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...

i miss this and am bringing it back

I absolutely love this thread. Keep 'em coming.

Specializes in too many to remember.
We had a resident that was ill and she told the nurse that she would die on July 4th, this has been a few years back, well July 4th came and they got her up for Breakfast then lunch and then finally at supper time she slumped over in her chair and when they checked sure enough she was dead. Freaky!

I had a lady in the NH tell all the staff when she was lucid that she would die on Christmas day. I was a BRAND NEW LPN and worked night shift and sure enough, on 1200 rounds, just after midnight Christmas day, she expired.

I used to work at a NH where this ornery old guy used to get in his wheelchair and tool down the hall and open the exit door at the end of hall 2. After his passing, the alarm to that door would often go off for no reason, and we knew it was Fred doing it. We just said, "Fred's checking the door!"

I also took care of a lady that had a massive stroke and her family was keeping a bedside vigil. Her breathing changed and just as she passed, two geese flew by her window. I took it as God and her spirit were now flying off together to heaven.

The most touching story I have is of my grandma-in-law when she was near death. We went and saw her one Saturday, and my husband and his cousin couldn't bear to see MawMaw this way. I sat with her and through tears told her that we would be okay here on Earth, that it was okay to go to Heaven and not hurt anymore, to go be with Pops (her husband). My husband and I both knew this would be the last time we would see her. Sunday morning we got the call that she had died. We know she died at peace. Upon talking to my mother in law, she let me know of a dream she had that night. Pops was sitting at her bedside holding her hand. Not a word was spoken. MawMaw was ready to go.

And what always gets me is when I get email and when there is a "T" or "t" and it is shown as a Cross, I smile. God is good.

Harleygirl

Specializes in LTC.

I work on a Memory Care Unit in assisted living, and recently we had a transfer a resident into a nursing home. Wednesday night they startted getting calls from his empty apartment. These calls continued through most of Thursday, we were notified that he had died Thursday evening.

Now another aide on the unit was telling me that she kept hearing things out of his empty apartment. Bumps, thumps, dragging noises. I just kind of shrugged her off. Then middle of Saturday night we hear a loud crash, it sounded like someone went down, walker and all. My co-worker and I jolt up from the desk and start checking apartments, nothing is disturbed and all residents are tucked nicely away in their beds. We both poke our heads in the residents old apartment. It was the general area the noise came from. Nothing.

Sunday night I'm sitting at the desk and hear a thump on the wall behind me. The other side of the wall is the resident's old bathroom. Then early Monday morning as we were giving report to dayshift, we hear another crash, same as the previous. The co-worker I was working with was the same one the first time I heard the crash, we both just mumble something about the resident.

I had a shivery incident happen to me the other week... We lost a resident that night (she was on hospice, it was expected) and as I went back down the hall that my office is on, I heard sobbing. I started opening resident doors but could not find the source, everyone was sleeping (it was about 4am). The last door I opened was one in which noone was assigned, and the room was empty. It didn't seem as if the sobbing was coming from in there, but when I opened the door the sobbing sort of hiccupped and stopped. Noone was in the empty room, and I couldn't find out where the sobbing was coming from... it hasn't happened again though. The scariest part is that I mentioned it to a CNA who has been here for years and she said that she had the same thing happen to her twice, both times when we have had a resident die. I guess a spirit hangs around here and mourns when a resident passes away...

This story is hearsay but comes from a very reliable source. Source is a very responsible, smart nursing supervisor who I have never known to lie.

One night she was working ER when paramedics brought in a 30-ish pt. who was coding. This nurse "Mary" and the doctors and other nurses worked on the pt. for 45 mins. before dr. called it. Mary went to get a clean gown and other supplies and went back to the room after about 10 mins. She cleaned him up and was in the room finishing charting the code, etc. when the deceased pt. sat up in bed and shouted "Beware! The gates of hell have opened!" As soon as he said this he fell back on the bed. She went to him to check for a pulse and of course there wasn't one. The whole ER heard this and came running.

This is charted so I really doubt she's lying about this one.

Where was this Catholic hospital where the rose petals appeared? To experience something like that would almost justify changing my career ambitions to work L&D. Who could doubt God or the afterlife after experiencing something like that? For those like myself who want to believe in an afterlife, but just can't quite get over the skeptical hump, somthing like what you describe could be life changing.

Having roses appear from nowhere and smelling roses can be contributed to St. Therese of Lisieux, a Catholic nun from France who died very young. I cannot remember exactly what she is the patron saint of but it involves something along the line of hopeless causes or the sick or dying. Having roses appear or smelling roses is a good sign, although a bit unsettling.

Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.

This thread is awesome.

Specializes in MICU.

So... I work in a MICU, and for a couple of years before I became a nurse there, I worked there as a secretary. Anyway, a couple of years before THAT, there was a nurse who had some depression issues, and had gotten in hot water over something (I think it was a documentation/medication thing, not entirely sure). At any rate, he committed suicide.

So, a couple of years later, we're having a pretty slow weekend night, when I pass by J, RN filing some orders. She says, "You know, the weirdest thing happened tonight."

"Really, here? You lie," I laugh.

"No, really, this book right here?" She points to some paperback sitting on the table she's charting at. "I haven't seen this book in a long time. I had lent it out, but I figured I'd never see it again."

"Oh, why?" I'm only half-paying attention.

"Well, I lent it to R about a week before he killed himself. And it just showed back up here, tonight, on my table, when I came back from lunch."

Then I paid attention! Now, it was possible R had lent to another nurse (before he killed himself) who found it to return to J... but noone who worked that night claimed to have brought it in, and it appeared @ like 2am.

Very weird.

Peace,

S

Specializes in Neuro, Acute, Geriatrics, Rehab, Oncology.

OMG..I am all prickley here and only on the 2nd page! i have a few stories to share. My first one was when i lived in a remote tiny town in MT and I was working on the reservation and part of my pay was free rent in apts next to the nursing home. I kept seeing big muddy boots next to the door of my apt, that werent really there and heard clanging and occasionally screams and an infant from upstairs. there was only an elderly woman above me. it turns out that the "apartments" was a hospital that had been shut down Years earlier in the late 50s for doing illegal, sometimes close to term abortions.The apt I was in was part of the former maintenece area hence the boots and aboveme, the former OR and Pt rooms.

Specializes in Neuro, Acute, Geriatrics, Rehab, Oncology.

This is a more personal note. After be bought our first home,I had my newborn son in a cradle at the foot of the bed for convenience. My (now ex)husband shook me awake one night and told me the following: he had gotton up to use the bathroom and was just settling back into bed when he saw a woman in a filmy white dress float into the room and gaze down at our son. My baby whimpered and she set the cradle rocking.My husband said she then looked directly at him and then exited through the outside wall of the house!! that scred me to no end!!!! I put the cradle right up along my side of the bed from then on!!

Specializes in CCU,SICU,CVICU,Burn Unit.

This is not really a ghost story, but it made me wonder. I was working at a small hospital in an intensive care unit around 1991. My life was a roller coaster. I was divorced with 2 girls and doing the LPN-RN track. I spent all my time in prayer. On this day I was taking care of this elderly lady, diagnosed with encephalapathy. She was very out of it. She would yell for the boys underwear out of her window, go get the dog out of the flowers, and help me. On this day I was standing at the side of her bed to start her bath when she looked at me in the eye and calmly said " you will achieve every thing you want in life and all your prayers will come true." then she started to yell about the boys underwear and thrash. I was shocked since this was the first time I had seen this lady,and the nurse in the room with me never heard her speak except to yell.

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