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...

Nurse Valium said:

My favorite ghostly nursing story was actually experienced by my husband who is also a nurse. He was working at a small private hospital on a med/surg unit in a large metropolitan city. One of their "frequent fliers" was a woman named Louella who always requested the same room at the end of the hall if it were available at the time of her admission. Louella's husband Roy was very loving & doting and they refused assistance with her personal care when she was a patient as Roy did everything for her. The only time Roy left the bedside was to step to the nurse's station for a cup of coffee & inevitably before he returned to her side, Louella would be heard calling "Roy....Roy..."

Eventually Louella died at that hospital in "her" room.

Many months later a salesman is traveling through the state, experiences chest pain & pulls into the hospital. He was treated & placed in the same room that Louella had always requested. Younger, awake, alert, oriented & non-medicated.

My husband said that during the night the patient called the nurses station and asked if someone could "please help that lady so I can get some sleep."

The nurses hadn't heard anything but quickly made rounds to see if someone needed assistance. No one claimed to have called out & no one else heard the disturbance.

Shortly thereafter the patient calls the nurses station again requesting that someone "please make her shut up so I can get some sleep."

Again, made rounds, didn't hear anything, didn't see anyone that needed help.

The next call to the nurses station the patient asked if someone could "please help her find Roy so she will be quiet." My husband said that even then the staff wasn't unusually alarmed & even discussed the possibility that it was coming through the air conditioning vent & was maybe someone on another floor that was calling out.

The NEXT call to the nurses station, the patient says "She says her name is Louella & she needs help finding Roy." Everyone at this point is quite freaked out having known Louella & the history. Hubby says that a seasoned nurse walked into the room in question, opened the window (the inch that they will) and said very loudly "Get out Louella! You have to leave now."

My husband worked at that facility for another year & they never heard another peep from Louella.

That was a good one, I worked in a hospital where it was part of a post code to open the window a crack. As a new manager I had never heard of it but there was no changing it!

StatBlues said:
I should have been more clear.

I meant to bless the room and ask God to send someone to take these souls over to the other side.

Wont hurt.............ya know.

O ok sorry I misunderestood. I was thinking the thought was "this is evil" not "O these poor souls" or something like that.

Specializes in Case Management.

Sorry, I just don't want to let this thread die, pardon the pun.

When my grandma was diagnosed in the early 80's with leukemia, she was treated at one of the best and largest teaching hospitals in the city. She received the latest treatment, but back then, cancer treatment was not as advanced as it is now. She fought the good fight, and when it was her time she was resigned that she had lived a full life and was ready to go.

In the end, she went into multiorgan failure, and the sight of her all swollen and in a coma was too much for me, I broke down at her bedside and I was inconsolable. A young nurse and mother, I had had my share of treating the dying, but when it is your own family, it is different. My mother and grandmother had an agreement, if there was some way for Grandma to let her know she had passed, she would do so in a way that Mom would recognize. As it turns out, I was alone with her when her heart rate dropped to the 30's, and death was indeed very near, a called out for my Mom who was calling her brother on a phone outside the curtains, As my mother stepped around the curtains, I whispered, she is going. Mom said, Patti, what is that smoke coming out of her head. I thought she was thinking I set Grandmas hair on fire. I did not see the smoke. But my Mom did and swore she was looking at my Grandma's spirit leaving her body. I didn't really believe her, however, when the resident approached my Mom about donating Grandma's body to medical science for teaching, my mom said she would check with my Grandfather who was at home, exhausted from the daily trips to Pittsburgh, he had stayed home this day. When she dialed his number, she only received static, she tried several times, and continued to hear static on the line, and the calls were not able to go through. Knowing Grandma like we did, we were sure that she was making her feelings known. She always used to say, "You know Patti, when I was young, I was a flapper" she was all proud of how she looked. Knowing what those medical students do with the cadavers, I am sure she did not want to have her body treated that way. So anyway, fast forward 5 years or so, My grandfather hit the lottery, for a good amount, it came out to about $30,000 a year, enough to take care of his needs along with his social security, etc. A couple years later, he started losing his ability to care for himself, and Mom made the decision to place him in assisted living. It just so happened that at that very time a new assisted living facility was opening up in the town where Mom lived, and the money he won in the lottery with his social security was just enough to cover his expenses in this new facility. We are pretty sure Grandma played a part in it from up there. I keep hoping Grandma will throw me some numbers some day soon.

Specializes in Labor and Delivery.
gr8rnpjt said:
I keep hoping Grandma will throw me some numbers some day soon.

Maybe she could throw some my way too. :chuckle

When I first started working as an LPN I worked the night shift at a LTC facility. There was a young woman I cared for who was in the end stages of MS. She was basically in a vegetative state. About a week after she passed away I saw her. She was wearing a pink, silk nightgown. Her posture was erect, arms hanging straight at her side. Her hair looked so soft and shiny. Her complexion so clear and glowing. I saw her walk right past me. It was the most wonderful experience...to see her healthy and whole again. It wasn't at all scary, and to this day brings tears to my eyes to think how beautiful and peaceful she looked. I have debated about whether to tell her mother, who occasionally still visits other residents, about what I witnessed. I wouldn't want her to think I was some kind of nut.

Many other strange things would go on at night. Call lights would go off in empty rooms. We would hear doors opening and closing. And one night while sitting in the breakroom, there was a knocking sound on the wall...and on the other side of the wall was an office that was locked!!

Working the night shift definitely made me a believer!!

dawnb70 said:
When I first started working as an LPN I worked the night shift at a LTC facility. There was a young woman I cared for who was in the end stages of MS. She was basically in a vegetative state. About a week after she passed away I saw her. She was wearing a pink, silk nightgown. Her posture was erect, arms hanging straight at her side. Her hair looked so soft and shiny. Her complexion so clear and glowing. I saw her walk right past me. It was the most wonderful experience...to see her healthy and whole again. It wasn't at all scary, and to this day brings tears to my eyes to think how beautiful and peaceful she looked. I have debated about whether to tell her mother, who occasionally still visits other residents, about what I witnessed. I wouldn't want her to think I was some kind of nut.

I think you ought to tell her mother. I had a dream once about a girl who died in a car wreck. In my dream she came back to tell me she was ok, I shouldn't worry about her. I told her mother, and she said that the dream brought a lot of comfort. So she might think you're a nut :lol2: but it could be comforting, too.

I had a resident that choked on a mouth full of food, after 19 or 20 attempts at the heimlich manuever the obstruction was cleared but not before she lost consciousness. After taking several good breaths this fiesty little lady looked over at us and said "I'm back" well I about died myself.

murph said:
That was a good one, I worked in a hospital where it was part of a post code to open the window a crack. As a new manager I had never heard of it but there was no changing it!

My mother had travel to France and visited Lourdes (where the are Virgin Mary sightings). She brought back a rosary for a friend of hers who wanted to give it to her ailing mother-in-law. The friend's mother in law's name was Alice. Not long after my mother gave her friend the rosary, her friend called to tell her the most amazing story.

Alice was very ill and in the hospital. The whole time she was there she was holding her rosary from Lourdes, and one night said to my mother's friend that she saw The Virgin Mary standing in her doorway. My mother's friend didn't see anything. The next day or so, Alice declined and slipped imto a coma. The family was with her one night when they heard a womans voice over the hospital's PA system saying, "Alice. Alice." Later that day Alice died. My mother's friend asked the nurses who had been using the PA system to call Alice. The nurses looked a little freaked out, because they said, they had been investigating it since they had all heard that womans voice. But they said that no one had used the paging system. They had no explaination. Trippy, huh?

At the end of each hall we use a room for linen storage and geri chairs, etc. My first week on the night shift I went to get linens and as I turned to leave I thought I saw a young ladie with shoulder length straight black hair sitting in the geri chair with a blanket on her legs. I stopped and whirled around and nothing was there. My hair stood on end and I got out of there as quick as I could. I never mentioned it because I didn't want anyone to think I was a nut, and I've never heard anyone talk about ghost at the hospital.

I didn't go to the storage room for several days.

melissa

tencat said:
I think you ought to tell her mother. I had a dream once about a girl who died in a car wreck. In my dream she came back to tell me she was ok, I shouldn't worry about her. I told her mother, and she said that the dream brought a lot of comfort. So she might think you're a nut :lol2: but it could be comforting, too.

I would want to comfort someone in any way that I could. I would talk to her, find out about her beliefs. Ask her if she believes John Edward (the guy that talks to dead people), does she believe in psychics, that kind of stuff. Tell her about a story that you read on this web site, in other words assess her.

I believe in all kinds of things in other realms, it is absurd to assume that we know everything. We are limited by our 5 senses, everyone has a 6th sense they just need to develope it. Now you think that I am a nut! I had a fiance die in a helicopter crash 1 month before our wedding. My cousin saw him sitting on her bed one night. I was comforted. Lots of other things happened too but not for this thread. I'd say assess her and if she is open tell her. :p

dawnb70 said:
When I first started working as an LPN I worked the night shift at a LTC facility. There was a young woman I cared for who was in the end stages of MS. She was basically in a vegetative state. About a week after she passed away I saw her. She was wearing a pink, silk nightgown. Her posture was erect, arms hanging straight at her side. Her hair looked so soft and shiny. Her complexion so clear and glowing. I saw her walk right past me. It was the most wonderful experience...to see her healthy and whole again. It wasn't at all scary, and to this day brings tears to my eyes to think how beautiful and peaceful she looked. I have debated about whether to tell her mother, who occasionally still visits other residents, about what I witnessed. I wouldn't want her to think I was some kind of nut.

Many other strange things would go on at night. Call lights would go off in empty rooms. We would hear doors opening and closing. And one night while sitting in the breakroom, there was a knocking sound on the wall...and on the other side of the wall was an office that was locked!!

Working the night shift definitely made me a believer!!

I think I would tell the mother.

Could be she came to you, cause she knew you would tell her. And, would not be scared of her. Some relatives are not able to handle a visit from a loved one, passed.

Let us know if you do.

I have passed on messages, in the past. People were thankful. And, did not think I was a nut.

murph said:
Back in the 70's when paramedics were in their infancy the local Community collage would have ER nurses work with paramedic students on IV's, assessment, reading monitors etc. One night on 3-11 I had a group of paramedics to work with, I put two in ICU, one in CCU, one in Step-down and 2 in the ER. The night was going on just fine except for a code in the ICU. I continuously made rounds and carried a beeper. Around 9PM I was on my way to the ICU and came accross one of my students standing in the hall. I asked her the problem, she said that she could not go back into the ICU (now this was a really bright and talented individual). I asked why, she said that I would think that she was crazy and I did. She said that she could not look at all of the auras leaving the patients. She had seen one earlier and the patient coded and now she saw 3 more. OOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKK I said how about you go over to step down, before she went I asked which beds the three patient's were in. The next morning I was at work in the ER at 7. Just for a chuckle I went up to the ICU. All three patient's that she told me about had died during the night. She was a great paramedic but when she brought patients in I never asked about their aura!!! :p

Makes you wonder why she stayed in this line of work.

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