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...

When I was a student nurse, I had a terminal cancer patient on my ward and had been caring for her for about a week (very sweet lady). I left work that Wednesday, went home, took a shower and went to bed, fell asleep and dreamt that I saw my ca patient. She was dressed in a flowing white night gown (hey this is Jamaica, we dont wear white flowing night gowns...its too hot!) looking so beautiful . She said,'thank you for everything that you did for me, I will never forget you'. I woke up at about 8:30pm, there about, feeling really weird and somewhat... concerned, so, I called the hospital, spoke to the nurse and told her that I was concerned about my patient and just wanted to know how she was doing and the nurse said she died.......less than 20 mins ago. I was totally blown away.

Sandy

Specializes in LTC, Subacute Rehab.
It was the middle of the Month of April 1995. I was working at a LTC facility, and had gone outside to smoke a cigarette with a coworker. Being the middle of April in Oklahoma you tend to see some strange cloud formations. My friend and I saw these clouds that looked like the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and they were headed toward OKCity. We thought nothing about it except it was a very strange cloud formation. The 19th of April (which was about 3-4 days later) we had the bombing of our Federal Building. Coincidence? I don't know. But like my heading says-this is the first time I have ever told anyone except my husband. I don't know if Sharlene told anyone or not. I'm not sure if any one would believe me or not!

Now this one creeped me out. This is the first time I've told this story...

On 10 September 2001, I was walking home from school (8th grade), and I noticed an interesting cirrus cloud formation - I swear it looked just like a huge bald eagle with wings stretched across the sky.

Y'all know what happened the next day.

Specializes in LTC, Subacute Rehab.
this is more of a nurse-ghost story rather than one with patient experiences.

a sanatorium named Fort San was built in 1917 to house people with tuberculosis. one night, a nurse wrapped a bedsheet around her neck and hung herself.

The place was closed down in 1972, and is now a hotspot for school trips and such. Since it was reopened to the public as sort of a museum, there have been stories about "sightings", with a nurse walking the halls of the old sanitorium.

I've included a picture to try and 'up the creep factor' :chuckle

There's a similar story about the old Waverly Hills TB Sanatorium near Louisville, Kentucky.

I work in a ltc facility and we have had numerous reports from pts that they have seen a little boy. This boy comes in their rooms, turns their call lights on and off, throw things on the floor. This facility used to be an orphanage!! Also there are stories of a oldfashioned nurse in the whole white dress and hat, would be seen going down the hall late at night doing her bed check and would go into someones room and stay there for a couple minutes if they were really sick or about to die. Well I guess one aide seen her awhile back and refused to go down that hall for a week, the persons room she went in just came back from the hospital still really sick.:uhoh21:

When I worked in a LTC facility, we had the same reports of little children. Several of the residents would start asking us about who the children were. None of us ever saw any kids, but the residents would swear they were there. Some of them would report that they had kept them up half the night. One woman told us that they were sitting on the bed across the hall looking at her. Sure enough, within a day or two, one of the residents would die. I thought perhaps that it was just something about the facility. I later went to work at an area hospital. One of my patients asked who the children were that were in the hall. There had been no children on the floor that day. That night, the patient died. Now, if anyone asks me who the children are and I can't find any kids around, you can bet that I keep an extra watch on everyone.

When I worked in a LTC facility, we had the same reports of little children. Several of the residents would start asking us about who the children were. None of us ever saw any kids, but the residents would swear they were there. Some of them would report that they had kept them up half the night. One woman told us that they were sitting on the bed across the hall looking at her. Sure enough, within a day or two, one of the residents would die. I thought perhaps that it was just something about the facility. I later went to work at an area hospital. One of my patients asked who the children were that were in the hall. There had been no children on the floor that day. That night, the patient died. Now, if anyone asks me who the children are and I can't find any kids around, you can bet that I keep an extra watch on everyone.

That seems to be a common thread. Our LTC has "children" on the one hall. There has never been children there at least not that lived there. The home was built on farm land that had never been anything else. Although a lot of the residents in the past were moved from the old home that used to be the county "poor house" that was built in 1850. :gandalf:

I work on an oncology unit and we have two specific rooms in which you can feel something lay a hand on your back. Every time I turn to see if someone is behind me and there is either no one or the patients family member is sitting down in the chair across the room. Several of us have heard our names being whispered as we walk down the hallway between these two rooms. And last but not least, we had a young mother die who was in her late thirties and she smelled like flowers, this was her natural scent. When she died the room was cleaned but her scent remained for three days. Several staff members reported feeling very sad, to the point of tears whenever they entered the room over the next few days.

We have residents that do the same thing right now. One specifically will come up and ask me about the children and will ask me where their parents are. Since I've read this thread it kind of freaks me out that maybe she IS seeing children. I just thought it was part of her Alz./dementia. This resident will go on and on about those children for hours and she wants the nurses to help her go find their parents. :uhoh21:

This is something that I witnessed during the time my mother in law was in palliative care. The wall clock worked just fine up until the day my mother in law passed on, Bless her Soul. Very sweet and kind woman.

The clock on her wall stopped at 10:10 that day and exactly at 10:10 pm that night she died. Before she passed she would talk about seeing her mother and others who we knew had passed on.

I find this very interesting and comforting to know that when we pass on to the next stage of our souls journey that we aren't alone.

I had something FREAKY happen to me yesterday! We have one Alzheimer resident who loves to yank hair, I happen to have very long hair and he loves to sneak up on me and yank the dickens outta my ponytail. Well, I was helping him get dressed, both his arms were halfway in the long sleeves of his shirt, both of his hands were still deep in the sleeves and SOMETHING yanked my ponytail! There was noone else within 20 feet of me! This man can't really talk, but right as it happened he started laughing this wild laugh, I can still hear it. He isn't dead or anything, but I know that he couldn't have yanked it... or could he? :chair:

Specializes in PACU, ED.

I am in nursing school but my wife has been a nurse for 27 years and has worked Hospice for 16 years. Experiences she has had have cemented her belief in angels. Many times she has been interviewing a patient who has seen other people in the room with her. She could not see them but the patient could see and hear them. Often they would see and hear children playing. At one hospice house they had a therapy dog who lived in the facility. Shotze would cruise the halls and seek out families in crisis. He tended to spend most of his time at the rooms of people who were about to be discharged celestially.

I experienced a spirit when I worked nights on a drilling rig in Oklahoma. I was a derrick hand and part of my duties were to manage the pit system which controlled the drilling fluid. A particular hammer that I used would move around the pits, always ending up where I needed it to be. Rarely did anyone else wander the pits at that time of night and they knew to leave my tools alone. At times I would get a feeling that I should check out one pump or another. Everytime I did, I would find a leak that was just starting to form. This convinced me that there was a spirit and that it was a derrick hand like myself. I asked my driller if anyone had ever died on the rig and he was adamant that nobody had ever died there. I told him I thought a derrick hand ghost was helping me. He didn't believe me. A week later my driller approached me and demanded to know who had told me about the dead derrick hand. He had asked an older driller who had been with the rig from construction. On the second day, a derrick hand was killed in a terrible accident, crushed on the drilling floor. My driller was freaked out but I was calm since I already knew the ghost was friendly, even helpful to me.

Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.

That's a nice story ashiker. (I'm so glad this didn't scare me! LOL) Care to share with us any specifics of nursing ghost stories from your wife? :)

One home I worked in had a cat. We always knew when someone was going to die because that cat would lay either on the bed or in the doorway. Always wondered if the residents realized this. None did that I know of but would sure make me "nervous" if the cat came near me lol

:eek:

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