I work at a nursing home, and for the sake of HIPPA laws we’ll call it The Home. I’ve only worked here for 2 months, and it’s been scary to say the least. It’s a small nursing home, a population of around 20-30 people.
I’m not totally qualified yet, I passed my CPR test before I started working, but I’m still considered a student nursing assistant. For those of you who don’t know, I do everything a CNA does, I wipe butts, change people’s clothes, and provide ice water as needed. I’ve started working 3rd shift, 6p-6a, and it’s the greatest mistake of my life. We take great care of the people here, but it’s not enough. I know that people come here to die ultimately, but the way things have been going makes me uneasy.
A resident passed away the day before I started working, and I didn’t think much of it. These people are mostly old and fragile, they come here for end of life services. Not even a week later we had a new admit, who unfortunately passed on my shift. She was placed in room 213. She was decently healthy, she came in for rehab as her legs were swelling and it caused issues with her walking. The night she passed our call lights quit working, but just in her room. We didn’t know until later. Instead of making a “ding-ding” noise and lighting the bulb positioned above her door, it made a “di-“ noise as if someone pushed the call light and turned it right back off. Our nursing home is quite old and doesn’t see renovations as often as it should, so it was simply dismissed as an electrical short. She passed peacefully in her sleep, her heart just stopped beating. At 3:30 am she was pronounced dead.
I don’t think it was even a full 2 weeks later, when the next unfortunate lady fell victim to “it”. The call light quit working again, and again, it was just seen as a malfunction. She had only been with us for a few months, which is honestly a long time in a place like this. At 4:45 am she was pronounced dead due to cardiac arrest. It was different this time, it felt heavy, it felt like something was there with us. I brushed it off as anxiety, because staring at a dead lady isn’t exactly comforting, and I was just overthinking it all.
Yesterday was the hardest of it all. A woman who I had became close with passed. It was a calm night, despite the feeling that something, someone, was here. It’s just that bone chilling, heart racing feeling. The call light was doing that thing again, and this time it was really bothering me. I had no way of knowing who it could be, because the light above the room refused to flick on. I started bed check, and the nurse went to do her rounds for med pass. I dismissed the feeling, and as I started working I had totally forgot about it. The next few moments would traumatize me forever, and make me question my life choices.
The nurse starts screaming my name, telling me to go look at the resident. In room 111 sat marry (name changed for HIPPA reasons). She was blue, her CPAP mask was lifted off her head. Her mouth hung wide open and shriveled lips cased her teeth. Her blue eyes were glued to the door, she looked like something literally scared her to death. She was a full code, but after 20 minutes of CPR and the AED reading “no shockable rhythm” she was pronounced dead.
I’m at work again tonight, and I’ve been writing this post in my downtime. I keep seeing someone out of the corner of my eyes, I feel like I’m being followed. The whole nursing home feels off in a way. I hope I’m just paranoid but I feel like I’m next. I talked to the nurse on duty, she feels that heavy feeling too. She insists I’m safe though, as “they go in 3’s”.
Everything seems off, and I’m thinking about quitting. This place has rekindled my childhood fear of the dark that had long passed. The end of 200 hall is the worst, I feel as if something will strike me down any second. 100 hall isn’t as bad, but room 111 has a terrible feeling seeping out through the 4 inch thick wooden door. The lights on, and i desperately want to know what’s on the other side, but I’m too chicken shit to open it.
I will update as things happen, but I’m not sure if I can come back to work.