As noted in previous chapters, strange things occur when sitting with a dying patient. Sometimes it is your imagination, but most of the time it is not. How do you deal with the real strange or supernatural stuff? Well, that depends on the hospice nurse and their beliefs and how open their mind is. I have always believed just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there. Some nurses that try hospice find they can't deal with the strange and unusual things that can occur.

I have heard it said that every nurse has a ghost or supernatural story because they work in an industry that deals with life or death. I have had many strange things happen in my thirteen years as a hospice nurse, but I would have to say my scariest moment happen when I was with a patient in a nursing home. I was with a patient I'll call Amy and another hospice nurse was next door with another patient.
We were long-time friends In fact, I believed I talked her into being a hospice nurse. Well, it was about three o'clock in the morning. It seems everything happens between two and four in the morning. I remember the time, because I made a note of when my patient was medicated and I changed and repositioned her. I would never move a patient around if they were in pain, so I schedule myself to change if need be and reposition the patient after they are medicated, and her medication was every three hours.

We were outside the doors of the rooms talking. We could still see our patients from the door. We started talking and I saw what looked like some people walking down the hall. I did a retake and realized they were shadow people. They had no features. They look like what a shadow looks like when you block the sun. Needless to say, I was a little scared. I told my friend to back into the room and don't look at them, and she did just that. I was trying to ignore them and back myself into the room I was in. In my research on the supernatural, I read that you do not acknowledge them. I saw them go into a room down the hall and I went into my patient's room at the same time.

I text ed my friend a little bit later and told her what I saw and for her to try and stay in the room until daylight. She acknowledged and we stayed in our patient's rooms. I did find out three hours later when the facility nurse came in to medicate my patient, that the room I saw the shadow people go in the patient passed away. I went to the door of the room she was in and told her what had happened. Sometimes strange and unusual things can happen, but that was the first time I questioned if I wanted to keep doing the job of a hospice nurse.