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...

I believe I have posted this story in the past, but it may be worth the rewrite. This takes place in an inner city nursing home up on the third floor. The hall is to the left of the nurses station. Very nondescript with rooms on each side. Just a dull rectangle shape. The only access to this area is the elevator which is across from the nurses station and a stairwell on the other side of that, more towards the other unit. The shift is 3-11, and its about 7P. Most of the staff is off the floor for dinner. I am getting ready to begin my evening med pass with all the crushes for the tube feeds. I have a male orderly on the floor with me.

This unit has several loud patients with one in particular, a female who says a name of someone repetitively. All the time. I think the name was Mary. So along with other assorted dementia sounds there is the constant background noise of "Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, being chanted. The orderly is

facing towards the end of the hall next to me and my med cart. I am about half way down the hall. The patient who keeps chanting Mary is the second last room on the left. He is asking me a question when the is a sudden SILENCE. The chanting woman has stopped. The silence makes us both look down the the hall towards this woman's room. We both see a little girl who literally skips out of her room and enters the last room on the right which I know is empty. We both know there are no visitors on the floor but still don't want an unescorted child running around. Plus we have noticed she was dressed kind of odd. I lock the the cart and go down the hall together. No one is in any of the rooms except the bedridden patients that were supposed to be there. We then check on the quite chanter who was not dead , just inexplicitably quiet. The little girl we saw was dressed in a salior like outfit. A popular style at the turn of the last century. A midi blouse with a large collar and necktie and having a long waist. It was over a dark pleated skirt and dark sockings. Her hair was blonde and pulled back into two braids that bounced as she skipped. She never turned towards us, just skipped purposely into the empty room. The patient stayed quite only for a few days then resumed her endless calling to someone she wanted to see and "Mary. Mary, Mary" filled the dismal halls again, but no reappearance of the little girl from the past who seemed to have given her some comfort, if only for a short time.

We all have accidents. This is an inexpirienced 16 y.o. girl who I am sure had no intention of hurting anyone when she got in the car that day. Can you imagine how you would feel if a momentary lapse in judgement had such long lasting results.

Chad, I definitely agree with you. It was very sad that she died. I had JUST seen her less than 24 hours earlier. We lived across country from her, and I had JUST returned home from a visit. I like to remember her as the lively person that she was, not someone who ended up dependent on everyone else living life in a nursing home. She would have HATED that to no end. She went at her time and she never had to live one day in a nursing home. She was so proud of her independence. Her body would have lived in a nursing home, but her soul would have eventually died.

Thank you for the kind words Cute_CNA, but I don't hold any ill will against the young driver involved. This was just a momentary lapse. I'm sure that she's living with this constantly, and I bet that she hurts. I've never met her, but I'm just guessing.

Ironically, I had a dream about my grandparents last night. That they know that I'm now married and very happy about that. That's the gist of it.

I have posted this on these threads before (infact I copied and pasted it), but here it is.

Okay, I know this one sounds strange, but hear me out.

We just moved into a brand new hospital, and the locker room (to the OR) always sounds like there is someone in there changing (Lockers closing, opening, mumbling voices ect.) but there never is (I work weekends and nights when I am the only one around). I go in there completely expecting to see someone in one of the bays, but no one is there. I have attributed this to a new building still settling in.

One day around 6PM I am at my locker and I hear this strange whooshing noise. I attribute it to the clock behind me, when I realize it is coming from infront of me. I start listening closely and it coming from the locker directly below mine. I put my ear to it and it sounds exactly like someones mouth is behind the vent breathing. I automatically reach to open the locker and as soon as I touch it, the noise stops. All of the lockers are locked (each one has an individual key), but now one owns any of the bottom lockers. A few seconds later it starts up again, I said "Hello?" (fully expecting a response)and immediately it stops again.

I told a few close friends I work with about it, to see if they had heard anything. They all say they have heard the lockers open, voices, ect., but never the breathing.

The next weekend two of my coworkers and I all go into the locker room (again around 6pm). Their lockers are one bay down from mine, and we are all talking loudly, but as soon as I get to my locker, I hear it again. I told them to shut up and get over here now! One of them put their ear by the locker, and stood up soo quickly, we bashed heads. Put their ear down again to listen and slammed their fist on the locker it scared them so bad. The other person wouldn't listen and ran out of the locker room.

The following weekend the charge nurse (that works graveyards) was in there next to that locker doing her charges at around 3am. She told me she heard breathing coming from below my locker and ran out of there. She said "I could just see a demon back there watching me."

I retrieved the key from the unit secratary and opened the locker, half way expecting something (or someone) to be in there. There was nothing, and no air vent in there to cause the sound.

I am not one to scare easily, but there is just no other expanation I can come up with. Something I forgot to mention, whenever the "breathing" stoped (from touching the locker ect.), when it started back up again, it was a gasping (like someone who held there breath trying to catch their breath again) :uhoh21:

It sounds like the locker room/locker needs exorcising or prayers....It sure doesn't sound like a run-of-the-mill ghost.

My mom died about 2 1/2 years ago from breast cancer. Both my sister & have felt her presence and have had very vivid dreams about her throughout these past 2 years.

A few months ago, while my sister was waking up, she suddenly felt my mother's presence very strongly. She opened her eyes to find my mom (transparent) standing by her bedside. My mom smiled at her, turned around & walked out of her bedroom. My sister watched her (shocked) until she vanished.

I have so much more stories, but I just wanted to share this one.

Regards,

Julie

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
futuregaspasser said:

okay, I know this one sounds strange, but hear me out.

we just moved into a brand new hospital, and the locker room (to the or) always sounds like there is someone in there changing (lockers closing, opening, mumbling voices ect.) but there never is (I work weekends and nights when I am the only one around). I go in there completely expecting to see someone in one of the bays, but no one is there. I have attributed this to a new building still settling in.

one day around 6pm I am at my locker and I hear this strange whooshing noise. I attribute it to the clock behind me, when I realize it is coming from infront of me. I start listening closely and it coming from the locker directly below mine. I put my ear to it and it sounds exactly like someones mouth is behind the vent breathing. I automatically reach to open the locker and as soon as I touch it, the noise stops.

the following weekend the charge nurse (that works graveyards) was in there next to that locker doing her charges at around 3am. she told me she heard breathing coming from below my locker and ran out of there. she said "I could just see a demon back there watching me."

if your charge nurse thinks she can see a demon watching her, I'd be scared to death! wouldn't hurt to see if you can get someone to exorcise it -- if that's even possible these days. I don't think I'd want to be in that locker room alone!

ruby

futuregaspasser, I love your name. You can call me eternalgaspasser.

I think that locker room needs an exorcism, too. That is very scary. 

Specializes in Corrections, Cardiac, Hospice.

My very dear friend, Denny, died in a motorcycle accident. We had dated briefly and had parted on great terms. I had moved out of town, but when we would see each other he would pick me up, swing me around and ask if I was getting treated right. All during his funeral, I kept asking mutual friends, did he know how much I loved him? How much he meant to me, even though we weren't together? Yes, they all reassured me, he knew. Well, after the funeral, I retreated to my safe spot, my grandparents house. The first night there, I had a dream that he and I were in an apartment building. The stairs went up to the apartment on the side of the building. I was sitting on Denny's lap, kissing him and all of a sudden our friend Donald comes bursting in. What are you guys doing, the place is on FIRE, get out! So I jumped up and ran out the door, down the first flight of steps and turn around to tell Denny something. He isn't behind me, so I go back up to the apartment and it is filled with smoke by that point. I started hollaring out, Den, Where are you? Come on, we gotta get out of here! So I run back out, only this time there are no steps going to the ground, just steps going up. I started up the steps and saw him on a bridge leaning over watching everyone run out of the building. I said to him, Denny, what are you doing, we got to go, come on. He said, not me, I have to go somewhere else now, but its not your time yet. I said, where are you going, he kind of looked lost for a second and said, I don't know yet....Then I said, But Denny, you know I love you, right? He looked me right in the eye, smiled and said, Yes, I know. Then I woke up. Funny thing was, I couldn't move, AT ALL for about 10-15 seconds. I mean, I tried to get out of bed and my body was completely paralized. The sad thing is, the friend who came in to tell us the building was on fire died himself six years later in a car accident.

I have also had a dream of my dh's grandmother, whom I never met. She died a few years before he and I met. I had a dream I was sitting at a kitchen table and she was serving me tea, thanking me for taking such good care of her grandson. I never said anything to him, until one year we were at his cousin's for a Christmas party and I brought it up. I described the kitchen table and the cupboards and where the basement door was and they all looked at me in shock, told me I had described their grandmother's kitchen perfectly.

The last experience I had was shortly after my grandfather had died. He was an expert carpenter and I was working on some wood trim at my house. I was thinking, boy, I should call Papa, then it occurred to me that I couldn't. A few days later, I got a very strong whiff of Cherry Pipe tobacco (what he use to smoke) in my dining room. I stopped short and said, OH, Hi Papa, how are you doing today? The smell was gone in an instant. I tell him all the time to come visit me, but not to let me see him because it would scare the begeeses out of me, LMAO.

My dh swears our house is haunted. Things get moved all the time and noises can be heard. Once, when my son was a baby the screen was moved out of the window and placed very neatly by his crib. Dh called me at work all shook up, he is a complete and total skeptic. I said, are you sure someone wasn't trying to break in? He said, no, I was outside when he was napping and when I came into the house I went right upstairs!

As far as nursing ghost stories, the only one I can think of is the one elevator at work. We have 7 of them beside each other, but only the one does this. And not always....I work on the 6th floor. Sometimes, I will get in on 1 and push the 6 button, it will take me up to 5 stop then go back down to 1. The doors don't open, it just stops and goes back down. When it happens with families in there, I just smile and say, yep, this is the haunted elevator. I think they think I am kidding :p

Specializes in ICU & LTC.

I work in LTC so we see a lot of deaths in our facility. One day we had a CNA on our wing who was walking with a resident from another wing. She hollared for me from down the hall that "Ann" was up in her room walking. ("Ann" had always been very unsteady on her feet and wore a pull alarm) I went down the hall quickly to see what was going on. "Ann" had passed away several days before. But this particular aid was unaware of it. Needless to say there was no one in the room when I got there. but the feeling walking into the room was as if someone was there with you and a very distict odor of her perfume ( could have been left behind yes). We both had goosebumps and and the aid turned white as a ghost (no pun intended). She swears to this day "Ann" was standing by the desk in her old room. hmmmm.

I know I've already made a post on this topic, but have had a strange experience since that I feel like sharing.

I currently work in a private rest home for the elderly while I am training to be an RN.

For the last 7 months I have been the HCA for my best friends grandmother (Friends is a plural as they are identical twins... the three of us have been very good friends for over 10 years).

I had not met my friends grandmother before she became a patient, but we spent alot of time talking about her grand children.. my friends.

I formed quite a close relationship with this lady, and she was a wonderful woman.

Last Friday night I dreamt in which a young man came to me and said that my friends grandmother would be joining him soon, and thanked me for looking after her. The dream was an incredibly realistic and vivid dream, and I was actually unable to sleep for the rest of the night, thinking about it.

I rang work first thing in the morning, and checked to see that this lady was okay. She was apparently fine, and I dismissed my dream as a just that, a dream.

I had a second dream on Saturday night, in which the young man told me that I should warn my friends so they could say their good-byes.

Again I rang first thing in the morning, and she was fine.

At work on Sunday night, I noticed that this lady was not in a good way. She was not active at all ( and had previously required minimal help with her cares) and was lying in bed, breathing in short shallow, very wet breaths.

I took her hand and looked into her face. At that moment, I knew that the dreams should not have been dismissed. Before I finished my shift at 9pm, I made a last trip into her room. I felt very strongly that this would be the last time that I saw her, even though I have seen many patients bounce back from being unwell. I again took her hand, and told said my goodbyes. I told her that I was very grateful that she was a part of giving me two of the best friends I am ever likely to have, and that she had made a special impact on me.

My friends grandmother passed away at 9.30 that night.

I had another dream that night in which the young man and a young woman approached me holding hands. The young man laughed at me and told me I should have listened when he warned me about the ladies passing.

The young woman told me that I shouldnt listen to him, and that she was grateful for the company that I gave her in the time in the home, and that she was also grateful that I had helped her grandchildren through difficult periods.

She then winked, and said ' your welcome'.

I received the phone call to say that she had died the next day, and while going through some old photos with my friends, I discovered a photo of the young couple in my dream... happy and holding hands.

I was sitting at the nurses station one night with another CNA and a resident was sitting in a chair across from the nurses station, there was a soda can sitting on the countertop and I looked over and it was spinning around like a barber pole. I yelled at the other CNA that I was working with to look at it and she froze in place the instant that she saw it.

I know I've already made a post on this topic, but have had a strange experience since that I feel like sharing.

I currently work in a private rest home for the elderly while I am training to be an RN.

For the last 7 months I have been the HCA for my best friends grandmother (Friends is a plural as they are identical twins... the three of us have been very good friends for over 10 years).

I had not met my friends grandmother before she became a patient, but we spent alot of time talking about her grand children.. my friends.

I formed quite a close relationship with this lady, and she was a wonderful woman.

Last Friday night I dreamt in which a young man came to me and said that my friends grandmother would be joining him soon, and thanked me for looking after her. The dream was an incredibly realistic and vivid dream, and I was actually unable to sleep for the rest of the night, thinking about it.

I rang work first thing in the morning, and checked to see that this lady was okay. She was apparently fine, and I dismissed my dream as a just that, a dream.

I had a second dream on Saturday night, in which the young man told me that I should warn my friends so they could say their good-byes.

Again I rang first thing in the morning, and she was fine.

At work on Sunday night, I noticed that this lady was not in a good way. She was not active at all ( and had previously required minimal help with her cares) and was lying in bed, breathing in short shallow, very wet breaths.

I took her hand and looked into her face. At that moment, I knew that the dreams should not have been dismissed. Before I finished my shift at 9pm, I made a last trip into her room. I felt very strongly that this would be the last time that I saw her, even though I have seen many patients bounce back from being unwell. I again took her hand, and told said my goodbyes. I told her that I was very grateful that she was a part of giving me two of the best friends I am ever likely to have, and that she had made a special impact on me.

My friends grandmother passed away at 9.30 that night.

I had another dream that night in which the young man and a young woman approached me holding hands. The young man laughed at me and told me I should have listened when he warned me about the ladies passing.

The young woman told me that I shouldnt listen to him, and that she was grateful for the company that I gave her in the time in the home, and that she was also grateful that I had helped her grandchildren through difficult periods.

She then winked, and said ' your welcome'.

I received the phone call to say that she had died the next day, and while going through some old photos with my friends, I discovered a photo of the young couple in my dream... happy and holding hands.

wow that is cool

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