# Error On Overnight Shift



## mfrjason (Jan 22, 2007)

I was on a 72 hour shift (from 6am friday morning to 6am monday morning),and was sleeping in the back of the unit (cuz it was comfortable),and I thought I heard our service's tones go out,so I got up and jumped out the back of the unit and jumped in the cab,started it up,and pulled it out. The minute I got the unit out on the curtain I radioed to county dispatch advising them that I was clear on the call and in service. They radioed back and advised they were not aware of any call for us,so I acknowledged them and pulled the unit back into the bay and went to the department radio room and phoned in to dispatch and advised them of what happened,and you would not believe how blushed I was,I was so embarrassed,and with the fire chief right across the road,he heard the unit get pulled out and the radio traffic. So I went back to bed and the next morning,the chief came over and asked if we had a call and I explained to him what happened,he got a kick out of it,and so did I,just alil though.


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## MMiz (Jan 22, 2007)

I once worked a night shift with far too little sleep.  It was one of the worst experiences I've ever had.  I would absolutely not do it in the future.

My roomates in college always found it funny to wake me in a moment of terror.  They'd shake me, I'd jump out of bed, run frantically in my sleep, and sometimes even get out the door before I woke up.  I've even gotten into a car while asleep.  Only when I started the engine did I start to question why I was in my car.

It happens to the best of us


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## Tincanfireman (Jan 22, 2007)

Man, you have joined a club that involves most of us sooner or later.


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## KEVD18 (Jan 22, 2007)

while that exact sit has never happened to me several along similar have:

once, after a ballbusting day(13 calls in 12hrs), me and my partner were using some down time to catch some z's.  i was startled awake by some noise. i sat up and was staring at the coffee table. i asked aloud " what the hell is that noise" to which my prtner responded "answer the phucking phone a$$hole"

when toned in the middle of the night one shift, i answered the call, put my gear on(as did my partner) got down to the unit and couldnt remember where we were going(had to ask ops on the air)


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## mfrjason (Jan 26, 2007)

Ive done that before,lol. One time myself,and two other ambulance personnel,1 was my on-duty partner and the other was an EMT for our service but was on duty for a neighboring service were sitting at the local truck stop enjoyin some lunch when a call went out for a subject having chest pains,but we didnt catch the location,well county toned it out again and come to find out the call was to the truck lot at the truck stop we were at,and since I didnt have my own POV at the time,I had the department ambulance with me,so we all ran out of the truck stop and headed to where the patient was. Talk about bein at the right place at the right time,but since the truck stop was in the neighboring service's service area,we had to wait for there ambulance.


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## mfrjason (Jan 26, 2007)

Ambulance dont mean taxi either,and I swear people seem to think it's printed on the ambulance.


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## BossyCow (Jan 26, 2007)

mfrjason said:


> Ambulance dont mean taxi either,and I swear people seem to think it's printed on the ambulance.



I actually had a patient ask if we could drop her boyfriend off at work on the way to the ER because their car was busted and he was late for work.


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## KEVD18 (Feb 4, 2007)

we had a frequent 911 caller. she would call all the time, every time with a new complaint. always requested the same hospital, across town nad bypassing 3 recieving hospital on the way. come to find out her baby daddy lives across the street from the requested facility. she would be wheeled in the back and make a beeline fro the front door. free ride across the city.


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## Jon (Feb 4, 2007)

Wow... I've done that a few times. One of the things I HATE about working overnights and sleeping is that I get up, get dressed, and get to the ambulance and really have no idea what the dispatch was that woke me, because I wasn't awake enough to understand it.

Even better is when I've slept through the first alert and woken up at the 4-minute re-alert... I got up and was pulling my pants on when my cellphone rang... my partner, "Sparky", was calling me... he asked "what the :censored::censored::censored::censored: was taking me so long" I said that the tones had just gone off.. he said "that was second tap!" I told him I was up and on my way down... and to put us enroute.  Come to think of it, I NEVER get much sleep when I run with Sparky.

As for 24 hour+ shifts:

Why do we torture ourselves with these rediculously long shifts. Truck drivers aren't alowed to work more than X hours before they must habve 8 hours "off" but EMS is allowed to work 24, 48, 72 straight hours, where we can go for 24+ hours without sleep. We aren't Jack Bauer... we aren't Superman.

I've seen too many deaths in recent years from EMS providers who die drving home from work after 24+ hour shifts. I've been on a 32 hour shift before and almost fell asleep at the wheel of an ambulance while doing a long distance transport. I had to pull over and switch with my partner for the last 15 miles of the ride, because I wanted to get their safely.


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## mfrjason (Feb 7, 2007)

We had our share of frequent flyers,as a matter of fact,1 of them lived right around the corner from the station. We would be getting called for him almost every other day,even though it was starting to get annoying,we just grinned and beared it.


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## mfrjason (Feb 7, 2007)

I worked 12,24,48,and 72 hour shifts,unless I was called to fill in for a few hours to cover for someone else.


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## KEVD18 (Feb 7, 2007)

i work 2 24's. i do it because i only work 8 days a month. plenty of time for school and what not..


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## Medic's Wife (Mar 14, 2007)

> As for 24 hour+ shifts:
> 
> Why do we torture ourselves with these rediculously long shifts. Truck drivers aren't alowed to work more than X hours before they must habve 8 hours "off" but EMS is allowed to work 24, 48, 72 straight hours, where we can go for 24+ hours without sleep. We aren't Jack Bauer... we aren't Superman.
> 
> I've seen too many deaths in recent years from EMS providers who die drving home from work after 24+ hour shifts.



I completely agree.  My hubby's service is an hour from where we live, and when he has a sleepless night, he crashes for a few hours before he even tries to make it home.  Then sometimes he only makes it with the help of some caffein pills.  It's very scary.

On a funny note....hubby's ambulance service is short staffed right now, so he's covering a lot of extra shifts.  His week sometimes looks like 24 on, 24 off, 48 on, 24 off, 12 on, 24 on......you get the idea....

Anyhow, he was on one of his long shifts and they had a ton of calls overnight, and he and his partner were getting slap happy.  There is a local restraunt where they work called Hunts.  Well, in their goofy, sleep deprived state, they start calling it C*nts.  Unfortunately, they also transported a patient that night who's last name was Hunt, and hubby inadvertantly replaced the H with a C on her paperwork.  LMAO......


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## mfrjason (Mar 14, 2007)

Medic's Wife said:


> I completely agree.  My hubby's service is an hour from where we live, and when he has a sleepless night, he crashes for a few hours before he even tries to make it home.  Then sometimes he only makes it with the help of some caffein pills.  It's very scary.
> 
> On a funny note....hubby's ambulance service is short staffed right now, so he's covering a lot of extra shifts.  His week sometimes looks like 24 on, 24 off, 48 on, 24 off, 12 on, 24 on......you get the idea....
> 
> Anyhow, he was on one of his long shifts and they had a ton of calls overnight, and he and his partner were getting slap happy.  There is a local restraunt where they work called Hunts.  Well, in their goofy, sleep deprived state, they start calling it C*nts.  Unfortunately, they also transported a patient that night who's last name was Hunt, and hubby inadvertantly replaced the H with a C on her paperwork.  LMAO......



OMG! Hope there was no offense taken to that? I would feel embarrassed.


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## Medic's Wife (Mar 14, 2007)

He caught his mistake before it was too late.....he said he had a helluva time trying to make a C look like an H though


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## VentMedic (Mar 14, 2007)

A little history lesson;
In the 70s and 80s, most ambulance services required only one certified person on the unit. The Teamsters union attempted to organize the "ambulance drivers" in a few States. It seemed like a great idea until the drivers learned they would have to operate under trucker standard of rest. Most of the drivers at that time made their money by long, long shifts. 

Also, many of the ambulance services contracted their ambulances out like cabs. To break even, they had to keep the trucks running. There was driving at reckless speeds and call jumping to get that patient from rescue before the other company. 

Once EMS workers get recognized as a profession by national standards, the long shifts will cease.  This may actually be met with resistance from many in the field. The 24 hour shift has become a standard with many EMS companies. 

Only in rare circumstances can a hospital employee work more than 16 hours. Then there must be 8 hours between shifts. 

Maggie's Law
http://www.njsendems.com/Releases/03/August/Sweeney%20Maggie's%20Law%20Becomes%20Official,%208-5-03.htm

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/481189

http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic835.htm


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## fm_emt (Mar 17, 2007)

Yeah, 24 hour shifts are silly. I don't see any reason why we can't break that up into 2 x 12 hour shifts. At least AMR does that around here.


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## Epi-do (Mar 17, 2007)

I absolutely love working 24's!  Since I am only working 2 days a week, it gives me more time at home with my son and husband.


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## Recycled Words (Mar 17, 2007)

I pulled two consecutive overnights where we got quite a few calls. Both were weekday shifts, so I went stright to school after each. Well, after the second, I was pretty damn tired. I fell asleep in the lounge on one of the floors and one of the elevators got stuck. When that happens, it sounds a lot like the phone at my corps for when calls come in, just a bit softer. Sleep-deprived as I was, I jumped up, threw my shoes on and asked what the call was before I hit my head on the ledge and woke up. Bit humiliating, bound to happen again.


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## Ridryder911 (Mar 17, 2007)

The reason I went back into EMS was because of the 24 hour shifts, personally I will never work a 12 hr truck. We are busy, not too busy though to be harmful. Working only 10 days a month allows me time off and if I want to work part time. 

Personally, doing 12 hrs. are a pain for me. Getting off work too late to perform personal business, just in time to get home and go to bed and time enough to get up again to repeat.  

I thought it would be great to have a 8 hr work day, like the "norm", but when I was in research I soon found out weekends were too short to have the only time off to get business and have fun... 

There is only one EMS I know of in my state that has an 8 hr truck, most have 24 hr shifts, except larger metro areas such as Tulsa and OKC. 

R/r 911


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## VentMedic (Mar 17, 2007)

Ridryder911 said:


> The reason I went back into EMS was because of the 24 hour shifts, personally I will never work a 12 hr truck. We are busy, not too busy though to be harmful.



Nothing wrong with 24 hr shifts as you describe Ridryder. 

However, the parent in me comes forth while reading some of these posts. I just want the young ones to live to be as old as you and I.


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## Jon (Mar 17, 2007)

VentMedic said:


> Nothing wrong with 24 hr shifts as you describe Ridryder.
> 
> However, the parent in me comes forth while reading some of these posts. I just want the young ones to live to be as old as you and I.


I agree.... 24's are fine, if you are slow enough to be able to catch some sleep.... if you are out all night... then you are screwed.


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## Recycled Words (Mar 18, 2007)

Meh...depends on who you are. Personally, I have no problem riding overnight, going to school, and getting at max 1 hour of sleep at a time. Other people I know can't function without a full night of uninterupted sleep.


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## MMiz (Mar 18, 2007)

I used to love this documentary called Hopkins 24/7 where they followed around medical residents.  Almost every one of them mentioned the long shifts 36 hours as one of the hardest parts of the job.

Personally I don't believe that any medic should be working a 24 hour shift without quarters to sleep in.  Those quarters should have bunks and a quiet place for the medic to sleep (when the time is available).  

I can't imagine a single person on this forum can argue that his or her functioning isn't impaired to a degree nearing the end of the shift.  I wouldn't want to be that patient.


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## mfrjason (Mar 19, 2007)

The only places that you will find actual sleeping quarters in my county is the paramedic service stations,cuz a majority of the services in this county are ALS,we only have 2 BLS services left and they are volunteer.


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## Recycled Words (Mar 19, 2007)

mfrjason said:


> The only places that you will find actual sleeping quarters in my county is the paramedic service stations,cuz a majority of the services in this county are ALS,we only have 2 BLS services left and they are volunteer.



My town has a volly BLS service and hospital-based medics. The volunteer BLS service I work for has several bedrooms as well as couches in the crew room and TV room. I haven't the foggiest idea what the quarters for the medics are like.


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## mfrjason (Apr 23, 2007)

Recycled Words said:


> My town has a volly BLS service and hospital-based medics. The volunteer BLS service I work for has several bedrooms as well as couches in the crew room and TV room. I haven't the foggiest idea what the quarters for the medics are like.



They are prolly better than the ones the volunteer service uses. I didnt have the luxury of having a bedroom to sleep in,i either slept on a folding cot or in the back of the ambulance.


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## babygirl2882 (Jul 2, 2007)

mfrjason said:


> Ive done that before,lol. One time myself,and two other ambulance personnel,1 was my on-duty partner and the other was an EMT for our service but was on duty for a neighboring service were sitting at the local truck stop enjoyin some lunch when a call went out for a subject having chest pains,but we didnt catch the location,well county toned it out again and come to find out the call was to the truck lot at the truck stop we were at,and since I didnt have my own POV at the time,I had the department ambulance with me,so we all ran out of the truck stop and headed to where the patient was. Talk about bein at the right place at the right time,but since the truck stop was in the neighboring service's service area,we had to wait for there ambulance.


 
This happened once while I was doing a ride along...it had been a really good day for me because I had gotten a call (which was a rare thing  because I did a whole trimester of 2 hours everyday hoping to catch a call in the hours) but we had just come back from a out of town transport...it was like 4:30 (i was supposed to leave typically at 3:30) and we stoped at the store to get food for their dinner...we were in the aisle shopping when they get paged...we run out of the store only to hear that it was in the store...so one of the guys runs to where it was and I ran with the other to the ambulance to bring it closer and get the stuff we needed. That day was the best because as soon as we got to the hospital (which was like 2 min away) we got another out of town transfer....it was a decent one too..and they ended up buying me dinner cuz I had spent my pocket change (beccause I didn't usally need anything) on coffee on the first transfer...I love the guys I get to ride with!!


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## bstone (Jul 2, 2007)

My partner and I were sleeping in the back of the bus (me on the bench, she on the cot) and our dispatch sent us the page to gas up the bus and bring it back. We were both out cold and missed the page. They keyed us up 20 minutes later to ask if we were on our way. Little embarassing!


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## Summit (Jul 2, 2007)

i had a 48 on, 24 off, 24 on... but that 24 off in the middle ended up on so i had a 96 hour shift... and then had to work 4 hrs over at the end... 100!

during all that time i slept perhaps 8 hours... at one point i was in the bathroom and heard our tones... i rushed out to the crew room and asked what the call was for. They all looked at me like I was insane.

"There is no call. There were no tones."

I was baffled. Literally seconds later, while they were still looking at me like I was crazy, real tones dropped. Then they looked at me like I was psychic. 

... so weird.

I'd never work anything longer than a 72 EVER again.


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## Ridryder911 (Jul 2, 2007)

Summit said:


> i."
> 
> I was baffled. Literally seconds later, while they were still looking at me like I was crazy, real tones dropped. Then they looked at me like I was psychic.
> 
> ...



At least it was not the ..._"voices"_..... you heard  

R/r 911


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## emt9577 (Jul 18, 2007)

*24's*

Now that im off the 24's, because I set up our comm systems in our trucks, I miss them. I enjoyed riding with a medic, and working at lest 24 sometime longer. Not to mention the pay was better. we worked 5 24's every two weeks so that was nice, plenty of play time.  Now i get salaried at 100 hours every two hours, and still have to work as an EMT, and my other jobs i get assigned. I hate that part.  I can remember before I took this new job within the company,  after working 72 straight, bringing someone into the ER for something stupid, standing there waiting for the hurse to tell us where to go, and falling asleep while standing up. My dang partner thought it would be funny, so he moved the cot, just to watch me land on my face.  It was funny for him,  oh well. I went home and slept for about 16 hrs straight.


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## MedikErik (Jul 18, 2007)

I love 24's when you can sleep. I became very good friends with my rig's bench seat when I worked private. I actually chose the company I did because the other company had a "no sleep in the unit" policy, no bunk room, etc.... pretty much you either didn't sleep, or risked having a sup. bust you. 

24's are like most things: fine in moderation, IMO. It's when you work back to back to back 24's that things start happening. I'm not functioning my best after 24 hours of no sleep, but I can still function on something ressembling an "acceptable" level. I've pulled a 72 before, and I have no reccollection of the last 24 shift... just going back to base with a stack of paperwork. 

The overtime's addictive, but it's a habit I had to break (still fighting it).


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## Arkymedic (Aug 16, 2007)

It could be worse. I work 48 on and 48 off and since we are short on medics have worked 48 on and 24 off then another 48 on


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## GayEMTNJ (Aug 16, 2007)

There was a group of us that had taken a road trip together.  The one guy we were traveling with was almost impossible to wake up.  *Nothing* worked and we did get creative.

One morning I had a brainstorm.  We had tried for ten minutes to get him to move.  I told everyone to be quiet, I stood a little back and in my best crackly dispatcher's voice said: "Station XXX, Rescue XXX, Engine XXX, Medic XXX, Maple Ave at Main St, a motor vehicle accident with entrapment."

The guy mumbled "aw, s&*t " and sat up in bed and was trying to get oriented and find his gear.  Confused at not finding it, he starts looking around and sees the three of us standing there trying not to bust out completely laughing.  He then proceeded to call us a lot of "not nice" names.  lol!


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## hitechredneckemt (Aug 16, 2007)

The company i work for runs 24 trucks. I enjoy 24 & 48s but anything more than does get dangerous. When we have down time we can sleep get on the net or what ever we want. We have sleeping quarters in all our stations. I have worked 5 straight 24s before, most of the week was a blur.


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## medic258 (Aug 20, 2007)

I have worked 24's for most of my career. I do have a few per diem jobs where I will work 12's or 24's depending on my availability. I worked as a full-time medic for a hospital based service that only has 12 hour shifts. The problem was the ability to work my other jobs. Having 2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 vehicles, a mortgage and a wife that enjoys spending money requires me to work more than just a full-time job. My schedule can get bizarre. I work Monday Tuesday and Thursday at school and Wednesday, Friday on the truck. The weekends and nights are reserved for per diem jobs (I have 2).


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## Jon (Oct 5, 2007)

medic258 said:


> I have worked 24's for most of my career. I do have a few per diem jobs where I will work 12's or 24's depending on my availability. I worked as a full-time medic for a hospital based service that only has 12 hour shifts. The problem was the ability to work my other jobs. Having 2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 vehicles, a mortgage and a wife that enjoys spending money requires me to work more than just a full-time job. My schedule can get bizarre. I work Monday Tuesday and Thursday at school and Wednesday, Friday on the truck. The weekends and nights are reserved for per diem jobs (I have 2).


Next question - WHY Must we all work so many jobs? Why can't we make a living like a professional, and only work 40-50 hours a week?


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