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...

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

I have often wondered since they have no control of their minds, if the mentally challenged peoples' minds can be just taken over.

[curiousauntie]

OK. Just read the last post...now what am I supposed to do at night? I have been reading these for about a week and have become addicted!!!

Keep them coming. I can't wait to see what gets posted next.

[crystal22]

We had a room at a hospital I used to work at that none of the crucifixes would stay on the wall. Shortly after being put back on the wall, they would come crashing back down. We tried several different nails, hooks etc to no avail. Never much cared for that room!!!!!!

[Nurset1981]

That would not be cool. At all. Yikes.

[grace90, LPN, LVN]

night shift, emptying something in a pt's bathroom, door is on my left and mirror to my right, I see in the mirror that someone is poking their head into the bathroom to talk to me, thinking it was probably important, I quick turned toward the door, but there was no one there, I ran like a cheetah outta that room as soon as I could, and kept lights on the rest of the night :omy:

[dld, ASN, RN]

I must say, I never believed any of this paranormal stuff until I had been a nurse for many years. I always thought of myself as rational, logical and scientific, not someone who believes in ghosts! Now my curiosity's intense, and I seek to learn of others experiences, even though I still think overactive imaginations can get the best of us.

When I first started working at my current hospital we took turns floating to a LTC unit. There was one room at the end of the hall. When ever I was in there taking care of my patients, I would see a shadow pass the doorway. This would happen frequently, but never when I would look directly at the doorway. Now because the room was the last room on the hall, there would be no purpose for anyone to walk past the room, it is a dead end. I told myself, I must be tired or imagining things, since I didn't believe in ghosts. Well over the years, this continued to happen, only when I was in that room. Finally in frustration, when I noticed the shadow, I came running out of the room, calling out, " hay, whose's there," several times. I ran into the neighboring room, to find no one. I got chills realizing what had happened. I was frustrated, because I knew I wasn't crazy. I finished my work and moved on. Several months later I told my coworker of my experience. He said many nurses have that experience in that room. O.K., so maybe there is something to this.

Now this LTC unit has many claims of being haunted, but nothing bad has ever happened to anyone, so I laugh when people get so spooked. One night several months later we had an incident where we could not get the fire alarm off. The alarm went on for a couple of hours and the patients were freaking out. I was in charge that night. The fire dept. had to get the engineer out of bed to turn it off but he could not even turn it off. Well after an 1.5 hrs of this, I looked at the alarm which indicated that the alarm was set off in the haunted LTC unit. I called the unit to see what was going on. The response was "...what alarm? There is no alarm going off here." I couldn't believe it and proceeded to call other units. They confirmed they had a frustrating alarm waking all the patients. About 30 minutes later the alarm stopped. On Monday morning the LTC manager was on my unit and said, "Oh, I hear you had an exciting weekend." I told him how awful it was, and questioned what had happened. He said that he was called at 4am to turn it off since the engineer could not do it. He told them he wasn't going to come in because he did not know how to do that. I told him it is strange how it was not alarming on his unit but everywhere else. And I asked, "Are you sure you don't have a ghost?" He said, " Oh! Don't say that! I had a priest come in a bless the place and do an exorcism. The nurses are all ready sacred. Don't even mention that." I just smiled.

After this experience I opened my mind to the possibility of paranormal activity. I have heard stories from very rational people who I would never suspect believed in ghosts. Many other things have happened since on our own unit but not so dramatic, but definately more than coincidence or electrical malfunction. I am curious and like learn more about these experiences. What really scares me at night is the possibility of a demented homeless person lurking about. You never know what they are going to do!

[ERRN92]

I went to check on my elderly male pt (who was dying). he kept staring at the ceiling. He said "three of us have to go".(he often talked incoherently. hardly ever made sense).I said "go where?" he pointed up and said "up there. three of us are going." Then he asked if I was going with them. I told him I didnt plan on it. He stared at the ceiling and just kept repeating himself all night. he died the next night. The night after that 2 more patients on the floor passed away. Since ive been nursing, I have come to accept the fact that there is alot we dont know about spirits and death.

[jessica]

Bump.

[awk5]

When I first started to work at a ltc, I worked the noc shift. Every once in a while, a resident would ask "who is that tall chinese man over there" or make some remark about the chinese man.

Well when I finally mentioned it to the day shift they told me that about a month before I started working there, a very tall, chinese, male resident had passed away.

I never saw him but would get the chills when ever some one would mention him>

[awk5]

I went to check on my elderly male pt (who was dying). he kept staring at the ceiling. He said "three of us have to go".(he often talked incoherently. hardly ever made sense).I said "go where?" he pointed up and said "up there. three of us are going." Then he asked if I was going with them. I told him I didnt plan on it. He stared at the ceiling and just kept repeating himself all night. he died the next night. The night after that 2 more patients on the floor passed away. Since ive been nursing, I have come to accept the fact that there is alot we dont know about spirits and death.

At the ltc that I worked at I noticed that the deaths usually came in sets of three.

[supernurse65]

bump.

[Dempather, RN]

I heard this story for a colleague who was working on our floor's four-bedded step-down unit one night. I had been told in the past that people who are about to die can talk to or hear others who have already passed away. This could be hallucinations... but nonethless, this story was just creepy.

It was sometime in the middle of the night, so the lights were either off or dimmed to allow the patients to rest. My colleague had a patient who was actively dying and kept grabbing something in the air that wasn't there.

When she went over to ask if everything was alright, he turned to her and said, "Well... aren't you going to talk to him?".

And my colleague kinda grinned and replied, "Well.. who would that be?".

And the patient responded, "The man standing next to you...".

My colleague was too afraid to even turn around. Of course, she knew nobody was there. WHEW. That gives me goosebumps.