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...

[ehollif]

I work night shift on a m/s unit. Every night around 2am or so the call bell in rm 66 goes off even if there isnt anyone in that room. One night we went in and the air had been turned all the way down so it was frigid inside and all the lights had been turned on even though no one had been in the room all day. We've had several patients die in this room in the past year. Apparently one of them has decided to hang around a bit longer.

[StatBlues]

Thanks for sharing your stories.

I wonder why the other side, does not help these people cross over?

why stay around here........?

Makes me sad.

[NitesinBoston]

I was caring for a cancer patient, who was dying. I had just been in the room with him and went to the nurses station. Out of the blue, his daughter called. I had never spoken with her or even knew she was involved with this patient. (he had spent much of his adult years in jail). She said she just woke up and heard her father talking to her and wanted to know if he was all right. I walked back into his room and he had just passed away. I wasn't out of that room for a minute when she had called.

[Nurse2BStacey]

I am not a nurse yet but have my own strange hospital experience. 10 months after I was married, my Father-In-Law passed away suddenly. He was in a coma for 24 hrs after being admitted to ICU before he passed. During a private visit with him, I begged him not to leave us because he had one more grandchild to meet. (I was not even pregnant at the time). A year later I delivered my son. I was in my hospital room with my son sleeping peacefully in bed with me (just enjoying being a new mom). I was dosing in and out, when I got the feeling someone was in the room with us. I looked over at the bedside chair and there sat my FIL smiling at us. He did not speak or move, just smiled. I looked down at my son and when I looked back up, FIL was gone. I honestly beieve that was his way of letting me know that he did in fact meet his youngest grandchild and approved.

[chuck1234]

Hey!

It is in the middle of the night in New York City...

It is so spooky to talk about this...very uncomfortable to think about it at this time...but I have experienced that when there is another invisible entity around you besides your patient...you cannot see it...but I could feel it.

There is another one...my friend was a LPN, and she used to work in the nursing home in New York...I remember she had a few dying patients under her care...sometimes, when she see patients are "having a difficulty to die!" All she had to say is "you have been suffering so much, and I hope God is going to be with you soon!"

Believe me, her patients will die very very quickly...

[proudLPN83]

sissylyn said:

this dosen't really qualify as a creepy ghost story...but more of an after death connection...you decide...its one of things that got me going to get into school...just got my lpn...one more year and I'll have my RN

I was a CNA for 8 years. my first job, actually the place that I got my training as a CNA through was a LTC...they had a ward called scu...special care unit...it was a psycheward.

it was the scene of the most endearing and rewarding years. I worked with pt with schizophrenia, ocd, huntington's chorea, and all types of mental and behavior disorders....I never had any problems...I took the time to get into their world and find out how to communicate with them.

we had one pt in particular that was brutal! he had lung cancer that had metastized to his brain. he was onry! we had to take his cowboy boots away from him because he would put them on , holler he was going to kick everyones @##!...and he would try. he also had a colostomy that he was fond of ripping off and throwing at the wall if you pushed him to hard or if he was just in a mood. this poor guy always looked awful, because and I don't blame them, dayshift was too affraid to shave, bath, or do too much with him. it took me several months, but he did let me in...he talked kindof like a robot...when he did talk..with me he acutally said "ma'am" and so on. anyway he would let me shave and clean him up either during my pm or night shift...we would talk about fishin and ridin horses and all kinds of things...the first time he threw his colostomy at the wall and told me to @##@! off ma'am, I got him out of bed and made him clean up the mess...he actuall smiled when he got back in bed and said to me "boy, you don't take my ##$! ma'am, I like that about you...my mama never took it either!" he would onlly eat for me in the night, and it wasn't much...I could tell his end was near...he did manage to dump a chocolate milk shake over my head at one time...I don't know how to explain it, but I think he was more therapy for me than I for him....I know, a crazy for a crazy...I was the joke of the staff..but I didn't care...anyway he passed away on a Friday...I had the weekend off and I had a feeling he wouldn't be there Monday...but that Friday night, before I knew he had passed I had the most wonderful visit from him...my dream was this

I found myself in a cafeteria....could not figure out why I was there, I was looking through the crowd and the people and just couldn't figure it out..suddenly I see "him, my pt" waving me over...I walked over and he looked fabulous...all duded up from head to toe, including his favorite cowboy boots...he had three trays of food in front of him...all his favorites...he grinned ear to ear and looked as I imagine he did before he was riddled with disease.....he grinned up at me and said "howdy ma'am...I just had to let you know I am okay.....after all these years I am okay...you were my friend and I will never forget if you won't" and he winked and went back to eating....I woke up and was smiling and crying at the same time....it was especially great to see him in clothes, he had to wear these one piece jumpsuits because he had a habbit at one time of getting naked and wondering around..

I think of him often and feel that this is probably the most important type of job we as nurses will do....just to be there for somone who has no one, and take the time to find a way to communicate...

thanks for your time...tammy, lpm

OMG this story brought tears to my eyes...this kind of bond is why I went into nursing. thank you for sharing!

[dardeedee]

I have a few stories to tell. The most recent one that sticks out in my mind isn't really a ghost story, but I'll tell it anyway. Right before Thanksgiving about 2 in the morning I had a patient I thought was nearing the end. I work in an Oncology unit at a medium sized hospital. Her family had gone home for the night and left us phone numbers to call in case anything happened. They were all exhausted, some weren't here yet, some were staying over at her house. I thought she was unresponsive, as she hadn't been awake all evening. At about 4 in the morning she sat up in bed, fully awake and told me to call her kids. I did and they came in right away. After they all got there, she told us that two guys in blue suits had been standing at her bedside earlier. They asked her to go with them and she told them she wasn't ready, so they left. I didn't realize there was a choice. She went to hospice on Thanksgiving Day, checked herself the first of the year and is in assisted living right now. She is doing quite well for someone who wasn't supossed to make it. Now we tease each other about the guys in the blue suits when someone is dying. By the way she was on no pain meds and there were no men working that night.....

[StatBlues]

Thank you for sharing your stories.

I tolded a love one they did not have to fight anymore. It was ok to let go.....

I left the room for a little while. And, she had passed.

Sometimes they just need to know it is ok.........to quit fighting with the pain.

[Gramps]

Another nurse and I cared for a dying patient on the night shift. Throughout the night the person had periods of confusion, some related to the large amounts of medications we were giving for comfort. Around 6am the patient was very lucid and was able to name several members of her family who were in the room with her and who had already died. She was telling them she was going to join them soon and to wait for her. She died before we left at 7:30

Gramps

[StatBlues]

last night my mom was caring for an elderly man. he said he could see angels, and told my mom he could see her black dog sitting beside her. he did not know that we had a very cherished black dog (half black lab, half irish setter) that was with us for fifteen years, from the time i was in kindergarten until i was a sophmore in college.

that was a special share.

did he say anything else?

[Ayrman]

When I'm not zonked after a night shift I'll have to pass along a true story from Gettysburg, PA with a medical bent. That town is truly haunted, and has more than it's share of medical apparitions. I can promise you a hair-raising story. Alas, I am not long for the wakeful world as I go back again tonight.

Ayrman

[tvccrn, ASN, RN]

Just so long as you promise to come back. I love this thread and can't wait until there are more stories on here.

:monkeydance:

tvccrn