# Typical Day in IFT



## rwik123 (Jan 7, 2011)

Hey guys.

I've been trying to nail a job for a while a might have a transport company coming up in my near future. I've been super interested in landing a job with 911 contracts, but at this point I just want to get my foot into the door of a company and gain some exerience. I've never experienced the workings of an IFT company. For those of you who have, whats a normal day like? Are there a run list of pre scheduled transports for the day? Or sometimes are you on call at your base waiting for a transport call. IFT is intriguing to me though..being able to interact with the patient in a more personal way and learn about different conditions and diseases and such. So any wisdom on IFT and day in the life info would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!


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## Aerin-Sol (Jan 7, 2011)

There may be a list but only dispatch sees it. We don't have a base. Here's a typical day:

Go to base. Wait 30 minutes for partner-of-the-day to show up. Get truck. Go back to supply for all the things missing from the truck. 

If partner is a medic: drive to hospital, sit in parking lot for 4 hours, drive to call, pick up patient, drive to hospital, drop off patient, repeat.

If partner is also a basic: drive to hospital, pick up patient, drive to nursing home, drop off patient, partner drives to hospital, I fill out paperwork, read patient's information, take vitals, chat with them to nursing home, drop them off, then I drive to hospital... repeat.


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## MrBrown (Jan 7, 2011)

Transfer patient from A to B, repeat ......


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## jjesusfreak01 (Jan 7, 2011)

MrBrown said:


> Transfer patient from A to B, repeat ......



As the helicopter lands in the nursing home parking lot to take Ms. Franklin to her dialysis appointment. When exactly do you do IFT? Your work with UPS does not count.


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## medicdan (Jan 8, 2011)

In the Boston area, it actually depends slightly on the company, which are you shooting to work for? The North Shore and South Shore have vastly different services... 
In general, expect to spent the entire day in the truck, either on calls, or posted, so bring food and reading material. Be prepared to do some dialysis (either to/from SNF or private residence), some discharge (with stairchairs up), some Inter-Facility (SNF to outpatient appt, etc), some Intra-Facillity (between buildings of the same facility), some nursing home 911 (generally medical), and some suburban 911.


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## Motojunkie (Jan 9, 2011)

MrBrown said:


> Transfer patient from A to B, repeat ......



That pretty much sums it up


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## redbull (Jan 9, 2011)

Morning: Check ambulance to make sure all supplies are on board.

Start of day: Transport patient from hospital back to nursing home / private residence.

Midday: you may get an emergency call for sepsis/peg tube replacement/abdominal pain/psych transport or you may get posted at a location for a few hours

End of day: head back to base

Pretty typical. You'll definitely develop your confidence in th medical assessment but if you're in it for trauma, you won't be getting any of that unless its a flagdown.


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## JPINFV (Jan 9, 2011)

It really depends on the company.

Large regional company I worked for in So Cal:

Arrive, get assigned a partner and unit, check out ambulance.

Call in service, receive either a posting spot or calls. 

If posting spot, go wait near post for a call, feel free to go shopping, eat, sleep, etc while at the post.

If on a call, run the call. Calls were a mix of dialysis, discharge, and nursing home emergency calls. There was also the possibility of being sent back to base to pick up an RN and/or an RT and their equipment and start running CCT calls. 

At end up day, refuel, go back to base, turn paper work in, go home.


Very small company South of Boston:

Show up, clock in, head to first call, run call, either post in the area or return to base, check out unit (well, I was normally the only person to consistently check the unit), wait 3 hours, run return, go back to base, run the 2 afternoon dialysis patients, wait 3 hours, run the returns, go home. Very boring, but very easy and non-stressful.


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## rwik123 (Jan 9, 2011)

JPINFV said:


> It really depends on the company.
> 
> Large regional company I worked for in So Cal:
> 
> ...



the "posting" aspect. Does that just involve sitting in say a parking lot or such near the vicinity of medical centers?


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## JPINFV (Jan 9, 2011)

Not necessarilly near medical centers, but yes, sitting in parking lots. At my first company, there were 20 or so "Charlie spots" (posting locations) at intersections, but we were free to be anywhere within a reasonable distance around the spot, not necessarilly right at the intersection.


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## MMiz (Jan 9, 2011)

For my 12 hour shift as an EMT-Basic with an IFT company a *great* night shift went something like this:

19:00 - Clocked in, called dispatch, started checking out and inventorying truck.
19:30 - Partner arrives, we call on-air, and were assigned to a street corner post.
21:00 - 911 EMS call with RLS response.  Act as first responder and help ALS when they arrive.
22:00 - 911 EMS call.  Assisted until ALS transported.
23:00 - Hospital > Nursing Home
1:00 - Nursing Home > Hospital
2:00-5:00 - Hold post on a street corner.
5:15 - Dialysis run.  Home > Dialysis
6:00 - Post
6:30 - Cleared for fuel and the station.

A day shift was no 911 and all IFT calls.  Sometimes we'd move posts every 15 minutes, though usually we'd stay put for an hour.

Sometimes we'd have no calls, sometimes we'd have lots of calls.  There were months when I didn't touch the lights and sirens, and then shift where all of my calls for RLS.

I absolutely preferred the night shift as there was no traffic to mess with, which was 90% of my frustration in EMS.

Good luck!


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## Sasha (Jan 9, 2011)

Private BLS IFT:

Arrive at work.

Clock in.

Mull around the time clock wasting time and attempting to look busy.

Go check the truck/partner assignments.

Huff and go "Oh god, not him/her/that truck again!" Whine. Mull around the truck roster for a few minutes, killing even more time.

Go get truck check off sheet, keys, and equipment. 

skulk out to truck, climb in drivers seat. Turn on the battery, discover whoever was on the truck before left the battery on the night before. Secretly hope the truck doesn't start so you can get one of the nicer trucks. 

Turn key. Wait...Damn, started. Huff Huff Huff.

Check out the woowoos and sparkly lights you'll never use. Make sure you wait to test the siren until someone's walking in front of your truck so you can give them a heart attack.

Forget to check the fluids, no one checks them anyway and the sooner you kill the truck the sooner you'll get a new one, in theory. (In reality they keep reviving that stupid truck well past being safe to drive.)\

Check the main O2. yup, the one under the bench seat. It's empty. Stomp around and curse about being the only one who ever changes the stupid things.

Go on a search and scavenge mission in the rest of the trucks for stuff you're missing on yours that are not in the supply closet (Stair chairs, though you don't REALLY look for a stair chair because that means you might have to use it. AEDs, good luck finding one, sheets, reports, suction tubing, glucometers, etc are all hot commodities at my service and you're lucky to find them.)

Go in service. Get a call and whine about how everyone else is holding. Swear dispatch is playing favorites. Wonder what you did to piss them off.

Fight with partner about the radio station.

Go to the call. Get *****ed at by nurse for being late. Smile and nod. Get cursed out by patient for moving her. Smile and nod. 

Load very wide patient onto very narrow stretcher. Duck is she swings (they often do.). Ask for help from the nurse. She'll stand there and look confused and then at the last minute grab the legs like she's actually doing something.

Go to leave. Get called back by nurse who forgot an rx. Wait for 20 minutes while she tries to get it.

Get Rx, load patient. Listen to patient yell about the bumps before you even start moving. Nod and smile and write your report. 

Unload patient. Go to room. Room has changed, go to other room. Get yelled at by SNF nurse because hospital nurse forgot to call report because she was too busy holding the feet.

Stand there while SNF nurse hems and haws and goes through paperwork with a fine tooth comb before signing for the patient.

Go back to truck. Finish report. Go available.

Hold the area for awhile. Park in random parking lot. Whine to partner about being bored.

Curse dispatch because they gave you another call. Call them names and throw a fit. Complain about how your sick of it. It's not fair. They should be fired! They don't know what it's like!

Go do another call, much like the first.

Repeat.

At some point, sneak into gas station or mcdonalds for food. 

At the end of the day once you're clear, return to station. Park truck without gassing it up or washing it because no one washes it anyway and they all look like crap and you're tired.

Recount day to dispatch, make fun of nurses, patients, etc. like they are your best friend and you weren't just calling them a mother effer an hour ago.

Poke around and waste time. Turn in paperwork.

Mosey on over to the time clock. Waste time and look busy, squeezing that extra two cents into your paycheck.

Clock out, skulk out to parking lot. Go home. Repeat the next day.


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## firecoins (Jan 9, 2011)

Sasha said:


> Private BLS IFT:
> 
> Arrive at work.
> 
> ...



did we work together?


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## Mike Honcho (Jan 9, 2011)

Sasha said:


> Private BLS IFT:
> 
> Arrive at work.
> 
> ...



Wow, that's sad........


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## Sasha (Jan 9, 2011)

Mike Honcho said:


> Wow, that's sad........



Welcome to the world of money hungry private IFT companies.


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## Mike Honcho (Jan 9, 2011)

If you get that beat down, why not do something else?


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## firecoins (Jan 9, 2011)

Mike Honcho said:


> If you get that beat down, why not do something else?



you haven't noticed the high turnover rates at the companies.


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## Mike Honcho (Jan 9, 2011)

firecoins said:


> you haven't noticed the high turnover rates at the companies.



Yea, I'm just saying if it sucks that bad, maybe you should look to do something else.


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## Shishkabob (Jan 9, 2011)

Mike Honcho said:


> Yea, I'm just saying if it sucks that bad, maybe you should look to do something else.



And most of us are/were.

I worked at an IFT company for 6 months after I got my medic, just because it'd give me 'experience', and the paycheck until I could find a decent 911 to get on with. 

Call me crazy, but I don't want to spend 2 years getting an education, than not work in the field at all till I find the *PERFECT* job, which may or may not ever pop up, while bills continue to come in.


Luckily I'm now at a seemingly good 911 and am enjoying it thus far (more than I ever did at IFT... my worst day in 911 is still better than my best day doing IFT).


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## firecoins (Jan 9, 2011)

Mike Honcho said:


> Yea, I'm just saying if it sucks that bad, maybe you should look to do something else.



 Most people usually are looking for something different.


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## HotelCo (Jan 9, 2011)

firecoins said:


> Most people usually are looking for something different.



The others either really like it, or are management.


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## Sasha (Jan 10, 2011)

That post was largely tongue in cheek. I semi enjoy half my job


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## Shishkabob (Jan 10, 2011)

Sasha said:


> That post was largely tongue in cheek. I semi enjoy half my job




The half where you get to sleep or you get a legit ALS transfer?


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## EMTMama (Jan 10, 2011)

Sasha - you forgot the parts where dispatch gets the diagnosis wrong, so you THINK you're going to a 911 call, turns out you're not. Or the long-distance IFT's every day of your shift (which is what happened to me this past week - 1200 miles in 3 days).


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## HotelCo (Jan 10, 2011)

Linuss said:


> The half where you get to sleep or you get a legit ALS transfer?



Sleep, obviously.... isn't that the reason we all got into EMS.

.


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## njff/emt (Jan 18, 2011)

Where do I begin, I've worked for several IFT co's. It's pretty much of what everyone else has said, plus I would be all over the state barely getting a break. At first I liked it, but after awhile I despised it. Some places have contracts covering 911 for towns with volly squads during the day, but I wish you luck trying to get on a 911 gig.


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## clibb (Jan 18, 2011)

Sasha said:


> Private BLS IFT:
> 
> Arrive at work.
> 
> ...



And that is exactly why I don't do and would never do IFT even if I got paid a million bucks for it. I don't know how some people do the routine, but props to you guys. 

If you kept doing those violations at my agency you would be fired on the spot. We are 911, so I guess we'd be more out of luck if our truck didn't start than you would be. 
Filling up and cleaning the truck is not something that you HAVE to do. You do it out of respect. 
Treat others the way you'd like to be treated and things might change.


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## njff/emt (Jan 18, 2011)

Clibb I couldn't agree more, but there are shady IFT co's out there that have just the bare essentials to pass state inspection. Plus I can't even count how many times I would be missing things only to find out my truck was raided. It is a dog eat dog world. Also when people are acting like children it doesn't help things out either. Additional bonus is when the company has plenty of money to buy new ambulances they decide to squeeze as much life as possible out of the older ones, and they always keep the oldest hunk of junk known as the "Punishment Truck". You usually get this if you piss dispatch off or draw the shortest straw.


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## thegreypilgrim (Jan 18, 2011)

Let's see:

Show up, clock in.

Check out unit - realize several key pieces of equipment are somehow missing even though this is IFT and stuff theoretically shouldn't be getting used that often...nevertheless.

Battle supervisor who wants you to go in service regardless or scrounge around station, pilfer needed supplies from other units.

Hope some mechanical problem downs unit, because it's got almost 400k miles and should have been retired years ago. 

Pick up trash and crap that your slovenly and worthless mutant co-worker left in the unit from day before.

Post...do nothing for hours on end. Hopefully bring movies, books, homework, etc.

Run a call or two.

Practice coping mechanisms for the inevitable derisive, unprovoked, and generally unpleasant attitude you'll encounter from nursing staff.

Try to figure out complicated, unresolved system issues on the fly as your worthless dispatch accepts calls from urgent care or con home facilities which should have been 911 calls from the start - leading you to figure out whether to obey arbitrary rules enforced with varying degrees of enthusiasm regarding whether you have to call 911 yourself or initiate treatment/transport.

Attempt to call base/med control for permission to do something you already know is needed and appropriate only to have it denied because the MICN has no idea who you are (because you're not a fire rescue) and promptly becomes an obstacle for patient care.

Go back to station, get harassed by supervision because station is dirty because all crews post all day and no one is at station to clean it and no one is going to do station/house duties at 2300 when we finally get back

Sleep.

Go home. Repeat in a couple days.


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## JJR512 (Jan 18, 2011)

It's actually fairly easy to get by as long as you, the employee, understand one simple concept:

Employees get paid to do what their employer wants them to do.

It's that simple.

If your employer wants you to sit around in your ambulance in a parking lot all day, that's what they're paying you to do, so you do it. If your employer wants you to do one call over here, then another call halfway across the state, then another call in yet another corner of the state, that's what they're paying you to do, so you do it. If your employer wants you to run 20 calls in a 10-hour shift doing nothing more than ferrying hospital patients to and from an imaging center across the street from the hospital because the hospital's only MRI broke down, that's what they're paying you to do, so you do it.

*As with anything else in life, there are choices.* There's always a choice. If they give you a call you just don't want to run, you can decide if you're going to run it or not. Nobody's holding a gun to your head forcing you to run it. If you don't want to run it, just drive back to the office and turn in the keys. Or get out and walk home. Sure, you'll lose your job, but what do you expect will happen when you refuse to do what your employer is paying you to do? You may think that's not a choice, but it is. Just because you don't like the consequences of one option doesn't mean it's not a choice. Even if someone actually is holding a gun to your head, you still have the choice to not do what you're being demanded. Again, you won't like the consequences of not complying, but as a human being, you have the free will to determine your own actions. Nobody has the power of mind control.


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## thegreypilgrim (Jan 18, 2011)

JJR512 said:


> *As with anything else in life, there are choices.*


Unless you try to complicate things with reality.


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## supergirl534 (Jan 18, 2011)

i work for a realy busy IFT company we do a minimum of 30 discharges out of the hospital usually to nursing homes, we have about 50 dialysis runs and then unkown amount of dr visits or other specail transports, and then there is always the "emergency" for the fdgb(fall down go boom).  at our company we spend almost all of our time out on the road and a majority of the time if we didnt grab something to drink or eat right out of the base we wont get a  chance.  i guess it all dependeds on were you work.  some of the pts are really funny and there are others that you become really close with.  i like them but i really would love to have a real 911 job


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## JJR512 (Jan 18, 2011)

thegreypilgrim said:


> Unless you try to complicate things with reality.



No, no "unless" _anything_. The rest of the paragraph that followed what you quoted took reality into account. As I said, you may not like the consequences that come from the alternative, but you _always_ have a choice. You may feel obligated to do one thing, you may feel you need or are supposed to do one thing, you may feel that you only have one option, but the fact is there are other choices available.

Sometimes, someone who really doesn't like their current situation needs to really take the time to re-examine the choices they're making.


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## Frozennoodle (Jan 18, 2011)

I work IFT and I guess I'm lucky as hell because we get the routine boring calls but we also get 911 roll over calls from New Orleans and Jefferson Parish with a lot of Emergent calls from nursing facilities we have contracts with.  I was on a double basic truck this weekend and got a critical patient.  We run lights and sirens at least a couple times each day.


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## rwik123 (Jan 18, 2011)

Frozennoodle said:


> I work IFT and I guess I'm lucky as hell because we get the routine boring calls but we also get 911 roll over calls from New Orleans and Jefferson Parish with a lot of Emergent calls from nursing facilities we have contracts with.  I was on a double basic truck this weekend and got a critical patient.  We run lights and sirens at least a couple times each day.



yeah its not that its the aspect of not being able to run lights and siren that turns me off.. but lets be honest, there is a thrill of running code to an emergency call


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## redbull (Jan 30, 2011)

rwik123 said:


> yeah its not that its the aspect of not being able to run lights and siren that turns me off.. but lets be honest, there is a thrill of running code to an emergency call



i agree, but it gets boring after a while. while these are true emergencies that i feel are masked by nursing homes, a call for sepsis or a peg tube removal is unappealing after you get to know what it is. 

needless to say i quit my IFT ems job the first week of jan -- i got a better paying job in a hopsital (non-ems related). i plan on volleying with my community. this is the best job in the world B)


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