Do you believe in the supernatural? Things that bump in the night, ghosts, spirits, whatever you want to call them--I believe. Too many weird things happen when you work in a hospital--especially on the night shift--to think otherwise.

Take tonight, for instance. I was standing in the hallway along a bank of patient rooms, adding to the list of drugs on one of the medication carts. As I wrote, with my peripheral vision I noticed someone approach. I felt them stop behind me, then lean in close over my shoulder--to the point of invading my "personal space bubble." I assumed it was a coworker trying to be cute, so I turned around to shoo them off. No one was in the hall. Ohh-kay. A while later I was on dinner break in the employee kitchen. I grabbed something off a counter, then turned around rapidly--and had the strong impression that I was bumping into someone. Noone was there, but a definite sensation of "thickened" air pressed against, then through, me. Again, Ohhh-kay.

The following day I arrived at work and walked into the equipment room for something. The door is weighted to auto-close and was halfway shut when it pushed back open again. No one was there.

I heard later that a patient had died suddenly in the intensive unit maybe thirty feet away, not long before my first encounter. Myself and other staff have often noticed strange occurrences after a patient has passed on unexpectedly--call lights turning themselves on in the deceased's room, things falling off walls, etc. I'm curious as to whether any of you have experienced things like these, and what your take on it was?