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...

Please forgive me that these stories do not take place in a hospital or LTC, i'm still in school BUT they are too good for me not to share.

this one house i lived in when i was in high school was really bizarre :uhoh21: . at first things would just happen to my friends that would visit me. i was a teenager so of course i would have friends spend the night. my best friend Carly was a true skeptic...didn't believe in anything..well one night she stayed at my house and woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. she got up and started walking down the hallway and felt like i was behind her. she said she was even talking to whatever it was behind her because she thought it was me. when she got to the bathroom door she said "hey i'll just be a second". but of course no one responded because i was asleep in my bed. Carly then said she felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck and she said "ang are you there?" because she didn't see anyone in the hallway and right when she said that she heard two feet dig into the carpet as they made a sharp turn and then she heard someone run down the hallway, but of course no one was there. she came back to my room and woke me up and we checked all the bedrooms and my parents and sister were all sound asleep. after that she never came over to my house again...i had to go to her place. another girl spent the night and said she woke up in the middle of the night and saw a decorative plate come off my wall float across the room and then float in front of her face and then it went back on the wall just like nothing had happened. as for me and my family having experiences...i hated that house from day one and never felt at ease in it...everyone in my family including me would sometimes feel a cat brush up against their legs and even feel the tail curl around their leg when they were walking down the back hallway, but we had no pets at that time! then we actually did get a cat after we had been there a few years and then it got really weird. i would be in my room and after everyone was asleep (i was a nightowl) our new cat would come meow at my door i would open the door and it would stare at me and then it would walk to the staircase. it just had this look like "follow me" so i would walk to the steps then it would go down a few steps and i would follow then a few more steps and i would follow and so on. each time it just kept staring at me. then we got to the bottom of the stairs which was the dining room. then the cat would go under the table and stop. at that point i would be standing in the dining room and directly in front of me on the wall was must have been a hundred orbs shining in blue and purple colors and a few white ones. they were so bright and swirled all around in the air. i felt the most intense feeling of just evil. at that point i would haul butt back to my room as fast as i could. i followed the cat maybe 3 or 4 times (i'm too curious i guess) and each time this would happen...after the last time that was it for me. the last thing that happened in that house was me and my sister were downstairs doing homework and we were alone in the house while my parents were shopping. all of a sudden we heard the dresser drawers in my parents room opening and slamming shut really loud. we ran outta of that house sooo fast. then we went to a neighbors and had him look through the house. there was no one there, no tv or radio on and no sign of entry. trust me my parents are paranoid and they kept the house locked like a fortress with alarms and stuff so we would have known if someone broke in. the day we moved out was one of the best days of my life. the whole time we were there we were all depressed and miserable, my dad's business went bankrupt and we all fought everyday. when we moved out all of a sudden things got better like nothing had happened. a few years ago i told my sister what happened with the cat and the orbs and she said the same thing had happened to her and she saw the orbs too and felt this sense of evil, but she was only in middle school so she didn't think anyone would believe her.

ok a few more experiences i have had.

i used to have a friend that lived in savannah GA and i went down there to help her get ready to move out. the reason she and her 2 other room mates was leaving was because every night the one girl would wake up in the middle of the night screaming and feeling as if someone was choking her. she said it felt like a man and he was a dark figure and he would whisper "die b**** die" in her ear. then the room mates would rush into her room and there would be no one there. one day my friend was alone and in the bathroom and she heard a man whistle in her ear and when she looked around and found no one she heard a man's voice laughing. the last straw was one morning they woke up and on the hall closet door was a child's writing all over the bottom half of the door. in the middle was a drawing of a house which looked like kinda like the house they lived in with an X over one of the rooms and all around the drawing in a spiral was the words "i see i see i see i see i see" and in the middle by the house drawing was a big "YOU" so it said " i see i see i see i see YOU". they tried painting over it and it wouldn't disappear. i saw this with my two own eyes when i was there to help her pack. i almost passed out when i heard the story and saw the drawing.

the last story is about my granny. my sister and i used to live in NYC and one night i got a call from my mother saying my grandma "granny" was very sick and in the hospital. they said her body was shutting down but they wouldn't say the words dying, but of course i knew. they said she was aware and she couldn't talke because of her breathing tube but that she could hear me. so they put the phone to her ear and i told her how i loved her and would miss her and then i hung up crying. but then i felt there was more i needed to say so i called back and said put the phone to granny's ear one more time and then i just spilled my heart to her. i told her that she was more like a mother to me and how she was the one person that i felt loved me unconditionally and always believed in me and how i would miss her everyday and how she was my most favorite person in the whole world. my parents said she understood me by the way she looked into their eyes and that she tried to talk but couldn't. i hung up again crying and asked my sister if she wanted to say goodbye too and she said she just couldn't handle it. so she and i laid down on my bed holding each other, crying until we fell asleep. at about 10 after 7am i woke up to see my sister asleep with her hand on the phone next to my bed. i woke her up and asked what she was doing. she woke up and told me that she was just dreaming and that in her dream granny called her on the phone and told her she was in another place and that she was happy and in no more pain and that she wanted to tell her goodbye because she wasn't able to the night before. then she told my sister that me and her needed to come home and be with the family and that we all needed to be together. then i had woken her up and we both just stared at each other. then the phone rang and my mom said granny had died a few minutes after 7 am. we just knew it was her saying goodbye. we went home for the funeral and for 3 days after everynight me and my sister woke up to see granny watching us sleep from the foot of the bed. my parents never said if they saw her, but for the first time in their lives they slept with the light on for those 3 nights. after the 3rd night she never came back...i think she was checking on us to make sure we were ok before she went on to heaven. so these are my very personal stories ...i hope you can find them meaningful in some way.

There are a couple of excellent books, "Life After Death" and "Life After Death Revisited." They have been out for a while so may need to be ordered but last time I looked were readily available on www.half.com or Amazon.com. I can't remember the author's name but he was originally an unbeliever and set out to disprove the stories of after death experiences. There are som absolutely fascinating stories in the two books and the author outlines the similarities present in most of these occurrences.

One doesn't need to be a theist to believe in an afterlife. :)

I believe you Bipley... what a horrible experience to go through, being trapped in a burning building and responsible for saving the residents... I cannot even begin to imagine. Sounds like G recruited someone else to be your comfort. What a special lady she must have been.

You know, she really was special but with that said, all my folks were special. They were all so unique and they had so much to offer. I loved hearing about what their day to day lives were like 50 years ago when they were my age. My biggest and most worthy education came from my older male black patients. They would tell me what it was like to be in a war as a black soldier. Let me tell you, they sure didn't teach us that in school. That still gives me shivers thinking about it.

I really loved my old folks. They were wonderful.

I had one guy, H. He was cool, 92 years old and not a thing wrong with him. No HPT, nothing. Just old. One day (I believe it was on a Friday) he called for me. He NEVER called for anyone. He just wanted to be left alone. When I heard H wanted to talk to me I knew it was important and I went to see him right away. He wanted to tell me he would become ill the following Tuesday, go to the hospital and die that day.

Nobody ever did that before, that was a first for me (at the time). I told him that wasn't so! He was fine and he'd be with us forever and to stop talking like that. He insisted I listen to him. Just to avoid getting him upset I sat and listened and agreed to follow his wishes.

I really didn't think much more of it. Well, not until Tuesday. That morning his roomate came to get me telling me H had fallen. Suddenly it hit me what H had told me and I went running for his room. Sure enough, H was on the floor and he was dead. He never even tried to break his fall. He likely had a stroke and died before he ever hit the ground. He was on the money with the date of his death but the only difference is that he didn't go to the hospital first. I learned never to question those statements again. If an older person says they are going to die, they likely are.

How do they know that? Does someone tell them? How do they know? Weird.

I totally believe you. You had a special angel looking after you. The spirits will always protect you when you have protected them.

Love

Rosie

Rosie...

What an amazingly true statement that is!

Wow! So many amazing stories. I have to share one. I heard this firsthand, from nurses and residents who were there the night it happened. I was working in a SICU. Several years prior in that SICU, there was a patient admitted who had been stabbed and was extremely critical. A resident who was at the hospital that night must have heard about it and came up to check it out or help out, whatever. The room where the patient was located was right next to a stairwell. The resident was making his way up the stairwell when he saw a very evil, menacing apparition of a human head chasing his way up the stairs. He made it into the SICU, but was pale as a ghost himself! The nurses who saw him passed it off as one resident who worked too, too many hours! In fact, as the resident was getting up those stairs to go to the SICU, the stab victim died.

Turns out the stabbing victim was a gangleader, a big time criminal. Therefore, his murder made the news. The next morning, the resident was looking at the Boston Herald and lo and behold, a picture of the stab victim was there - it was the SAME face that had menacingly chased him up the stairs. He was totally, totally freaked out and when we asked him about the story years later, you could tell it still spooked him!

the room in which the stab victim died was haunted. I don't know if that is because of that event or another, but people reported feeling someone breathing closely behind their neck, but no one would be there. Stuff like that.

I, personally, was hardly surprised to find out that the stairwell had been haunted at one point, because I always had the most foreboding, eerie feeling going up that stairwell...like evil. Well after hearing that story, it is safe to say I took the other stairs after that!

Having worked in critical care for a while, I can't say I have definitely had any haunted experiences myself. But I do find it amazing that there are certain rooms, for whatever reason, that seem to have bad luck - one admission after another dying, many unexpected or at least earlier than expected. There is definitely a strong psychic energy in ICUs, hospices, NHs, anywhere people die frequently. I think even more so in places where people die of traumas/accidents. Freaky stuff.

I have a Few ----I work on an Oncology Floor.

Seems like 653 and 675 get all the attention --

In 653 there have been four deaths in four months. One in which I called the Code - Lady was aspirating. Her family came for a visit previous to this and I proceeded to tell them how "well" she was doing. We talked about her and I asked the family where she might go after she left the hospital. They said they were looking into having her return to the NH. So I am cleaning out her mouth, she has pneumonia, and she takes a big gasp and then starts to choke. I run out looking for assistance and we proceeded to suction her but we couldn't get the mass out. She looked at me, closed her eyes and then passed out. She was level 2, After we pronounced her, I went out in the hall and found the family and we discussed what happened. I told them I couldn't believe that I had just told them how well she was doing and then 3 min later she passes!!! I thought back and figured she did not want to go back to NH and this was her way of saying, "NO WAY AM I GOING BACK THERE!!"

This past week, Lady #2 with pneumonia in same 653 starts choking on a pill, heimlich given and pill expelled and patient OK so far. Same Age.

675- Code called - young 70 watched TV every night and liked to fall asleep while it was on. Day he coded at 630am, night before was pleasant to staff(had not been entire time he was there) and asked if we could turn off his TV and shut the door (prev. had door open all the time) Sure enough he passed that am.

675- This patient was in 660 with liver/colon CA for a month and the family had asked for a bigger room because he had so many visitors. Well 675 was the only large room we have and he was transferred. I knew this was not a good idea because 675 had been bad luck. Not many leave 675.

He went there on Monday, I took care of him on Tues and he was in and out of conciousness. I knew I would not be back until Friday but I sensed he would not still be there. I prayed about it and the first thing I did when I got back on Friday was to check the board. I really wanted to take care of him once more. He indeed was still there but coma was apparent with Cheyne-Stokes. He had a high fever and about 10pm he passed right on my shift just like I prayed. I was so grateful I was part of his passing, to be there with his family. Later after the funeral he came to me in a dream and showed me a picture about a puppy and how I should tell his wife. I did have his wife's email so I forwarded the message on as strange as it sounds. She told me that they had been thinking of getting a pup before he got sick. I told her she really should get one...............

I have to pass the cemetary on my way to work and this patient always seems to thank me for taking care of him..............

After my best friend shot himself after being very depressed, I was sitting in the second pew in front of his casket and I heard him say to me "I want you to meet my doctor". Well there were hundreds of people there- How would I possibly know who this guy was? I felt this presence behind me and I turned around and this burly, tall man with a navy blue overcoat was looking to sit behind me. Instinct told me or my friend that this was the doctor. I turned, looked at him and said are you Paul's doctor? He said "Yes, How did you know?" We had a short conversation about him - he was devasted and then told me a story about the last time he saw him, something about coffee and asking where the sugar was even though he knew where it was for 12 years in the same cabinet. The doctor thought this was odd. I still don't know what it meant...

After the funeral Paul's brother took me to the site where he had shot himself, there was still blood in the fresh snow and I tried not to look at it but I felt peace there. A strange peace. His brother and I sat in the car where they found the typed written suicide note and he played the tape that Paul had in the deck and we listened to the last song that was playing....

Later, the next week I went to a retreat with my church in the woods and we were all cramped in this small auditorium and I was sitting in the second row with about a hundred people behind me, we were all squooshed in there on the floor ready to hear worship songs. What song did they play first? The song that was playing on my friend Paul's tapedeck in the car he drove to the park to shoot himself!! I freaked out and had to get out of there --

I leapfrogged over everyone and went outside in the cold air - As I was standing there- (I could still hear the song) A falling star gleamed across the sky..........................WoW!!!!!!:Melody: Put my heart back in my chest.

Heather

After the funeral Paul's brother took me to the site where he had shot himself, there was still blood in the fresh snow and I tried not to look at it but I felt peace there. A strange peace. His brother and I sat in the car where they found the typed written suicide note and he played the tape that Paul had in the deck and we listened to the last song that was playing....

Later, the next week I went to a retreat with my church in the woods and we were all cramped in this small auditorium and I was sitting in the second row with about a hundred people behind me, we were all squooshed in there on the floor ready to hear worship songs. What song did they play first? The song that was playing on my friend Paul's tapedeck in the car he drove to the park to shoot himself!! I freaked out and had to get out of there --

I leapfrogged over everyone and went outside in the cold air - As I was standing there- (I could still hear the song) A falling star gleamed across the sky..........................WoW!!!!!!:Melody: Put my heart back in my chest.

Heather

I am so very sorry about your friend.. I am not trying to be nosy, but what song was it? If you don't want to post it, can you PM me? (I do have a reason to ask..)

Lori,

It was a song about longing for Heaven. The name of the song eludes me - If it comes back I will tell you - This was over four years ago...The next time I hear it in church, I am sure I'll remember...........HB

Lori,

It was a song about longing for Heaven. The name of the song eludes me - If it comes back I will tell you - This was over four years ago...The next time I hear it in church, I am sure I'll remember...........HB

Thank you for responding... I had an ex-fiancee who killed himself, and he was listening to "Dust in the Wind..." since then I have found four other cases where that song was used to die to... just an odd coincidence, I suppose.

Specializes in critical care: trauma/oncology/burns.

Okay I have a few stories and events that I myself witnessed:

My first job out of nursing school, working 8 hour nights. One night I get a call from a nurse who asked me, if I wasn't too busy, to come right up to 3C (a men's ward - this is way back in the day, smile). I saw the unit clock and the hands of the clock were running counterclockwise, i.e., backward, and at a rapid rate. The hospital had the main clock somewhere in the basement, and the other clocks in the house were running correctly, clockwise, so this was the only clock that was running so oddly. Well, the older RN tells me "...to wait and see what happens". Sure enough, within about 15 minutes there is a code 99 called on another floor. It seemed that, only during the night shift, if and when that particular clock ran backwards, someone would arrest and die! Gulp!

Fast forward 10 years later. I am working at a large Cancer hospital in NYC. Every so often one of us regular 12 hour night shift nurses would see a figure come toward us out of the corner of our eyes, only to have it "disappear" when we looked up; or maybe I would be writing my nursing progress notes and felt someone tap me on the shoulder only to turn around and find no one there; or how bed or room # 12 was always cold, winter, spring, summer no matter what the temp was like in side or out, that room would be 5-10 C colder than the rest of the unit.

Because of situations and strange happenings mentioned above, twice a year we would request that the hospital have different members of organized and/or recognized religious leaders come to pray in and around the unit. We have had Shaman, Rabbis, Priests (Hindu, Catholic) Ministers and Reverends come in to pray for those who have died and those who will. I am not sure if it helped anyone who had previously expired or died, but it did help us. So many of our patients died such horrible, tragic deaths I guess it was to help us feel better....?

Boy, did this thread bring back memories!

Specializes in Home Health Care.

I'm just a newbie starting out, so I'll share my first odd experience in the hosp. A couple weeks ago at clinicals, my fellow nursing students and myself were sitting at the end of the hall in one of the visitors waiting rooms doing our charting. There were no occupants in the 3-4 pt rooms next to this waiting room.

All of a sudden three of us heard knocking on the wall comming from the pt room next to us. Two of my class mates got up, (I didn't react as quickly) and looked into the pt room and no one was in there. It was weird... but what is more strange is that the other three students that were charting with us didn't hear it at all and it was loud knocking :confused:

Specializes in Cardiac/Telemetry.
I used to work in a state inst for developmentally disabled. We were temp relocated to another building for remodeling of our bldg. Anyways...I was working one nite, 2nd shift. We had a locked pica unit. I saw one of the residents walking down the hall. Very distinct gait and very distinct yellow t-shirt w/ a happy face on it. I went into the ward to let staff know that they had an escapee. This was a serious situation because this particular resident, Larry, would ingest absolutely anything (from clothing to pens to belts to *ugh* a bird's head)...literally anything. He was also very reluctant to go back to his home ward (hence why I didn't bring him back myself...he needed two escorts). When we got back into the hall, less than 15 secs later, Larry was gone!! We searched the entire building! Outside, downstairs, all wards...he was NO WHERE to be found!!! This whole search lasted last than 10 mins because I had all extra staff looking for him. I was just about to call the house supervisor to let her know that we "lost" someone when out from the bathroom walks Larry w/ one of the staff. He had been getting his bath in the bathroom for the last 30 mins or so. Kind of freaky! I absolutely, without a doubt, saw Larry in the hallway. I never would've short-staffed the wards like I did if I hadn't seen him! Like I said, very distinctive gait, look, clothing. I took a lot of razzing that nite! They all thought that I was crazy. Anyways, come to find out the next day, after the story goes around that I am crazy (haha, gigglegiggle, funnyfunny)..............Larry had an identical twin brother who died in that building 10 yrs previously.

aw, man!! this is CREEPY!!!!:chair:

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