Sap for good horror stories by nurses? Don’t worry; we are too. In fact, we have stalked and scoured forums of real-life nurses that have shared their creepiest moments while at work—and quite honestly, the stories are bone-chilling. With that said, if you are a nurse and have already started to unpack your Halloween decorations, we are certain these creepy ghost stories from nurses are for you.
Read on for some hair-rising and simply terrifying ghoulie stories that come straight from the mouths of nurses working in hospitals across the country.
A Little Old Lady and Her Hospital Call Light
Once upon a time, there was a little old lady with dementia who never really understood how to work her hospital call light. According to her nurses, she was a very sweet old lady. If she needed help, she would tiptoe over to her neighbor’s hospital room and politely ask him to ring the call light for her. Luckily for both the old lady and the nurses, the kind man was completely lucid and was always willing to lend a hand.
Unfortunately, the nice old lady passed away due to an issue with her pancreas at exactly four in the afternoon. Just a few hours later, while the old lady’s family was saying their goodbyes, the gentleman from next door turned on his call light. The nurses scurried to his bedside, where the man explained to the nurses that “the old lady is ready for bed now.” Considering that this man was only in the hospital recuperating from a kidney infection and did not suffer any type of cognitive illness that would interfere with his perception of reality, his comment sent chills down the spines of the nursing team. But, what made it even more creepy was that the man went on to explain to a certified nursing assistant (CNA) that the old woman had snuck into his room just a few moments before and pressed the call light button herself. According to this man, the old lady was wearing a white robe and her rosary beads. The icing on the creepy cake is that when her body was finally moved from the hospital to the funeral home (a few of her nurses attended the ceremony), the sweet and delicate little old lady laid peacefully in her open casket dressed in a white gown holding her rosary beads—gah!
Death Comes in Threes
This scary story comes from a nurse working in the adult oncology unit. According to this registered nurse (RN), her department is generally where patients go to “live out their final days and transition into hospice care.” She goes on to explain that her particular hospital unit experiences the most deaths compared to any other unit in the hospital because some patients don’t “make it” to hospice care. As a result, many nurses from different floors refuse to visit the adult oncology wing because of reported paranormal activity that has occurred there. Yet, as per this RN, the nurses working in the adult oncology unit “love their jobs” and explain that “there is so much love that goes on between the nurses and our patients—we get to know them very well.” It’s no surprise, therefore, that the nursing team started to make observations about a pattern of death that their patients followed. In other words, patients seemed to die in threes on this particular adult oncology floor.
One night after two patients had passed on, a beloved patient in “room eight,” who was held dear in the hearts of the entire adult oncology nursing unit, ended up dying—proving once again that death comes in threes. The next morning, a new patient was in the dead patient’s room. The RN began her orientation with the new patient and started to explain how the TV remote control worked. Before the RN could finish explaining, the TV turned on by itself and started flicking between channels vigorously with the volume on high. Totally spooked, the RN tried to turn off the TV—but it stayed on. Finally, the nurse was able to turn off the TV manually and was relieved to find that the new patient didn’t even notice what had occurred. Later that day, the nurse ran into a fellow nurse at the nurses’ desk who was looking for a replacement remote control. When the nurse asked her colleague what they were doing, her colleague answered, “the remote and TV is acting up in room X and Y”—the same rooms where the other two patients had died the night before. Eeek!
Knocking on Death’s Door
Many nursing professionals who work in hospitals and regularly witness patients dying will tell stories of how their patients “just knew” when death was at the door. Call it instinct; call it otherworldly: Either way, patients who sense that their time is about to expire on earth lead to some great ghost stories. And that’s exactly what happened when this CNA experienced the death of her patient while working in the progressive care unit (PCU). As the story goes, a heart rate monitor on one of the CNA’s older patients began to go off—signaling that the patient was heading into cardiac arrest. The CNA rushed to the patient’s bedside only to find that the patient was completely fine. The patient then exclaimed, “can you please tell that lady hiding behind the curtain in my room to quit staring at me? She keeps telling me I’m going to die when you leave.” The CNA, spooked to the bone, left the room to explain the situation to the patient’s nurse. Later that night, the patient ended up coding and dying by the end of the CNA’s shift.
Creepy Hospital Ghost Stories from Nurses
Reports of paranormal activity happening in hospitals have been going on for centuries. In fact, some of the most haunted asylums and medical centers date back to the 1800s, where the living can still attest to ghostly figures lurking around the abandoned buildings. With that said, the next time you are in the mood for a spine-tingling and eerie ghost story, ask a nurse if they have experienced a paranormal occurrence while on a nursing shift. From unexplained squeaky chairs scooting across a hospital room to phantom call-lights going off to the feeling of being watched by a ghostly presence, it’s true—no one can beat nurses when it comes to telling creepy ghost stories.
