Error On Overnight Shift

[VentMedic]

The reason I went back into EMS was because of the 24 hour shifts, personally I will never work a 12 hr truck. We are busy, not too busy though to be harmful.

Nothing wrong with 24 hr shifts as you describe Ridryder.

However, the parent in me comes forth while reading some of these posts. I just want the young ones to live to be as old as you and I.

 

[Jon]

Nothing wrong with 24 hr shifts as you describe Ridryder.

However, the parent in me comes forth while reading some of these posts. I just want the young ones to live to be as old as you and I.

I agree.... 24's are fine, if you are slow enough to be able to catch some sleep.... if you are out all night... then you are screwed.

 

[Recycled Words]

Meh...depends on who you are. Personally, I have no problem riding overnight, going to school, and getting at max 1 hour of sleep at a time. Other people I know can't function without a full night of uninterupted sleep.

 

[MMiz]

I used to love this documentary called Hopkins 24/7 where they followed around medical residents. Almost every one of them mentioned the long shifts 36 hours as one of the hardest parts of the job.

Personally I don't believe that any medic should be working a 24 hour shift without quarters to sleep in. Those quarters should have bunks and a quiet place for the medic to sleep (when the time is available).

I can't imagine a single person on this forum can argue that his or her functioning isn't impaired to a degree nearing the end of the shift. I wouldn't want to be that patient.

 

[mfrjason]

The only places that you will find actual sleeping quarters in my county is the paramedic service stations,cuz a majority of the services in this county are ALS,we only have 2 BLS services left and they are volunteer.

 

[Recycled Words]

The only places that you will find actual sleeping quarters in my county is the paramedic service stations,cuz a majority of the services in this county are ALS,we only have 2 BLS services left and they are volunteer.

My town has a volly BLS service and hospital-based medics. The volunteer BLS service I work for has several bedrooms as well as couches in the crew room and TV room. I haven't the foggiest idea what the quarters for the medics are like.

 

[mfrjason]

My town has a volly BLS service and hospital-based medics. The volunteer BLS service I work for has several bedrooms as well as couches in the crew room and TV room. I haven't the foggiest idea what the quarters for the medics are like.

They are prolly better than the ones the volunteer service uses. I didnt have the luxury of having a bedroom to sleep in,i either slept on a folding cot or in the back of the ambulance.

 

[babygirl2882]

Ive done that before,lol. One time myself,and two other ambulance personnel,1 was my on-duty partner and the other was an EMT for our service but was on duty for a neighboring service were sitting at the local truck stop enjoyin some lunch when a call went out for a subject having chest pains,but we didnt catch the location,well county toned it out again and come to find out the call was to the truck lot at the truck stop we were at,and since I didnt have my own POV at the time,I had the department ambulance with me,so we all ran out of the truck stop and headed to where the patient was. Talk about bein at the right place at the right time,but since the truck stop was in the neighboring service's service area,we had to wait for there ambulance.

This happened once while I was doing a ride along...it had been a really good day for me because I had gotten a call (which was a rare thing because I did a whole trimester of 2 hours everyday hoping to catch a call in the hours) but we had just come back from a out of town transport...it was like 4:30 (i was supposed to leave typically at 3:30) and we stoped at the store to get food for their dinner...we were in the aisle shopping when they get paged...we run out of the store only to hear that it was in the store...so one of the guys runs to where it was and I ran with the other to the ambulance to bring it closer and get the stuff we needed. That day was the best because as soon as we got to the hospital (which was like 2 min away) we got another out of town transfer....it was a decent one too..and they ended up buying me dinner cuz I had spent my pocket change (beccause I didn't usally need anything) on coffee on the first transfer...I love the guys I get to ride with!!

 

[bstone]

My partner and I were sleeping in the back of the bus (me on the bench, she on the cot) and our dispatch sent us the page to gas up the bus and bring it back. We were both out cold and missed the page. They keyed us up 20 minutes later to ask if we were on our way. Little embarassing!

 

[Summit]

i had a 48 on, 24 off, 24 on... but that 24 off in the middle ended up on so i had a 96 hour shift... and then had to work 4 hrs over at the end... 100!

during all that time i slept perhaps 8 hours... at one point i was in the bathroom and heard our tones... i rushed out to the crew room and asked what the call was for. They all looked at me like I was insane.

"There is no call. There were no tones."

I was baffled. Literally seconds later, while they were still looking at me like I was crazy, real tones dropped. Then they looked at me like I was psychic.

... so weird.

I'd never work anything longer than a 72 EVER again.

 

[Ridryder911]

i."

I was baffled. Literally seconds later, while they were still looking at me like I was crazy, real tones dropped. Then they looked at me like I was psychic.

... so weird.

I'd never work anything longer than a 72 EVER again.

At least it was not the ..."voices"..... you heard

R/r 911

 

[emt9577]

24's

Now that im off the 24's, because I set up our comm systems in our trucks, I miss them. I enjoyed riding with a medic, and working at lest 24 sometime longer. Not to mention the pay was better. we worked 5 24's every two weeks so that was nice, plenty of play time. Now i get salaried at 100 hours every two hours, and still have to work as an EMT, and my other jobs i get assigned. I hate that part. I can remember before I took this new job within the company, after working 72 straight, bringing someone into the ER for something stupid, standing there waiting for the hurse to tell us where to go, and falling asleep while standing up. My dang partner thought it would be funny, so he moved the cot, just to watch me land on my face. It was funny for him, oh well. I went home and slept for about 16 hrs straight.

 

[MedikErik]

I love 24's when you can sleep. I became very good friends with my rig's bench seat when I worked private. I actually chose the company I did because the other company had a "no sleep in the unit" policy, no bunk room, etc.... pretty much you either didn't sleep, or risked having a sup. bust you.

24's are like most things: fine in moderation, IMO. It's when you work back to back to back 24's that things start happening. I'm not functioning my best after 24 hours of no sleep, but I can still function on something ressembling an "acceptable" level. I've pulled a 72 before, and I have no reccollection of the last 24 shift... just going back to base with a stack of paperwork.

The overtime's addictive, but it's a habit I had to break (still fighting it).

 

[Arkymedic]

It could be worse. I work 48 on and 48 off and since we are short on medics have worked 48 on and 24 off then another 48 on

 

[GayEMTNJ]

There was a group of us that had taken a road trip together. The one guy we were traveling with was almost impossible to wake up. *Nothing* worked and we did get creative.

One morning I had a brainstorm. We had tried for ten minutes to get him to move. I told everyone to be quiet, I stood a little back and in my best crackly dispatcher's voice said: "Station XXX, Rescue XXX, Engine XXX, Medic XXX, Maple Ave at Main St, a motor vehicle accident with entrapment."

The guy mumbled "aw, s&*t " and sat up in bed and was trying to get oriented and find his gear. Confused at not finding it, he starts looking around and sees the three of us standing there trying not to bust out completely laughing. He then proceeded to call us a lot of "not nice" names. lol!

 

[hitechredneckemt]

The company i work for runs 24 trucks. I enjoy 24 & 48s but anything more than does get dangerous. When we have down time we can sleep get on the net or what ever we want. We have sleeping quarters in all our stations. I have worked 5 straight 24s before, most of the week was a blur.

 

[medic258]

I have worked 24's for most of my career. I do have a few per diem jobs where I will work 12's or 24's depending on my availability. I worked as a full-time medic for a hospital based service that only has 12 hour shifts. The problem was the ability to work my other jobs. Having 2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 vehicles, a mortgage and a wife that enjoys spending money requires me to work more than just a full-time job. My schedule can get bizarre. I work Monday Tuesday and Thursday at school and Wednesday, Friday on the truck. The weekends and nights are reserved for per diem jobs (I have 2).

 

[Jon]

I have worked 24's for most of my career. I do have a few per diem jobs where I will work 12's or 24's depending on my availability. I worked as a full-time medic for a hospital based service that only has 12 hour shifts. The problem was the ability to work my other jobs. Having 2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 vehicles, a mortgage and a wife that enjoys spending money requires me to work more than just a full-time job. My schedule can get bizarre. I work Monday Tuesday and Thursday at school and Wednesday, Friday on the truck. The weekends and nights are reserved for per diem jobs (I have 2).

Next question - WHY Must we all work so many jobs? Why can't we make a living like a professional, and only work 40-50 hours a week?