, never spoke of anything she saw as a nurse, but she had a relative that was like a sister to her that was expected to die one night. Around 6:10 am., my mother thought my father (who slept in another room) turned on the light in her room, when she opened her eyes, the room was filled with a light and in the center of it, was an angel, she could see the halo, the wings, everything. As soon as she knew what she had seen, it disappeared.

Her cousin's family called around 8 that same morning and said she had died...at 6:10 am.

I'm not sure if this is a "ghost story" but ya'll freaked me out last night so I must share.

Last night I worked in the alzheimers unit of our ALF. I have never worked by myself, or even with someone else over there before, but when people call out, you gotta do what you gotta do. Mrs. J came out of her room and I asked her if there was something I could help her with. She said "yes could you get the woman out of my room?" I thought she was talking about one of the residents that I know like to wander. I went to her room with her and saw no one. I said "well J, whoever it was, they're not here now." She replied, rather agitated "What do you mean she's not here? She's still sitting there in MY chair! Now make her leave!" Right away I thought of all the stories I read here. I just said "um, ok J I really need help doing laundry, wanna come?" I relayed this to the CNA coming in to relieve me. She said "oh she sees her all the time. A resident died in that room before she moved in. The chair in there used to be hers and very often, J will tell us that she is in her chair." Totally creeped me out!

So many stories.....None of them scary and all of them poignant. I am honored to have seen what I've seen....None of my stories are creepy and all defy description...Such as the "beautiful" death of a family member in that it was expected and when it occurred another nurse and I who were standing by just a bit apart from the family when the gentleman took his last breath. His family was leaning over him and we saw a white light emerge from his body and gently float to the ceiling and out. We both looked at each other and never really talked about it again....Many more on that level....

I used to work in a nursing home, we had all the usual things like ghost call lights and doors closing themselves and things like that. There are a few things that stick out in my mind though.

-We had this elderly lady that was fully oriented, no dementia at all. Well, for about a week every time you would walk by her room you would hear her talking to someone. When you would go in her room, noone would be there and she would ask if we saw the woman in her room too. A week or two of this went by. I was passing meds one morning and was about halfway down the hallway. An aide and I heard her start talking so the aide goes down the hallway to her room. When she gets in front of her room she looks in and jumps about two feet back. I said "What's wrong?" and she says she just saw an old woman in a white gown with long white hair floating beside the residents bed. She wanted me to look in the room too, I was scared but, when I looked nothing was there. We both went into the room to scope things out and the resident said, "Finally, someone else saw her too, shes the woman I've been talking to every night"

I have another one too but, its really not a ghost story, its just kinda weird. We had an aide orientating one night, it was her first night. She was doing really well and seemed to like it. I was sitting at the nursing station doing my charting and the aide takes her lunch she goes into the break room and never comes out. I saw her go into the break room and I would of seen her come out because the break room is right in front of this nursing station, I would have heard her come out too because the doors beep. She didn't leave out of the front or back doors either. The hallway to the back door was beside the break room in front of me and the front door was to the right of me. I worked third shift and all the alarms on the doors were turned on so, I had the pleasure of going to the doors and turning the alarms off manually every time someone went outside and the alarms never went off. She couldn't have gone out of a window because they don't open. I don't know where she went but, we never saw her again. I asked my supervisor about it a couple of weeks later and she said that the aide never came to pick up her check for the half of the night she worked. They called the phone number she gave and it was a wrong number. So, they mailed the check to the address she gave and it came back, "Return to sender, no one by that name at this address." Kinda weird, isn't it? Wonder where she went?

.....I have another one too but, its really not a ghost story, its just kinda weird. We had an aide orientating one night, it was her first night. She was doing really well and seemed to like it. I was sitting at the nursing station doing my charting and the aide takes her lunch she goes into the break room and never comes out. I saw her go into the break room and I would of seen her come out because the break room is right in front of this nursing station, I would have heard her come out too because the doors beep. She didn't leave out of the front or back doors either. The hallway to the back door was beside the break room in front of me and the front door was to the right of me. I worked third shift and all the alarms on the doors were turned on so, I had the pleasure of going to the doors and turning the alarms off manually every time someone went outside and the alarms never went off. She couldn't have gone out of a window because they don't open. I don't know where she went but, we never saw her again. I asked my supervisor about it a couple of weeks later and she said that the aide never came to pick up her check for the half of the night she worked. They called the phone number she gave and it was a wrong number. So, they mailed the check to the address she gave and it came back, "Return to sender, no one by that name at this address." Kinda weird, isn't it? Wonder where she went?

That is really wierd

Not a "Ghost" story but still ghastly!!!

A fellow student was telling us today that yesterday, being halloween, she dressed all in black and I presume some makeup to match for her job as unit secretary. She had to speak with one of the techs in a pts room so went to the door and stood there waiting patiently and waved and smiled when the pt (a very elderly woman about 90s on O2 and having some difficulties). Well the poor old woman saw her and grabbed the mask as they were trying to take it off her and started to freak out! Seems she thought my classmate was the "angel of death' waiting at her door for her!!!

Specializes in Cardiac.

Well I have a few, some happened to me, some did not.

1) This was told to me as well as several other orientee's. There was an aide doing post mortem care on a patient. This was evidentally an expected death because all the family was there, I'm talking an entire waiting room full of family. The doctor pronounced, talked to the family about donation and everything. The family then went home while the aide was cleaning him up. She was almost done when suddenly he sat up, grabbed her arm and said "HOW YA DOIN?!" She burst outta the room. Now by this time the patient had been "dead" for about an hour or so. Of course, everyone runs in the room, hook him up the monitors and stuff and he seems fine. They have to call the doctor back AND the family and let them know. He lived another week so I was told. Who knows why he was hanging on because he had all his family there. (I know that sometimes people wait on certain family members.)

2.) This one happened to one of my patients. Actually, the very first code that ever happened to one of my patients. I started out at 7pm a bad shift. Within an hour, I sent someone to the unit because everytime she moved, her HR shot up to 170. THen I went around to all the other patients and checked in on pt "X" because I was told that she was a "dump" from another unit that didn't wanna deal with her. She had an NG tube, came from a NH with abd pain, blind, a Right BKA, and would not stop yelling. I finally got around to her. I went in, introduced myself, which would later result in her yelling my name at the top of her lungs because she didn't like using the call light, and of course, her room was as far away from the nursing station as possible. Yet, I strangely took a liking to her. She reminded me so much of my grandmother.

Anyway, lemme back up. While I was trying to get the other sick patient off the floor to the unit, a doctor called and asked the code status of patient "X". First of all, thats NEVER a good sign. (Full code btw)

Ok ... all night long she kept saying by morning she was gonna be dead. I sat back there all night we talked and laughed, turned out she didn't wanna be alone, which was fine, but I hadn't even opened a flowsheet on any of my other 5 patients and at 11pm I was gonna have to pick up more. Around midnight, HR went up. Called doc and asked if wanted me to give standing order of lopressor, said he'd be up. Came up, said she was in pain... gave morphine. Didn't help. I asked the patient if she wanted me to call anyone to come sit with her, she said that her family lived 30 min away, not to bother them, they put her in the NH b/c she was too much of a hassle for them to deal with. I told her I'd check on her about every 10 minutes, but I needed to go take care of my other patients as well. She said ok. Every 5 minutes, I'd hear my name. It got to the point that I sat at her door and *tried* to chart. (I couldn't do it inside b/c she was on contact precautions.)

Come 5:30, her HR shot up as I was giving contrast down her NG tube. All of a sudden, the monitor tech came over the intercom to the room and told me to get to the desk now. I ran up there, she met me half way and showed me a strip of v-tach. "CRAP!" I run back to the room. I ask pt. X if she's hurting. I swear, she looked dead at me and said "No, for once in my life, I'm not hurting at all." Then she seized.

Well, we did end up coding her. After the doctor's finally got a hold of her MPOA, they decided to make her a DNR. Her family said that they would not be in. That made me LIVID b/c during our conversations earlier she was telling me about when her kids were little and her husband. My shift ended at 7:30 that morning. The day shift nurses were pissed because I never left the patients bedside all night long, long enough to chart anything, actually, most of my patients never even had a new flow sheet started. (Night shift starts the new flowsheets.) I told my nurse manager I wasn't leaving her. I told the patient I was there for her and wouldn't leave her and I wasn't going to. I held her hand until she died around 8:30 that morning. By that time contact precautions were out the window. I didn't have any gloves on, I was holding her bare hand. I didn't get out of work until 11am b/c of all the charting I had to do. My nurse manager was wonderful and took care of talking to the family over the phone and arrangements and stuff. (Good thing b/c I was still pissed at them lol.)

Word of advice: If a patient tells you their going to die, then they will. And when she told me that she wasn't hurting, I really did not want to shock her because I knew she was going somewhere much more peaceful. Of course, I did, several times as it turned out, but still. I bet I was out of her room for a total of 40 min's that entire 12 hour shift. My coworkers were really great in helping me out in that situation, helping me pass meds and everything.

3.) This one happened to a co-worker. She said that she was charting at the desk one night and all of a sudden the tv turned on and turned up really loud in an empty room across from the nurses station. Co-worker got up, turned the tv off and sat back down. By this time she was a little unnerved but didn't pay too much attention to it. About 5 min later it did it again, and this time got louder. She said she walked in there and said "I'll leave it on, but it's gotta stay low, other people are sleeping!" She turned the tv down and it didn't get any louder the rest of the night lol.

4.) I was a witness to this one. I came out of room 15. Room 14 is a semi, but it was completly empty. We'd taken a critical pt that was in there earlier to the unit. Anyway, I was coming out of room 15 and a call light came on. I looked down the hall and it was room 14. I had a urine specimin in my hand so I didn't quite think I should go into 14 with it in my hand, so I stopped at the desk where the tech answered the call light.

"Can I help you?"

"Can I help you?" She asked twice.

She then looked over at the heart monitor to see the patients name that was in there so that she could call the patient by that name. She went white as a ghost because she looked at me and said there's no one in 14. I guess that's when it donned on me that no, there wasn't anyone in 14. So we went together to look, and everything was as it should be, empty and clean. It rang twice that night. Very scary lol

5.) Happened to another nurse but I was around the corner when it happened. She went to go open a door to room 17 (a semi) to answer a call light and the door wouldn't open. She said she pushed on it door several times as if someone was on the other end holding it shut. She said that when it did open, both patients were white as a ghost b/c she couldn't get in. The window was closed, so there wasn't any air blowing in the room. Both patients were assists, so neither could really hold the door then HOP into bed as if nothing happened, and there was no family members in there.

Kinda freaky.

I have more, but that's all for now! =)

love your stories, ladies..............

keep them coming!

i'm actually male, but i'm glad you're enjoying this thread.

-k

Specializes in med/surg,ortho trauma,step down,neuro.

i used to work on the 6th floor. we used the pod system, 6 rooms per nursing station. in pod 2 is room 666, yes, i know. for some reason the patients in that room were always crazy. i'm not sure why they made a 666

the real story is in pod 7, used to be used for burns because it's isolated from the other pods. a woman was in because she had been beaten by her husband. her mom would always be in there with her. mom steped out one afternoon for lunch in the cafeteria, nurse was down the hall getting medications, husband came back and strangled the woman to death.

the drawers at the nurses desk always come out during report. always freaked out the newbies!:roll

Specializes in LTC, Disease Management, smoking Cessati.
The best I have heard is from a nurse who said that one night she was floated to oncology at the hospital she used to work at. She was given a patient who was passing away and had been unconscious for several days. At one point during the night the nurse went into the room and the patient was at the top of the bed and looked at her and said, "don't let them take me!", the nurse was freaked out and asked her who was going to take her and she said that black thing up there and pointed up in the air. This patient died within minutes.

Come on now share your stories, I know you have seen and heard freaky things.

I was working in a small rural hospital in Ohio one evening. As the dusk became the night a woman in one room kept putting her light on and asking us to close the drapes in her room because she saw the "Angel of Death" looking in at her.... We did pull her drapes shut and about 1 hour later a woman in the room right next to the woman who saw the Angel of Death, passed away... still gives me the creeps. :uhoh21:

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