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...

One more for you, i can't remember if I said this before. My mom was a nurse, so maybe that will make it fit, at this time however she was only helping the neighbor with her adult faster care home. That is what got her interested in nursing. Well our home had a dog that would walk through walls. It would walk through the house and out through where the stove was, which used to be a door to the garage. My dad didn't beleive my mom when she told him of this, but one night he was actually home when it happened. I don't remember it at all, but i heard the stories growing up.We lived there untill I was about ten. There was supposed to be a man in the basement that would walk up stairs and wiggle the doorknob but he couldn't get out. It was speculated that the dog guarded the door. Also his picture was supposed to be in the attic and he was trying to get upstairs to his picture. They said i think that he commited suicide in the basement. I have more scary stories but not sure how many I will tell, or how real they were. I know one thing, actively looking for spirits is a dangerous thing, you never know what you may bring back with you. Have fun at work people.

My stories arent as fun as the rest of yours HeHe... But.. In my facility (I worked in group homes) One of the houses Must have spirits or something floating around. I was at the table charting, and the caregive I worked with went to the back to check on one of the kids. This is a child that can hardly move at all. She asks me if I was back there and removed the blanket. I said no. She told me that she had coverd the child with a blanket up to her chin area. When she went back, the blanket was neatly folded underneath the child. Neither of us had went back there, and we were the only 2 people working that night!!

Hi all! I posted a ghost story here last week that happened to me a few months back. It was about a lady that said a little girl was in her room and she had trouble getting her to sleep--patting her bed, saying the little girl finally calmed down and was now asleep in bed with her. Well, the next morning, the man accross the hall died. (Mr. W). Anyway, this morning we sent Mr. W's old roomate to the hopital because he went into severe CHF and was in resp. distress. I was telling the on-coming nurse about it. She said "I knew something would happen to him because last week he told me that "those children that were in his room the night Mr. W was dying, were back again.":uhoh21: Now mind you, I did not know anything about his room-mate seeing children in the room the night his Mr. W was dying and I never told that nurse about the lady accross the hall seeing the little girl that night either. That nurse only works weekends and floats all over. She has heard the stories of the children, but had not heard my story. I got goose bumps! Not sure what will happen with that patient we sent to the hospital today. I will keep you posted!

This isn't a Ghost Story, but it is work related, and of a Paranormal Nature.

Last night on the Graveyard Shift we were having a difficult time with an verbally aggressive Pt. who was threatening violence.

In the old days he'd have been put into full bed restraints, and seclusion, without questions.

But the trend now is to deal with situations in a more constrained manner. So if they are just stalking, and verbally threatening you sit on your hands, and try to wait out the situation. While offering therapeutic solutions to calm the Patient down. Like the 2 IM's we had given him 15 mins earlier.

At the peak of the tension I had this kind of: ( DeJa-"Something" ), thing happen. Where I knew I had experienced this whole thing before. I remembered having a vision or a dream about this whole scenario of events occurring, but I had this ( whatever you call it "vision" ) a couple of months ago.

I was sitting out on the ward last night when this Pt. was ranting and raving about the Anti-Christ and I said to myself..."I know I've seen this all before.".

But as I tried to recall how this situation actually turned out, I couldn't remember how it turned out. But I had a very bad feeling about the situation. In the "Vision" I just remained seated as all hell, broke loose on the ward, and people were getting hurt. ( Not my fault! Sometimes things just go haywire fast, and those people closest to the ignition point are first to be injured. ).

I knew I had to do something quick to alter the impending future. I had to change events to forestall the doom. So instead of waiting for the patient to attack someone, I got up and walked down the hall a ways towards the violent Pt.. Making sure he saw my looming 6 ft 8 in 400 (+ lbs ) hulking figure in the center of the hallway. With all my shorter statured coworkers nearby, I looked enormous to this short wirey Pt..

He looked at me with broad white glaring suspicious eyes, and questioned what I was doing? All I said was "I'm just standing here, observing the situation.".

He rationalized that now, was not the time to attack. Slowly he turned and went down the ward the opposite direction to calm down. A process that took him a good 50 mins. to conclude.

The last thing you need at the end of a shift is to have your adrenaline boosted, just before you want to go home and go to sleep. Needless to say I slept like crap, today!

I got up and walked down the hall a ways towards the violent Pt.. Making sure he saw my looming 6 ft 8 in 400 (+ lbs ) hulking figure in the center of the hallway. He looked at me with broad white glaring suspicious eyes, and questioned what I was doing? All I said was "I'm just standing here, observing the situation.".

He rationalized that now, was not the time to attack.

I would have rationalized the same thing...........:lol2:

Yep, my guy is a big guy too. Sometimes all it takes is him to stand up to get order restored in the house, or a yell. I have another one, work related. I work in three group homes. At one of them which was a newly built home when we got it, we could hear footsteps go through the house when noone was there when in the basement. You could also hear doors open and shut. One time I went up to check and there was a dog walking on the deck, but the deck was built on after about five or six years, so that doesn't account for all the noises. Staff on third shift are supposed to sleep down stairs, but everyone refuses (yea, we can sleep for part of third).The house was named after a wife of a higher up in the agency that had passed way. I just ignore it now and figure if someone is there they will come down stairs and talk to me if they want.

I had a weird experience at work one night several years ago. I was working the graveyard shift on the children/adolescent unit at the psychiatric facility where I still work.

We had one teenage female Pt. that was quite prone to violence, and if at all possible we wanted her to sleep through the night as she was also prone to making up lies about staff abusing her.

I was working the unit with a female coworker "Trudy Hardluck" who was busy in the nurse's station. I was out on the unit sitting facing south down a long corridor. The teenage girl's room was near the south end of the corridor. Her door was open while she slept. After about half way through the night I heard this weird noise coming from the south end of the corridor. I looked up, wondering where this noise was coming from and what was making it. It sounded like ( Whoompf, whoompf, whoompf ).

Just then one of 2 helium filled birthday balloons she had in her room, came out of her room. I guess you could chalk this up to some form of a gentle breeze if you're a skeptic. But I didn't feel any wind current.

The ceilings in the girl's room and in the corridor are about 2 ft higher than the top of the door jam. So the balloon had to lower itself down to get under the door jam to get out into the corridor. The ceiling had suspended ceiling tiles with metal ribs that held the tiles in place. The metal ribs ran down the length of the corridor. The balloon lowered itself under the door jam, and back up to the ceiling. It then traveled about 2/3 rds of the way across the corridor, and then proceeded to make it's way down to the end of the corridor at ceiling hieght. When it got to the end of the corridor, the balloon sank to the floor.

Now the only thing I could figure out that would cause the balloon to sink would be barometric changes.

I retrieved the balloon, and thrustfully threw the balloon back into the girl's room, where it again floated to the ceiling. I had no sooner sat down in my chair when I again heard "whoompf, whoompf, whoompf ", and looking up I saw the balloon again lower itself under the door jam, raise back up to the ceiling. It then traveled about 2/3 rds of the way across the corridor, and then proceeded to make it's way down to the end of the corridor at ceiling hieght. When it got to the end of the corridor, the balloon sank to the floor. That was the 2nd time it had followed the same path.

I called the LPN out of the nurses' station and told her to watch this. Again I threw the balloon into the girl's room. Walked to my chair and sat down. Sure enough the balloon came out and traveled the same path, and getting to the end of the hallway lowered itself to the floor.

I retrieved the balloon, and threw it in the Pt's room again.

We watched it a total of 5 times, and even the Nurse came to watch and be mystified by the balloon's action.

By this time I was growing tired of fetching the balloon and putting it in the girl's room. So the last time I wedged the balloon behind her door so it couldn't get loose, and come out again.

In retrospect I shouldn't have messed with the Balloon to see what it would've done after it had lowered itself to the floor.

..................................

My brother had a similar expereince with one of those mylar helium balloons, like the girl had in her room.

My brother had one of these balloons, and it would follow him and his wife where ever they went in the house. If they went up stairs it went too. If they came down stairs, it followed them down stairs. No matter what room the went to, sure enough the balloon would follow them. Eventually they became annoyed with the balloon following them around the house, so they popped the balloon and threw it away.

Now if it wasn't the barometric pressure, or some kind of static charge, or some type of faint wind current that caused these 2 balloons to behave this way, then I guess it must have been some type of paranormal event going on.

Wouldn't you say?

Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.

Last night I could've sworn I heard my name being called but there was no other nurses around. It sounded like the voice of a co-worker but she wasn't on the floor at the time. It happened again a little later, too.

I am so glad people keep coming up with new stories. I love this thread, and I keep remembering some. This one is not about ghosts, however, it is about angels.

When I was in nursing school, I had a friend who had had a brother who died of cancer. at the time (1970's, before the popularity of angels) she was around 13 and he was 19. There was not much talk of angels in general during that time but in his last weeks he kept talking of angels coming in to his room at night. My friend was scared but not her brother. He was very happy to see them. Before he died, he called out to them and was so exited, whats the word, more than exited, it was like in a state of higher plane of existance. His body shone, he looked angelic himself. My friend describes his death as a beautiful experience. His angel came for him (there was one in particular that he described as "his angel") He called out in anticipation. The whole family was in awe, as he was so exited. to go. I still can't think of the word I want, to use, just really beautiful as my friend describes it. They did not see the angel per se, but noted her brother and how different he looked,healthy and strong. Then he died but it affected my friend profoundly, and when she spoke of it, she always cried and it brought tears to all of us also, just the awe and beauty of it all. :saint:

Exalted

Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.

We walked through a cemetery this morning and by a particular grave both of us smelled cigar or pipe smoke in the same spot twice. No one else was there with us and there wasn't any incense of any kind burning.

We have 2 nurses at my facility that are starting to do a research project on the paranormal in nursing... They would love to hear your your stories.....

I worked in a rural hospital several years ago. The top floor had a psychiatric ward on one end. I got called up there for a blood draw on a new patient. Once I was finished, I left the security desk and started back down the hall toward the elevator. This end of the hall only had a few lights on as it was office space. In front of me, this little boy walked across the hall from on office to the other. I froze! Then he walks out and starts down the hall and disappears! I ran back to the security desk and told them what I had saw and that we had a child on the floor. The nurse at the desk laughed (she had been there ever since the hospital opened). According to her, that floor in the early days was a pediatric floor and the story goes this little boy was brought in without family and died there. The nurses just figured they were the closest thing to family he had, so he stayed!

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