The 24 hour schedule

[Gents82]

For anyone that works the 24 on - 48/72 off schedule, I'm curious, do they let you sleep at all? Even if its just a cat nap. I just find it hard to believe that someone could expect you to stay up for 24 hours and operate an ambulance, along with medical/traumatic emergencies.

 

[divinewind_007]

at my service we can sleep. we have beds and sleeping quarters. if were slow i sometimes take a nap in the daytime just in case i dont get a chance at night. as long as you dont try to sleep the whole shift through they dont care

 

[daemonicusxx]

we dont really have time to sleep, renal round-up during the day, and then all the psych txp's at night. im good to get 1-2 hrs of sleep. we had someone fall asleep at the wheel one time, i told my boss that he needs to let us sleep a little, he said "im paying you guys for 24 hrs, so as long as you're on the clock, you gotta run calls"

 

[Ecnalubma]

We can sleep here and we run 24 on, 48 off. There are cots upstairs and couches and all that type. You cant really count on it though because it wont last long. It will always be interrupted by a call.

 

[Wingnut]

Yup, we can sleep, we have a room at the station with 2-4 beds in it. The fire dept has the same set up.

 

[SWVAEMT]

We're allowed to sleep, but real sleep is hard to come by between tones and in a bunk room with 4-5 olympic snoring champions.

 

[coloradoemt]

We have quarters with fairly nice beds in them. If we are not running calls we are allowed to sleep as much as we can. I have worked 24 hour shifts where we run calls all day and night. Not everyone can do that. Mostly we end up running steady all night. Last night it was snowing so it seemed we were never in for more than 30 min. at a time. I have had shifts where we get to sleep all night but it was so long ago I don't remember what it was like...B)

 

[ndilley]

Our service allows us to sleep when ever its possible as a small county service running 2 full time trucks for 17,000 people we make anywhere from 1-20 calls a 24 hour shift...some shifts we can sleep all night..on the other hand i have gone in at 7am and not returned to the station until 530 the next AM....i have only heard of a very few services not allowing sleep for the 24/48 schedule...but i have heard of more 12 hour shift services denying sleep

 

[Lisa]

The service I work PRN for we are allowed to sleep all we want to, as long as the truck is clean and all housekeeping duties are done. We average 1-6 calls a shift. The last shift I worked we didn't turn a wheel. In fact the service has only had 2 calls in the last 5 shifts. Somebody is getting ready to get hammered!!!

 

[ksEMTbabe]

We're allowed to nap during the day if all the chores and all that are done. The problem with that is we dispatch for the PD so of course they're on the radio all day long. But at midnoc they switch to county for dispatch so we get to go to bed after that.

 

[pfmedic]

You gotta nap AT LEAST

My station has a low-call-volume/high-nightmare-call ratio. We sleep after all the chores are done because we never know when we will end up neck deep in the junk. I also have a reputation for popping a call between 00:00 and 01:30. That translates into not getting back into town until 4am (small town=long transport) and then I have to drive thirty minutes to class at 07:00. Coffee and me.... we is guuud fray-ends.

Any boss that wont let crews sleep better be ready to buy a new rig. IMHO, thats crazy, and not safe.

 

[VinBin]

wow, 3 hr time for transport, how many units do you guy have serving your area?

 

[squid]

One of my jobs was at a place where we pulled week-long shifts. Also low call volume (maybe 2 a day) but if we had to transport, it was a good 4-5 hour round trip. Anyhow, since we got to sleep the night through about half the time, we were required to pull work duties in uniform 9-5 and then we were on our own time, as long as we were within 2 minutes of the rig, after that.

 

[MedicPrincess]

We work 24/48's. And they even have beds in our station. Rumor has it, we even get to sleep in them on shift. Of course, not sure if its true, as by the time we make it back to station, we are so whipped those REALLY comfy recliners are a WHOLE LOT CLOSER than those beds. For the 20-30 minutes we get to be in them

 

[Jon]

My company has vollies on 6p-6a/7a-- Sat and sun AM is until 7a. I occasionally work 6p-7a... and I don't bother going to sleep until after the 2am, saturday night, "stupid drunk guy" call.

Jon

 

[Ridryder911]

We do 24 on 24 off for 3 shifts, then 4 days off (modified Kelly). Suring the course we average about 12- 18 calls per unit. Dependent on the station, there are calls 2 hrs in duration.

R/r 911

 

[ResTech]

We work 12hr shifts with some of us working some 24's and we have a pretty liberal policy on sleeping. We come on at 6am and can sleep til 8am... then as long as all station duties are done we can nap whenever in the dayroom. At 10pm is when were allowed to go to the bunkroom and sleep.. have 4 beds with dividers between them.

 

[Flight-LP]

Not only are we allowed to sleep, we are mandated to do so. Since we work anywhere from 24 to 96 hours on (dependent on base flight volume), sleep is a must. Each crew member has his / her own room with satellite TV, VCR, DVD, a desk, and high speed internet. Small, but quite cozy......................

 

[Firechic]

We have a cozy room like that also. It's a decent sized bedroom with TV, cable, computer access, desk, large lockers, and our own bathroom with shower. It also has the WESTNET system, so we can program it to only wake us when our particular unit is dispatched. I love it!

 

[Jon]

We have a cozy room like that also. It's a decent sized bedroom with TV, cable, computer access, desk, large lockers, and our own bathroom with shower. It also has the WESTNET system, so we can program it to only wake us when our particular unit is dispatched. I love it!

That would be cool!

We've got 4 bedrooms with 2 single beds, small TV, alarm clock, and a LOUD plectron system. Ours wakes us whenever the station tones drop... if you are running 2nd crew for midnight... you still wake up.

We have a "crew lounge" with 2 computers and a medium/large TV, a table, chairs and a couch. We have a big kitchen with a table that seats 14+ and a TV, we have a "computer lab" with 4 computers, and a "TV Theater" with a big projector TV/DVD/VCR/Stero/ super sound system, leather recliners, etc. All TV's have cable, we have On Demand in the Theater. This is all upstairs

Downstairs, we have a supervisor's office with 2 computers that also work as MDT's on the county system, and a "ops center" with another supervisor-access computer and 3 charting computers.