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...

[gymrat33, LPN]

I was at a LTC facility for 10 years and we sure did see a lot. The linen closets would open and close by themselves. Dirty and wet linen would be thrown out of the rooms into the hall when no staff were in there to do it. Pts. were total care and couldn't get out of bed. Trash would be thrown out too. Our ghosts like to keep our place clean.

There was a married couple at the end of the hall and the man had died. He bled out in the hallway in his chair. In the evenings when we would take care of his wife he would be in the room, you could never see him but you could feel him. He would tap you on the shoulder or pat your back ~ like saying thanks for taking care of my wife. He would pull the blankets up if you didn't get it up far enough. We would see him crossing the hallway. He would be dressed up like he was going to church and he would walk across the hall like he was on a mission. Never hurt or freaked anyone out. You always felt at peace when he was there like he was meant to be there. when his wife died, we never saw him again.

I have a friendly ghost in my house. Not sure of gender. If I make a typo on the computer, it corrects it most of the time. It will also pick up little objects that I may have dropped. It is very cool.

[RNNPICU, BSN, RN]

I actually have two quick stories,,,

One was - we had a pt who had been on our floor for about a year - she was a 9 year old with end-stage AIDS and we finally were able to discharge her home. While she was in this room - the lights were never on, the curtain was never open. It was always very dismal. I was wokring that night and with another nurse we emptied out the remaing things the family left behind. After the room was empty I walked into the room the lights blinked on and off, the TV turned on by itself. I was really freaked out and felt and uneasy feeling when I entered the room - I refused to go back in the room for the rest of the shift. There were no storms or anything that could have explained the tv or the lights.

Second story - one of our end stage AIDS patients had died on the floor. He was ten and always a fighter. A many months later I was opening up the patient closet in the room and one of his patient labels was stuck to the back of the closet. Interestingly enough a patient who was in that room was also dying and talked about seeing the same objects that the patient had seen

[rds007]

These are so creepy, but I can't stop reading this thread! Keep 'em coming!

[abiding]

The nurses on my floor who have been there a few years say that just before a patient dies (sometimes, but not in every case) a little girl is seen walking down the hall -- same little girl every time. She never changes or gets older with the years. She just looks like she's there visiting somebody. So, maybe these nurses are seeing an angel. Or . . . maybe they're all hallucinating. I suspect it's a common occurrence with the overworked, underpaid and sometimes unappreciated. We just might be going around the bend.

[carachel2]

I will never forget one patient I had. At the time, I worked full time in cardiac rehab and then worked an occasional shift in the CCU. In cardiac rehab, I had a new patient with really bad disease,etc. and he was VERY mean and crabby. Usually I can break through these though old guys and find some common ground once they start feeling better with the rehab, but this one held firm.

One Saturday he was brought into the CCU in advanced CHF. He made himself a DNR. All that afternoon he kept screaming "HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME...DON'T let THEM take me ! Don't let them take me" and he would point to the floor and under the bed.

((((((((((((((shudder)))))))))))))). He died later that night after I went home. The nurse said it was not a peaceful death.

[goober4699]

I just got through all 59 pages and I am spooked!!!

I have a couple stories of my own but just hang on a few....

[gymrat33, LPN]

I just started a new job in a LTC and It's the old Carmelite home in St. Charles ( in case anyone is familiar w/ the area). Anyway it has 4 floors and I always work on the top floor. You have to take your laundry down to the basement. It is well lit but deserted. Lots of doors, empty rooms, and stairwells. You never know what might be around the next doorway. It is very spooky. A portion of the basement is the medicare section with the social hall and PT and beauty shop so we call that the ground floor because you can't have people living in the basement ( it's all in the wording). When you come up the hall from the laundry, you can see your reflection in the beauty shop windows...I'm just waiting to see "something or someone" behind me in that reflection.

[gymrat33, LPN]

I have been reading these stories for a while now and it's in the middle of the day and everything is quiet ( even my children ) and all of a sudden I keep hearing things behind me, drawers opening, closets...now my kids are playing quietly downstairs so I know it's not them. How freaky. I also keep seeing things out of the corner of my eye. I'm sitting right by the back door and I swear I keep seeing something in the garage. Weird!!! I need to sign off for awhile. Keep them coming. I love these stories. I have never cried so much reading in my life. Everyone have a wonderful day!!!

[Jupiter Crash]

I do not have a nursing ghost story, but I do have a story. I was sitting home alone reading an interesting book and suddenly I glanced up and I saw a figure of a woman. The figure did not have any distinct features but I could tell it was a woman. I was so scared that I flipped out of the chair and banged my head on the wall. Now I am NOT a person that scares easily, nor do I ( or should I say that I didn't) believe in ghost. :sofahider I now often hide behind the couch when ever I began to get an uneasy feeling ( which is often )

[ONSnrs]

No personal ghost stories as of yet, but intrigued and hypnotized by all of these scaaary tales.

[flashpoint]

When I was a CNA, I worked night shift in a nursing home after I graduated from high school. The nursing home had been built about five years previously and their first resident was a lady named Leatha. Leatha was very independent and needed very little care...she was mostly there for meals and meds...everything else, she did on her own. We had a doctor's order not to go into her room at night to check on her. One morning she didn't come to breakfast. She had died sometime during the night. The next resident in that room often talked of the lady in the blue plaid outfit who came into her room and sat in her chair in the middle of the night. Leatha wore a blue plaid outfit to church every Sunday. Once the new resident asked the lady who she was...she said the lady told her she was a friend who wanted to watch over her and make sure she slept peacefully. The morning that the new resident died, a CNA found her dead when she went into her room to answer her call light...her call light was in her chair and the resident was in bed about 5 feet away...there is no way she could have reached the call light from her bed.

[sanctuary, BSN, MSN, RN]

Had a patient who had a long, difficult death from CA of the everything. Moaned, whimpered, uncomfortable no matter how much morphine we gave her. As the greenest member of the nursing team, I was assigned to spend as much time with her as possible, as we knew she was dying, and felt that she shouldn't be alone. She stopped whimpering suddenly, looked toward the bottom of the bed, lifted both arms up, smiled, sat halfway up, said "Mother" and collapsed back dead. I had glanced in the direction that she was looking when she smiled, and did not see anything, so this is a second party ghost story.