CALEMT
The Other Guy/ Paramaybe?
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I think it also comes down to the size of the rig and who is doing what. I've run with groups where you really did feel like the third wheel. While the other two AEMT's were tending to the PT, I (EMT) just sat in the air chair and documented everything. Helps us get back into the shed faster so we can go home. With volunteer we don't turn and burn on our next call, it's run, do paperwork, go home, wait a couple days/week for some other call to show up. So every call is probably both your first and last of the day.
With size, we have a big enough rig we have bench seats on both sides of the PT, and an air chair. Means we have seatbelts enough for 5 providers in the back plus PT and driver make a total of 7 bodies in the truck with room for a passenger up front. While 5 people in the back would be chaos, I think 3 can be well managed if you have the room. During the day when there are less volunteers in town (everyone's at work) it's not unusual to run 2 in the back and a driver.
I've also been on a CPR call where our autopulse was not working, and we did manual CPR the whole way to the hospital, a 20min ride. We had 4 of us swapping off and I was still exhausted when we got there.
The maximum amount of people I've taken in a ambulance (type 3 mod by the way) is a full arrest that we got ROSC on. That was my medic partner and two firefighters off the engine. Hell, even when we still transported people while doing compressions we would only pull 2 firefighters and have them ride in. Anymore than that is overkill. For your typical medical aids it is asinine to take more than 1 person. You don't need 3 or 4 people in the back tending to the patient. At that point you're doing more harm than good because you don't know whose doing what. As far as documentation, you spend lets say 10 minutes on scene, another 10-20 transporting, 10 to get a bed, and the 10-20 minute drive back to the station. Thats more than enough time to finish a PCR. You're trying to justify regularly taking 3-4 people on every medical aid. It's just not needed, its overkill and detrimental to patient care. You're a volley squad, company, whatever... I get it. But you really should only have 2 people on the ambulance.