EMS crew caught sleeping in ambulance

Company policy is no sleeping on 12 hour shifts. It's not strictly enforced however if someone in the public says they saw us sleeping there will usually be an investigation.

I'm one of the a**holes that says if you're on a 12 hour shift it is not hard to stay awake.

If for some reason you need to take a nap go far away from where the public will see you. A little common sense will tell you not to park next to a crowded place to sleep.
 
well call me lazy! i worked 8s and 12s on graves and slept every chance i got. granted we posted at a station so the public wasnt an issue
 
12 hour shifts never ended on time for me; I think my best was a 12 hour night shift that started 29 Dec 2006; and ended 2nd Jan 2007. Damn straight I slept when I could. Even if a shift went over an hour or 2 makes for a long shift.
 
I've gotten some decent sleep on slow nights backed into the wildlife area parking lot, but I usually avoided napping. When we were inevitably woken up, I'd feel like I was wickedly hungover. I just flopped my life. Night became day and day became night. I've worked with plenty of guys who would sleep all shift if they could. I never faulted them for it.

I worked 24s where if you weren't driving or attending you napped. It was the only was to get through the shift without dying.
 
Heck I sleep on 12 hour days. It's not one shift to get through, it's a whole week of bouncing around jobs with different schedules. If I'm tired, I'm going to try and nap.
 
My company will send people home or have them take a nap at base if they look/are too tired to function. They encourage sleeping, just not in the front of the rig. That is when the planets align and we're not busy enough to actually say the word sleep
 
I rest when I get the chance. I sleep very lightly and the "bing bong" of the MDT always wakes me up... However, I may have been slow to respond to a post move once.
 
DesertEMT66 said:
I'm one of the a**holes that says if you're on a 12 hour shift it is not hard to stay awake.
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I'm one of the *******s that says you and your partner make a plan and back each other up.

In the world of fire, they are called "safety naps".
 
I turn the volume up and doze.
 
Yea I only wish my adrenaline would go down so I could even attempt to sleep more than 45mins to an hour whether in the ambulance or at station. Another thing it would be nearly impossible to sleep through those extremely high pitched tones that go out over the radio before the call for the ambulance bls or als comes in.
 
I wear a superman T under my clothes to help me :D Really the public got nothing better to do than make a quick buck on someone Else's privacy. I note they didn't interview him about the Non-turning up of crew and as to why. Why would anyone want to see is video in the EMS services they all know how it works. Plus he couldn't have been sleeping maybe power dozing(which you have to do if you body allows or you'll burn out) as you can see he was watching the video go doing what he was doing. Nice clean rig to!!
 
I used to work at a very rural area that got 4 - 5 calls a week on average. We worked on 12 - 24 hr shifts and we slept when we could. Though we never had a busy area to stop us of that and I have been to rural hospitals where most of the staff is asleep because they only have one or two patients.
 
Kinda reminds me of a something that happened to me a while ago. Was nearing the end off a 48 hr shift, and I stopped to get a bite to eat, and an older woman tells me that I should not be slacking off and that I would be reported to my supervisor. I guess the public doesn't realize we are humans, and require sleep and food to stay alive.
 
redundantbassist said:
Kinda reminds me of a something that happened to me a while ago. Was nearing the end off a 48 hr shift, and I stopped to get a bite to eat, and an older woman tells me that I should not be slacking off and that I would be reported to my supervisor. I guess the public doesn't realize we are humans, and require sleep and food to stay alive.
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I've had very different experiences while getting food in uniform. Most people seem perfectly happy to see me and many strike up conversations. On occasion some ask what happens if there is an emergency which gives me an opportunity to explain that I would put down what I was doing and go respond to said call.

I imagine much of this is based on the community where one lives/works and what the overall perception is of fire or EMS. Here, I would venture many don't even know who is paid or actually on duty when they see people in uniform. The volunteer fire culture here is so huge that many assume you are a volunteer firefighter free to do whatever you want in your free time.
 
Anyone see any sleeping in that high quality 7 second video??? I sure didn't, that guy was awake and talking to him.
 
EMT's dont get designated breaks for us to relax. when ever we arent on a call we will close our eyes and relax for as long as we can because after the next call we might just keep going. the public needs to learn how we operate so the can stop being ignorant.
 
TransportJockey said:
I might be looked at as an *** but if you're on a twelve hour overnight yoi shouldn't be sleeping on duty. Plan your day appropriately for your work schedule. I work in a hospital on night shifts and if a nurse or tech was caught sleeping there would be issues. If they've said they're posting on a 24 or longer then what I said doesn't apply.
Like I said, just my opinion
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I agree with you to a point; don't come to work for a 12 hour sleep expecting to sleep. have I slept on duty for a 12? absolutely. have I been woken up by my supervisor during a mid day nap? absolutely. would I do it again? absolutely.

When I worked straight days (7am to 7pm), by 8 or 9am I was looking for a quiet place to rest my eyes for a bit. Wasn't a morning person, so my partner knew he was doing most of the critical thinking and functioning prior to 10am (not that I couldn't if needed, but he was definitely an early riser). Worked out great for him, because he started to crash around 5pm, and I was all ready to go and functioning at full capacity. And more than once did I not get my mid morning nap.

But if you come to me (as another crew in my area) asking for a light day because you are tired, well, I won't have much sympathy for you.

I don't care what a person does when they aren't on a call, as long as they act appropriately and respond quickly when they get a call
 
cjclrkk said:
EMT's dont get designated breaks for us to relax. when ever we arent on a call we will close our eyes and relax for as long as we can because after the next call we might just keep going. the public needs to learn how we operate so the can stop being ignorant.
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Or the EMS crew can do the smart thing, and park out of the line of sight of the general public.
 
Radio volume up, pager to loud beep, and park out of the way. Working the night shift, it was the norm to sleep in a SSM system.

If the largest airline pilot's union condones pilots taking turns napping in the cockpit, I see no problem with napping in EMS.
 
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