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...

[NotNurse]

I'm not in the nursing field and a retiree.  But I have read with great interests all the stories told in this forum and was anticipating for more.

I just watch the 2019 movie 'Doctor Sleep' by Stephen King and there was a hospice scene that reminds me of some of the stories told here where a cat would go to residents that are about to pass and where one even said he saw his death love ones just before he past.

Thanks to those who had contributed and those that had kept this forum alive.  Really looking forward for more stories.

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

On 1/24/2022 at 7:55 PM, NotNurse said:

I'm not in the nursing field and a retiree.  But I have read with great interests all the stories told in this forum and was anticipating for more.

I just watch the 2019 movie 'Doctor Sleep' by Stephen King and there was a hospice scene that reminds me of some of the stories told here where a cat would go to residents that are about to pass and where one even said he saw his death love ones just before he past.

Thanks to those who had contributed and those that had kept this forum alive.  Really looking forward for more stories.

If you think the movie was good read the book. Read The Shining first as Dr. Sleep is a sequel!

 

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

Since childhood I have had many experiences that have led me to believe I am sensitive to certain energies. I have encountered things that can be called ghosts in the home I grew up in which was built by prison inmates and whose owner was later murdered in the house. He was a benevolent spirit who often intervened when my abuser became particularly cruel. My first "Job" in healthcare was as a Candy Striper (Anyone remember those) in a Catholic hospital that was originally a tuberculosis sanitarium. I have felt and seen things that cannot be explained by coincidence or science. I mostly don't tell these stories because people write me off as a nutjob.

A few years ago I attended a nursing conference in Phoenix AZ. I stayed in the oldest continually operating hotel in the city. The lobby actually looked like something out of American Horror Story: Hotel. I inquired of the desk clerk if the hotel was haunted and he invited me to a moonlight Edgar Allen Poe reading on the roof which would be followed by a seance. I eagerly said I would attend. It seems that a guest had committed suicide by jumping from the penthouse roof and there were rumors that the bodies of two children who went missing in the 20's were later found in the basement. The clerk told me that sometimes at night guests would report children's voices and the pitter patter of little feet in the hallways. 

So after the seance that night when I had retired to bed I heard what I thought sounded like children's voices in the hallway. I had seen no families with children in the hotel and initially thought it was someone's television. Finally unable to sleep I opened my door and softly said "Can you guys knock it off, I need to rest for a conference tomorrow. I'll be happy to entertain you tomorrow night!" I went back to bed and did not hear a peep for the rest of the night. I might add that I don't drink or do drugs.

Hppy

 

[londonflo]

I am an avid reader of Ghost Stories. At least 2 centuries ago, ghost stories were a tradition to be told on Christmas Eve Night. In the last century Charles Dickens wrote his story of Scrooge that has kept this tradition alive. I live in the US but subscribe to Britbox streaming and this year Britbox had the best Ghost Story that was shown on Christmas evening. "Mezzotint"  My husband and I really enjoyed it!

[Dani_Mila, BSN, RN]

My first nursing ghost story. I worked nightshift at a SNF/rehab facility and I was told by the nurses that I would see some patients that appears out of the ordinary and not to be surprised. At 1AM, the hallway was empty, lights were dimmed. My preceptor and I were getting a pain medication for one patient at her med cart. I was talking to her and I looked down in the empty hallway, I saw a young black woman with a pink blanket over her, she was wearing shorts and socks. The face was visible but she was so far away I could not see it clearly. She ran so fast in one of the patients room, I thought it was a CNA slacking off. I asked my preceptor if she saw the young woman passed by. She said no. So I tried to investigate. I went to the rooms that I had thought she went to and found them to be empty. I went to another room and a female patient was watching TV. I had asked her if she had walked outside the hallway. She told me "Honey, I can barely walk. I broke my hip". I was like ?. Other rooms were empty. I could swore I had seen a young woman darting across the hallway. It was the only thing I spoke about that night. Then, my coworkers told me that seeing things especially at night was normal since they said that many patients had died there. The next day, I had found out that a young black woman did die on that floor due to complication and the room she went to was the room she died at. I was super freaked out!

[donnydilaudid]

I worked in a sleepy little SNF for a few years and started out on the night shift.  I had a resident on hospice, end stage CHF and CKD, who was confused.  He'd call the nurses station instead of calling his wife by accident.  I'd tell him, "Mr. XYZ, you've reached the nurses station, this is DonnyDilaudid, your nurse.  I'll come in and call your wife for you."  It would happen like clockwork nearly every night around midnight for a few weeks.  He deteriorated, as expected, and eventually, he died.  For three nights after he died, the phone in his room would ring in to the station around midnight - nobody on the other end.  On the third night, my third of three in a row, when the phone rang into the station from his room, I said, "Mr. XYZ, this is DonnyDilaudid.  I'll come let you out."  Went into the room, opened the window for a few seconds and shut it again.  No more phone calls from an empty room after that!  The aides and I were spooked!

[SmilingBluEyes]

Not super scary but the other night in my clinic, the automatic (locked) door kept opening and shutting at the end of my shift. No one was there each time. I finally said "JUST STOP IT ALREADY I KNOW YOU ARE THERE" and it stopped.

hmmmm.

[2Shyshy]

Hi, I LOVE THESE!! I am an RN with my own hospital ghost stories!! I’ll include mine below! I’m writing a book of Nurses ghost stories! Send me your story! Please make sure it reads well and has good punctuation! 

[email protected]

I was working graveyard shift at a small hospital. I had several experiences over the few months I worked there. I had seen a male patient in a gown walk across an empty room (glass room fronts) one night when we had a really low census. We also had a prison wing that I heard whistling coming out of when it was closed with no patients or workers inside. When I first started, I kept seeing someone in my peripheral view, standing in the doorway of a room that a patient had passed away in, just days before I started. I also had my stories featured on season 1 of haunted hospitals! ???

[barcode120x, RN, NP]

2 small stories, no crazy ghost events, just weirdness:

Worked at a 100+ year old hospital. Worked night shift as a lift tech and had a couple "weird" experience, but the one that creeps me out is this. My buddy and I were doing our nightly rounds. We walk to the end of the hallway, quite far from any patient room or staff but it has a bathroom. Needed to take a #1 so my buddy hung outside while I went inside and did my business. Nothing out the of ordinary happened during my business. Headed out the door, that thoroughly closed. My buddy and I round the corner and after no more than 5 steps we hear the door open and close. We both stopped, looked at each other and thought it was weird because for one, not many people use this restroom late at night and two, there was no one near use nor did we hear anyone else walking around. We turned around and went to check just out of curiosity. Went in the bathroom, nothing there, no sounds, nothing out the ordinary. Just creepy. But for sure, clear as day we heard the door open and close after I left when it had closed.

Another night when I was floated to another nursing unit, we were all chatting about ghost stories about the hospital. Later that night, myself and our unit secretary were just chatting in the nursing station when our touch screen monitor that has the 24/7 EKG goes bonkers. It starts beeping crazily. So on that monitor, we have a mouse attached but it is also touch screen. Whether you use the mouse or the touchscreen, you will see the mouse cursor move along your movement. When this event happened, that mouse cursor was going all over the place clicking icons. The mouse was right in front of my friend and she was not even close to touching it. Funny enough, earlier in that night when we were all talking about ghost stories, some were saying that there was a little girl people have seen on the unit both at night and during the day who is known to mess around with things. Maybe this was her. The event last about 30 seconds, nothing else occurred the rest of the night.

[Mscoolmug]

RNPolly said:

Going back to the topic of a dying person choosing the time of his/her death or "holding on" for a certain time or event to pass or occur before passing, I'm convinced that this is possible.

My family held a 4-day vigil at his hospital bedside before my dad's death four years ago. My sister had promised him that she wouldn't leave him, and she didn't, even sleeping on the chair in his room (I preferred the bench in the waiting area). Thursday was a busy day of non-stop visitors, relatives, friends, who were aware they were saying good-bye. My dad was never conscious the entire hospitalization, and I'm sure he hated the attention, but I know that it was important support for my mom, who was still living in denial. Friday was quiet; just my mom, sister, and myself. No apparent change in my dad's condition; nothing to indicate imminent death, so my sister and I wandered down to the hospital cafeteria to grab a tray to bring back to the room, leaving my mom at the bedside briefly. Wouldn't you know that's when my dad chose to pass, alone in the room with my mom (which freaked her out, of course). I'm convinced he wanted privacy, to be as alone as possible, with just my mom there and not my sister and me present.

I know this is 500 years later, but I just stumbled onto this thread LOL Anyway, my mom had a hemorrhagic stroke at home. My husband found her and called 911. She was not conscious during her stay either. We tried some interventions, but with the seizures and uncontrolled bleeding, there was little hope. We made her a DNR and she moved to hospice where she was gone in less than 24 hours. She moved to hospice the day before my sister's birthday.  My sister was heartbroken that she might pass on her birthday. She is a very emotional person, and she and my mom were very close. My sister, brother, husband and I decided to all spend the night on the pull outs in the room. About 11pm on May 24, we had all started to doze off. Then we heard scratching on the walls, which woke everyone up immediately. The scratching went from one wall to another wall, and after a few minutes stopped. We all laid back down, but then the same thing started up again about 1130pm. This time banging from wall to wall. I told everyone it was probably her telling us it was time. We all got up and gathered around. My sister said she needed to go to the bathroom. It wasn't 30 secs after my sister left the room, my mom took her last breath. It was 12:02 am on May 25. I truly believe she waited until not only it was not my sister's birthday anymore, but until she left the room because she knows she would have had a difficult time watching her last breath. 

[humglum, BSN, RN]

I'd have to say nurse managers. I've heard they exist, but I very rarely see one.

[Mulan]

CharmCityRN said:

I'd have to say nurse managers. I've heard they exist, but I very rarely see one.

Is that like the help that never shows up?