Questions for volunteers

[Leporidae]

Those of you who volunteer, what are your schedules like? Are you required to work a certain number of hours per month? I'd like to volunteer once I graduate and pass the Registry, and a paramedic acquaintance of mine has directed me to several volunteer departments, but I have no idea how scheduling, etc works. Also, do volunteer depts generally want you to have experience - like do you need to work transport for a while first, or are they usually just glad to have any warm body (who's passed Registry) volunteering?

 

[TransportJockey]

You'll get a different answer from each different dept. Seems like all the vollys do things their own way. But ots been years since i was naive enough to volunteer lol. So things might have changes

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[MRE]

I volunteer for my local fire department, which also operates a BLS ambulance. We serve a 35 square mile area with about 950 people in it. We have no schedules or on call hours. If there is a call and you are in town and able, you respond to it. If not, you don't. If there are not enough people to handle a call, mutual aid will be requested. We will work with anyone who is interested and reliable, and do in-house fire and first responder training. EMT training would need to be done outside the department.

The EMTs will informally try to spread out the transports between us so that the same 2 are not always doing it. But that is decided in the brief period between "transport decision" and "enroute to hospital".

 

[planetmike]

The requirements will vary widely from agency to agency. Why not just call the agencies that you are interested n and ask if you can observe a few shifts? While there, you should "interview" the crew, learn what you can about the agency, then decide which one you'd like to be a part of. And of course, while you are there, they are also interviewing you to see if they think you'd be a match for their way of doing things and their people. Good luck!

 

[SpecialK]

We use volunteers in some of the out-stations around Auckland City. They are paired with a paid officer (usually a paramedic, but sometimes an EMT). They are required to do a minimum number of hours per month and also attend continuing clinical education on a quarterly basis.

Volunteers initially do a 32 hour First Responder course which means they can assist a higher qualified officer and also work independently with another First Responder e.g. at an event. They are encouraged, but by no means required (although the majority do) to complete the National Diploma in Ambulance Practice. This is approximately a year long course so they can become an Emergency Medical Technician. As an EMT they can use the CPGs, make independent clinical recommendations about non-transport, alternate destinations etc, and crew an ambulance independently with a First Responder or higher.

 

[LanceCorpsman]

Requirements usually depends on the department. But judging by looking at the agencies around, almost every agency has a problem with several volunteers that don't do anything. Those are called t-shirt wearers.
My department requires me to respond to 20% of all calls, which is easy. They can give me credit for staying at the station and signing up for 12 hour shifts where I am basically on-call.
Volunteering is what you make of it, I have been on 7 calls in the past two days so you can get some quality experience.
And when I look around, volunteer departments always need volunteers. If you already have your EMT, that is a huge plus since not every volunteer would actually have it.
Volunteer is an excellent thing to do, you will get the experience. Just make sure you are one of those who actually show up and contribute. Keep you head up high.