EMS Multitasking (Multiple jobs during downtime)

To respond to the OP-- the private that I work for doesnt care if we sleep-- as long as we answer the radio for our calls. During the day/week we are guaranteed to be busy just about the entire time-- but if we dont have a call, we are free to do as we wish. WHen on shift, we arent allowed to return to the station-- need to stay where we are posted.

WuLabs-- For non-emergency transports I fill out most of my paperwork before picking up my patient and finish it during the transport. I incorperate my paperwork time into the call time-- so as not to cause problems at the end of the day. I need to leave a copy of my paperwork with the patient when we drop them off--- so it needs to be done (with times and mileages).
If your responsibilities as an employee include patient care/transportation, going where dispatch tells you when they tell you, AND completing your paperwork, the company should pay you to do that if you havent been given the time during your shift. How much longer is that paperwork going to take you at the end of the day? 15 minutes? Are they that stingy?
 
in ma, we are required by law to leave a copy of the run report at the er, so for 911 calls, i dont leave until my report is written and signed.

for ift or treatment calls, the law requires us to leave a copy of the report with the patient. very rarely does a dialysis patient want their report. the only reason i left them for ift's was so the crew doing the return didnt have to dig through the chart or play 20 ?'s with the pt. also, since these are normally the stabalist of stable patients, i can get most of the report done enroute.

sometimes, even for ift or treatment calls, if its been crazy busy or the dispatcher has been being jerky, i'll sit and write my report before leaving on the next job(911's excepted).
 
2200 is usually bedtime, except weekends.
Weekends are pretty much fair game, after chores are done.

Try to make me do something that is not related to job (wash truck, clean station or rig, or do training related to my job), and you can go pound sand.

Not being able to sleep while on 24 hr shifts is a violation of FLSA, and should be reported FORTHWITH to the proper authorities.


In fact, I napped from about 1000-1300 today. B)
 
BLSBoy said:
2200 is usually bedtime, except weekends.
Weekends are pretty much fair game, after chores are done.

Try to make me do something that is not related to job (wash truck, clean station or rig, or do training related to my job), and you can go pound sand.

Not being able to sleep while on 24 hr shifts is a violation of FLSA, and should be reported FORTHWITH to the proper authorities.


In fact, I napped from about 1000-1300 today. B)
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You guys don't have to wash your own trucks?

Also, I realized that in most states there are regulations requiring breaks after 5 hours of work. Does this not apply to EMS? I know that you don't have to take your break right at the 5 hour mark if you're in the middle of a task in retail, (for example, stocking the shelves and have 2 more to go but you hit 5 hours) so I assume the same for EMS (don't have to pull over the truck with a pt in the back saying "we can't go the next 2 miles until our break is over) but is there some exemption for EMS and not having to give lunch breaks if its really busy?
 
WuLabsWuTecH said:
You guys don't have to wash your own trucks?

Also, I realized that in most states there are regulations requiring breaks after 5 hours of work. Does this not apply to EMS? I know that you don't have to take your break right at the 5 hour mark if you're in the middle of a task in retail, (for example, stocking the shelves and have 2 more to go but you hit 5 hours) so I assume the same for EMS (don't have to pull over the truck with a pt in the back saying "we can't go the next 2 miles until our break is over) but is there some exemption for EMS and not having to give lunch breaks if its really busy?
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federal labor laws do not require a break to be provided. however, they do require that if a short duration(<30min) break is offered, that that time is compensable. designated meal breaks are non compensable time


in ma, any employee who works over six consecutive hours is required by law to be give a 30min mean break for which they do not have to be paid. to qualify, they must be completely relieved of their dutis for the entire period. certain industries are exempted due to their nature. These include “iron works, glass works, paper mills, letter press establishments, print works, bleach works, and dyeing works.” others may be added, but ems does not appear on any list. good luck getting a mass private to understand that.
 
I work in a small ambulance company and we do have the option to sleep, but there are days where our boss requires us to do a few things before we can. Washing the rigs is enough on some occasions, others it is cleaning out the bays and making sure the crew lounge is clean. When I say small ambulance company I mean we employ maybe 25-30 people we only have 3 ambulances, and 3 coach vehicles, we also have one med-car. We are a very close company though, like family, and many of us have other jobs - as i'm sure alot of you do as well. The boss is very understanding of that fact and because some like I go from one job straight to the other he knows we need sleep. But on the other hand we all have small little jobs within the company, like I have an office job with them as well keeping track of our average time for every month, quarter, and year.
 
Buzz said:
My service has a no-sleeping policy regardless of whether you're on a 12 or 24 hour shift. I've been told many different stories from co-workers as to what the original cause was for the creation of this, most involving a crew that was sent to a scheduled pickup point ahead of time then took a nap, not waking up to the alarm they'd set on their cellular phones or a crew not responding to a radio call. In any case, getting caught sleeping is an instant write-up.

Our day crews never get any downtime, and dispatch likes to stack calls so it's very likely we'll go to work and have a patient at all times on our shift. (IE: Take a patient to the hospital, and get another patient returning to a nursing home with yet another patient coming out of the nursing home to another facility that also happens to be sending someone out). The night crew (which is what I work) tends to only do rescues and there are substantially fewer of those calls than during in the day, so we tend to get a lot of downtime. There's not much to do during that time--some people study. My partner and I watch movies on my laptop or chat with another crew that gets posted in the same area as us. We have no supervisors that are regularly on midnights, so many people get away with the occasional naps.
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I would hate to be your providers attorneys. I highly suggest someone slip a copy of the following studies. Sleep deprivation is well documented event that causes acccidents and injuries. Also an almost litigation if one can show that the medic or provider has had the potential of such. The same goes for crew safety, even if a accident occurs on the way home (which is the usual high event), write a check out.

They do & did NOT regard the safety and welfare of their patient nor staff.


http://www.iafc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=559
http://www.superiorems.com/news/08_02_12.pdf
 
My service only requires a minimum of 4 hours of work per 24-hr shift (unless we are responding to calls, of course), and that's a pretty loose guideline. As long as I can clean everything, restock, and do all the paperwork, they don't care whether I spend 8 hours on it or 1.5. So if we are hosting an 8-hour PR event one day, I can stay at my place all day the next day as long as everything is ready in case a call comes in. I turn up my radio and cellphone before I go to bed (my living quarters are away from the station) to make sure I don't miss a call, and I don't put in my earplugs - at home I usually sleep with earplugs.
 
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Our 24hr bases are provided beds and can sleep from 11pm to 7am or shift end. During this time they can have a chute time of <1:59. Bases with an average 12hr shift are not supposed to sleep. However almost everyone does both day and night. We are supposed to keep a chute time of <59sec for all calls 90% of the time. As long as we can stay about 85% or better not much is said. We have a few base chores as others have mentioned.
 
As long as the quarters are kept clean and the rig is ready to go we are fine to sleep!
 
BLSBoy said:
2200 is usually bedtime, except weekends.
Weekends are pretty much fair game, after chores are done.

Try to make me do something that is not related to job (wash truck, clean station or rig, or do training related to my job), and you can go pound sand.

Not being able to sleep while on 24 hr shifts is a violation of FLSA, and should be reported FORTHWITH to the proper authorities.


In fact, I napped from about 1000-1300 today. B)
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Are you really sure about those things? Even in basic you are taught unit maintenance such as cleaning and routine cleaning of your rig, station is your job and responsibility. Really what training are you referring to? BLS? Surely your jesting?

As well not being able to sleep is a FSLA violation, when did this occur? There are about 40-50 thousand services that would like to see that in writing.

I suggest to go back and re-evaulate what your real job is as a basic and what real life EMS is all about.

R/r 911
 
i think BLSboy was giving those examples as things that were part of his job. I've been up for a little while now, and I could have misread that, but that's what i read, and i'll stick to it until after i've had some sleep.
 
I would be interested in knowing the turnover rate for employees at an agency that didn't allow napping.
 
Ridryder911 said:
Are you really sure about those things? Even in basic you are taught unit maintenance such as cleaning and routine cleaning of your rig, station is your job and responsibility. Really what training are you referring to? BLS? Surely your jesting?

As well not being able to sleep is a FSLA violation, when did this occur? There are about 40-50 thousand services that would like to see that in writing.

I suggest to go back and re-evaulate what your real job is as a basic and what real life EMS is all about.

R/r 911
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Woops, I wrote that a little skewed there Rid.

We recently moved into a new building, and while the front part is ours, the rear is supposed to be converted into an adult daycare facility in the distant future. We were instructed to go back there and clean up some construction materials. I refused, since it was a contractor who made the mess, and that is what he is getting paid for.

I have NO problem washing the rigs, doing station duties, and training while on duty. I try to keep a clean station, since the public does come in to see us once in a while.

Allow me to try to find the FLSA rules. It was discussed on another forum where I am a member, and it may take me a while to find it.
 
BLSBoy said:
It was discussed on another forum where I am a member, and it may take me a while to find it.
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I believe you will find there is not any specific to EMS. That is very unfortunate. The reason I state such is because there has been tons of research on sleep deprivation studies of firefighters and nothing has came out of this except knowing that it exists.

R/r 911
 
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