Do you get breaks?

[DrParasite]

Question: at your agency, can an ambulance crew request a break, where they cannot be sent on a call for any reason?

At my agency (911 Service for a decent sized city, 80,000 to 100,000 calls a year), units can request a "personal" break that is between 10 and 20 minutes. Typically this is used so they can use the little EMTs room, but the reality is they can do whatever they want during that time. There can be a triple shooting going on, a cardiac arrest, or a baby who got hit by a car, and by policy they are not to be dispatched for the call.

Usually a personal is requested once, maybe twice during the 12 hour shift, and it has to be asked for before they are given an assignment, not afterwards. Again, it gives them a little break in between the 12-20 jobs they get during their shift so they can use the little EMTs room.

With the situation about the DC ambulance not going on the shooting despite dispatch and supervisors knowing they were available, I'm curious if any other system allows for this as well.

 

[SanDiegoEmt7]

It usually works out that there is downtime during a shift, but if there isn't, there are no breaks to be had. Not really realistic to clear a unit for a break then have a priority one come in and be required to dispatch a unit with a longer ETA.

Back at my IFT job, they attempted to give every crew a 30 minute break per shift. If not, we made our own breaks.

But its different when running 911. I wouldn't want my family to have to wait for ACLS, for example because a unit was tired of running for 4 hours straight and wanted starbucks.

Just my .02

 

[DrParasite]

But its different when running 911. I wouldn't want my family to have to wait for ACLS, for example because a unit was tired of running for 4 hours straight and wanted starbucks.

while I do agree with you from the patient's perspective, from a provider's perspective, how fair is it for a crew to be running for 10 hrs straight and not have time to use the bathroom?

 

[C.T.E.M.R.]

No, but we only run 2000 calls a year with 2 rigs, there's been a few really busy shifts but, theirs usually an hour or so downtime for us between calls. i was at the station the other day for an hour and a half to get some stuff done, and they hadn't had a call in the last hour before i sowed up or after, so we are relatively quiet, i dont think breaks are needed unless you just ran 5 als calls in a row nonstop.

 

[SanDiegoEmt7]

while I do agree with you from the patient's perspective, from a provider's perspective, how fair is it for a crew to be running for 10 hrs straight and not have time to use the bathroom?

Crews generally always have a chance to use the restroom at the offload hospital. Its the nature of the job.

 

[Stew]

We get either one or two 30 minute meal breaks depending on the shift. A 10hr shift gets one meal break, a 12hr gets two. Our meal can be 'broken' for code 1 (life threatening) and 2A (non life threatening but urgent) cases. If our meal is broken we are automatically paid an allowance of approx $10.70 and then double time until we complete our meal.

eg. Start a meal at 1000, broken at 1010, recommence at 1100, completed at 1120. So for an hour and 10 minutes we get paid double time, plus $10.70.

If are broken more than once, we get paid the allowance each time we are broken and double time until the meal is finished. Where I work it's entirely possibly to be broken on your first meal, and not recommence it until you log off at the end of shift. The service also has arrangements with most hospital staff cafeterias, a number of Subways and a McDonalds (groan) to provide meals at no cost to on road staff (McDonalds seems to only be used on weekend night shifts when nothing else is open).

 

[SanDiegoEmt7]

We get either one or two 30 minute meal breaks depending on the shift. A 10hr shift gets one meal break, a 12hr gets two. Our meal can be 'broken' for code 1 (life threatening) and 2A (non life threatening but urgent) cases. If our meal is broken we are automatically paid an allowance of approx $10.70 and then double time until we complete our meal.

eg. Start a meal at 1000, broken at 1010, recommence at 1100, completed at 1120. So for an hour and 10 minutes we get paid double time, plus $10.70.

If are broken more than once, we get paid the allowance each time we are broken and double time until the meal is finished. Where I work it's entirely possibly to be broken on your first meal, and not recommence it until you log off at the end of shift. The service also has arrangements with most hospital staff cafeterias, a number of Subways and a McDonalds (groan) to provide meals at no cost to on road staff (McDonalds seems to only be used on weekend night shifts when nothing else is open).

It's settled... I'm moving to australia.

 

[DarkStarr]

take a piss after transferring care at the ER, then run in for something to eat on your way back to post, or in my case, base.

i love working where i do. we run out of a base with crew/sleeping quarters. none of that 'posting' nonsense and being stuck in a truck for 12 hours. nothin beats putting your feet up in a recliner for 2 or however many hours till you get paged.

but, to make that work, we have a local coverage area, whereas the local 'corporate' ems provider has posts all over the county, minus our coverage areas (but they will cover if we are busy, and vice versa).

so, whenever we arent running, we're on break (provided all is accounted for), and can use that free time to hang out, mess around, run errands in the bus (in coverage area), etc.

 

[Motojunkie]

I can't remember if we do or not in the rule book, but I've never heard one given while I was working. The only time we're allowed to be delayed is if we're at post and one of the crew is in the restroom we tell dispatch that there's a "facilities delay" when we get a call. If it's a really busy day though we'll usually get a sandwich at the hospital or something like that (Some of out hospitals have refrigerators for the staff with water and sandwiches and they let us partake from it if we need to). We can usually fit some food in somewhere though.

 

[Sam Adams]

We work both 8 and 10 hr shifts. Depending on call volume we can be placed on a personal assignment. However, we can be pulled off of it for any priority call. Usually though, the crews in the surrounding districts will try and cover your dinner.

 

[emtchick171]

At the department I work for there is no break time. The only break time you MIGHT get is if you have a few minutes inbetween calls that you can use the restroom, grab a drink or go through a drive-thru. I have been working a 12 hour shift before and didn't get a chance to eat at all. We run calls steadily, unless things slow down for the entire area.

 

[medic2465]

Question: at your agency, can an ambulance crew request a break, where they cannot be sent on a call for any reason?

At my agency (911 Service for a decent sized city, 80,000 to 100,000 calls a year), units can request a "personal" break that is between 10 and 20 minutes. Typically this is used so they can use the little EMTs room, but the reality is they can do whatever they want during that time. There can be a triple shooting going on, a cardiac arrest, or a baby who got hit by a car, and by policy they are not to be dispatched for the call.

Usually a personal is requested once, maybe twice during the 12 hour shift, and it has to be asked for before they are given an assignment, not afterwards. Again, it gives them a little break in between the 12-20 jobs they get during their shift so they can use the little EMTs room.

With the situation about the DC ambulance not going on the shooting despite dispatch and supervisors knowing they were available, I'm curious if any other system allows for this as well.

12 hour shifts here, the only "breaks" we get are by requesting one at a gas station or restaurant. It is pretty much just advising dispatch where we will be (although all medic units have GPS tracking) the closest unit will be sent to a call that comes out no matter what we are doing, there is NEVER a time that calls cannot be given to us, with the exception of being low on fuel...

 

[MrBrown]

We get two thirty minute breaks by law and can only be broken for a life threatning job. If our meal break is interrupted for a job straight after the job the crew must be stood down and the thirty minutes taken while another vehicle moves in to provide cover.

Unfortunately crews are not compensated for this and it is a significant area of contention between the union and service providers. Reality is we are barely funded to provide a service let alone such a nicety.

 

[Archymomma]

We do 24 hr shifts, with 3 crews (hopefully) on to cover the county. We run out of a base so when we are not out on call we are either at the base, hospital, or we can go through a drive through, pretty much what we want to do (once the chores at the base are finished). We don't get official breaks if our crew is up for call we are up for call.

We can take our truck out of service though if needed. This isn't for personal use though it is for clean-up after a bad call or a breakdown getting the truck to the shop etc.

 

[MrBrown]

So Brown just has to ask; are there no Federal, State, local or union requirements for a rest break in the US? Seems awfully dangerous and just something that is not tolerated elsewhere (ie AU, EU) .... are there no limits on the number of hours you can drive? (again very tightly regualated elsewhere) :unsure:

 

[emtchick171]

So Brown just has to ask; are there no Federal, State, local or union requirements for a rest break in the US? Seems awfully dangerous and just something that is not tolerated elsewhere (ie AU, EU) .... are there no limits on the number of hours you can drive? (again very tightly regualated elsewhere) :unsure:

I mean, we have laws and regulations within my department saying that you MUST have 8hours between the time you get off of one shift and go on to your next shift...which prevents us from working "doubles" (two 12 hour shifts back to back).

 

[the_negro_puppy]

The olny time we are 100% protected from being dispatched to a job is:

1) When they put us 'out of service'. Once we clear a job after our scheduled finish time they must put us out of service.

2) If the vehicle is damaged/non-operational. If we get a flat tyre etc we call up and they make us unavailable until the issue is resolved.


All other times we can get dispatched jobs. Sometime we could be at a hospital waiting with our pt still on the stretcher. It is not uncommon here for paramedics to be stuck in the hospital hallway for 2 hours with their pt waiting for a bed to be available. In these cases they usually leave us alone but if something serious goes down they can ask us if we can respond i.e put pt in wheelchair leave with hospital staff.


If we have started a meal break and they dispatch a job the must pay us a $10 allowance. If we miss a meal break or do not finish one in a shift they must pay us $10 allowance. If we do not get our 30 minute meal break within the alloted time, they must pay us meal overtime (single time on top of normal rate). Our meals are broken for code 1s and code 2As

I.E a 7am-7pm shift states:

1 meal between 10:30am-1:00pm, the other 2:30-5:00pm.

 

[TransportJockey]

No service I've worked at gave official breaks. When you weren't on a call you were considered on a break

 

[FrostbiteMedic]

Neither the 911 service that I work for nor the security company I work for give breaks. The 911 service does 24 hour shifts, and the security company generally does 12 hour shifts. We are paid the entire time.

 

[WolfmanHarris]

We're given two forty minute breaks per twelve hour shift. The first is assigned between the 3rd and 5th hours of shift and the second between the 7th and 9th hours.

During a meal/rest break a unit is out of service for standbys, transfers, and non-emerg calls and is returned to a base (not necessairly their home base). In a station with multiple units, in the event of a call when one unit is on their break, the other unit will attend, otherwise in the event of an emerg call the unit attends regardless of break. Because we are still available during these break times means we are paid throughout.

If the meal break is interrupted within the first 30 minutes, the crew must be placed on a new break, starting from the beginning as soon as possible. If no complete break is had during the designated window, the crew may claim $15.00 per missed break. This compensation isn't in lieu of a break and the crew is still technically entitled to a break. The compensation is designed to provide incentive for the service to actually make an effort to facilitate breaks.

Some days we're busy enough that actually being placed on a break by dispatch is important. Other times we have enough down time that the official break is somewhat inconsequential.

In the event of greater than two hours of overtime a crew becomes legally entitled to another break, however, once a call that extends past shift end is cleared that unit it also placed out of service for all but cardiac arrests until returned to base for crew change. As a result these crews are paid out $10.00 to cover the "third" meal/rest break.