24 hr shifts

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danderson900

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How are 24 hr shifts typically scheduled- is it 24 on and 48 off or what?
Do your days of the week that you are working vary from week to week
(i.e. work Mon and Thurs one week, Sun and Wed next week, etc)
 
akflightmedic

akflightmedic

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All depends on where you work and the call volume, location, etc.

Military and military contractors for EMS and Fire still work 24 on , 24 off.

The majority of departments I am familiar with work 24 on 48 off.

Some departments have a 4th shift and work 24 on 72 off.

Some work 24 on 24 off 24 on 24 off 24 on 72 or 96 off.

Some departments have Kelly Days which is a day off that slides into your rotation without disrupting the schedule flow.

There are plenty more variations that I have yet to touch on.
As you can see, it all varies...
 
EMTinNEPA

EMTinNEPA

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Most medics at my service do 24 on, 24 off, 16 on. The EMTs do 12 or 16 hour shifts. The logic behind this is that the medic's 24 is on the first-due 911 truck, so they won't be doing any driving for those 24 hours. The 16 is then on the IFT/second-due 911 truck.
 
fortsmithman

fortsmithman

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Here in the NWT 24 hour shifts are in violation of the NWT employment standards act. 12 hour shifts can be done.
 
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Sapphyre

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Where I work, the 24s are WOWOWOOOO. But, again, it all depends on where you work, and who you're working for.
 
Crepitus

Crepitus

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When I worked fire we worked the 24 on/24 off/24 on/24 off/24 on/96 off for a 56 hour work week averaged over a 27 day FLSA period.

When I worked third party municipal, we worked a 40 hour week made up of 24's, 16's, 12's and 8's. For example Thursday night 16 and Saturday day 24. That was the worst week for call volume. Monday and Wednesday were either 12 hr days or 12 hour nights with a 16 hour Friday night or a 16 hour Sunday night. Another week was a 24 hour Tuesday and 8 hr days on Thursday and Friday. It was complicated compared to the fire schedule, but the pay was outstanding. Plus they allowed trading within the week, so you traded your Monday/Wednesday's into 24 hour shifts, used your comp time to take off your 8' hour days and you could get your total shifts for the month down to 7. That was nice!

My wife works the rotating fire 'squad' schedule. 24 on/48 off with periodically a 24 on/72 off. This averages to 53 hours a week over the 27 day FLSA period.

At her part time gig she flies - they work straight 12 hour ER shift with 24's not allowed.

I know a couple services that run a 48 hour week and a 24 hour week and pay OT one week and give a you a light check the second week. They consider the position a .9 FTE.

I know a couple services that pay a lower hourly rate and run 24 on/24 on call/ 24 day off and just pay the OT because what the heck they aren't paying anything hourly anyway.
 
Tincanfireman

Tincanfireman

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danderson900 said:
How are 24 hr shifts typically scheduled- is it 24 on and 48 off or what?
Do your days of the week that you are working vary from week to week
(i.e. work Mon and Thurs one week, Sun and Wed next week, etc)
Click to expand...

At my (part time) EMS job it's straight 24/48 for the full-timers; part time just schedules whenever we are available. At the FD it's a three week rotation with a four day break every three weeks: (Starting on a Tues.) WOOWOWOOWOOWOWOOWOOOO. The tradeoff is that we have two short weekends for every long one. I would prefer the straight 24/48's, but I am but one vote and the majority prefer the current rotation.
 
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46Young

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I have the same schedule as Sapphyre and Crepitus' fire job. If you're working a 56 hour week, it's the only way to go. You can't be held longer than 12 hours after your shift, and you get three four day breaks each month.

When I worked CCEMS we had a 24/48, no Kellys. It's miserable. If you're in a busy system, your first day off is spent recovering, and you're always going back to work the next day. If you're held over for extra 12's and 24's, you'll want to eat a bullet.

Alexandria Fire and EMS single role medics work WOOWOOOO. That's sweet.

Some MD depts do a 24/48 with Kellys - WOOWOOWOOWOOOOO.

Some depts do a 48/96. This works only if you have low call volume.

Some DoD depts do a 48/72, or a perpetual 24/24.
 
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CollegeBoy

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Here we are scheduled 24 on 48 off. People seem to build vacation fairly quickly though, so the part-time get alot of work too. Our county is small enough that we can get away with having only two ambulances staffed: one north, one south. We also have an unstaffed ambulance sitting at each base for all pages if you want a little extra work.

Before we went to two ambulance bases in the county, we used to do 24 on, 24 on call, 24 off.

Our fire is complete vollunteer so when someone doesn't want to drag theirs out of bed they don't have to.
 
medic417

medic417

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Seems you got basically exact same answers as the the other sites gave you. In fact many of the same people answered you.
 
Luno

Luno

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Work now is 3 24hr shifts in 5 days, then 4 days off...
 
JonTullos

JonTullos

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My shift is a 48 hour shift every Thursday/Friday but every third week that changes to 24 on Thursday, off Friday and back for a 24 on Saturday. It seems to work pretty well. Everyone likes having a pretty set schedule... easier to make plans that way, plus you know for sure when you're available to work at another service if you so choose.
 
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46Young

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chocchipsmom said:
We work a 24/72. It seems to agree with most.
Click to expand...

For an EMS agency, that's awesome! Any dept in the Carolinas that I've heard of does a 24/48 no Kellys. Would you be willing to reveal where you work?
 
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OP
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danderson900

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medic417 said:
Seems you got basically exact same answers as the the other sites gave you. In fact many of the same people answered you.
Click to expand...

I have asked a similar question at only ONE other site (emtcity.com). In addition, most of the responses I have gotten here (emtlife.com) are giving me completely new, useful information. I'm only trying to learn....
 
medic417

medic417

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danderson900 said:
I have asked a similar question at only ONE other site (emtcity.com). In addition, most of the responses I have gotten here (emtlife.com) are giving me completely new, useful information. I'm only trying to learn....
Click to expand...

Sorry I was being grouchy.

As to shifts depends on your work environment. If slow and you can sleep no problem doing as many shifts as you can stand to be away from home for. If no sleep and busy 12 hours may be to many hours.
 
Medic One

Medic One

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We work several shifts.

We have 24s in satelite offices that have low call volume

Then we have 8's, 12's, and 16's.

The 12 hr shifts are all 3on 3off roations from Days/Nights.
So we work three days 7a-7p off for three then 3 12hr nights from 7p-7a.

The rotation is great we get best of both worlds and if done properly you can work 6 shifts in a row to get six off if you swap with the other rotation.
We have two three day work weeks and one four day work week so we are either salery at 40 straight (if on contract) or if not on contract you get 36hrs one week and 48 the next.

We have a total of 14 ambulances coming on shift between 6a and 11a along with 7 paramedic fly cars coming on shift at 7a.
then in the afternoon we start changing crews starting at 2p - 7p to cover night and evening shifts.

From doing all the shifts over the past 20yrs I perfer working 12's 3/3 and 24hr shifts....less days to work each week.
 
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