Recently fired for Falling Asleep

[EMT John]

i was also the first asian or any colored person to be hired in this semi-rural ambulance company.

You were a probie and you fell asleep with a pt. don't try to pull the race card!

 

[Handsome Robb]

You were a probie and you fell asleep with a pt. don't try to pull the race card!

What he said.

You dropped the ball dude. I don't care what color you are.

You were a probie, you don't have wiggle room to mess up.

Do not pass go, do not collect 200$, go straight to jail.

 

[Veneficus]

I really like to see all of the comments on how falling asleep with a IFT patient is somehow the peak of unprofessionaism and failure.

There is more than enough evidence showing that fatigued crews, especially 24 hour shifts are already a danger to patients and providers.

I think it is a failure of the company to put a patient in the back of a rig with a crew that has been running for more than 12 hours, stable or not.

I agree with the persn who said it is lucky that the driver didn't fall asleep.

We would be reading about another ambulance fatality because some lady needed a taxi ride to adistant hospital.

Of course rather than fired, you would be posthumously called a "hero" you might even get you r name in the paper, a wreath, and a flag.

Faling alseep under such circumstances can happen to anyone. (thankfully it has never happened to me) but I am not fool enough to think it couldn't.

Now having said that...

I find it extremely unlikely an experienced supervisor would fire somebody for 1 infraction. Especially something that is very predictable and results in no harm like that.

The company could have wanted to get rid of you for any number of reasons, that was just thier excuse.

Forget race, other employees out to get you, and all the other forms of conspiracy. You'd never prove it, you'd never get anything from it, and all you will do is waste your time and energy.

Move on.

 

[mycrofft]

Don't fall asleep.
Don't goof up unnecessarily and gratuitously during your probation period.
Get a job with a union.

They tried to get me because I was allegedly (not actually) asleep. Simply having to prove it stopped the action...but when I became a supervisor three years later I found they still had the supervisor's unofficial notes, in triplicate, in my "drop file" (supervisors' working notes for management purposes, not useable after one year per local protocol).

 

[medicdan]

Quick question... OP, how long do you think you would have slept if your (driving) partner had not woken you up, for nothing else to remind you of requisite work?

I'm not saying I've never fallen asleep before, but never needed to be woken before....

 

[Tigger]

That's right. Its also not ok to have your 24hr trucks running LDT's in the wee hours of the morning after running 911 all day. If companies are going to pretend to actually give a :censored::censored::censored::censored: about patients then why do they continually encourage and even force practices that place pts and crews in danger without batting an eye? Gotta save that money.....oh yeah and we, uh, er, care about you and your, uh (what is that we do again?), oh yeah, health care!

Guess its a good thing your partner didn't fall asleep at the wheel, which does happen.

I agree with you completely, it is an awful situation to be in when you know you are being all but forced to work shifts and calls that are guaranteed to be detrimental to your job performance.

 

[lightsandsirens5]

Ummmm....there may be an obvious answer, but why were you in the back all alone, as a probie?

 

[Medic Tim]

Ummmm....there may be an obvious answer, but why were you in the back all alone, as a probie?

"EMT" school in canada is usually a minimum of 1 year and the scope is about what an EMT-I is in the US. I know alot of places in Canada where you are on probation for months but only ride 3rd for a few weeks. Sometimes you are with an experienced fto sometimes someone with just a year or 2 experience.

 

[CANDawg]

"EMT" school in canada is usually a minimum of 1 year and the scope is about what an EMT-I is in the US. I know alot of places in Canada where you are on probation for months but only ride 3rd for a few weeks. Sometimes you are with an experienced fto sometimes someone with just a year or 2 experience.

I think the OP is from Washington state, looking at his previous posts.

 

[Medic Tim]

I think the OP is from Washington state, looking at his previous posts.

my bad i got this thread mixed up with another one.

 

[yowzer]

I also worked for a certain ambulance company, just south of Seattle, that also did that kind of stuff. Hmmm. I wonder if it was the same one?

IIRC, we worked at different companies (I don't think we ever met, but we have friends in common.). Nor do I think either one of us worked at the one the OP is referring too, not if he was the first minority EMT there. That narrows it down a lot.

 

[waaaemt]

Quick question... OP, how long do you think you would have slept if your (driving) partner had not woken you up, for nothing else to remind you of requisite work?

I'm not saying I've never fallen asleep before, but never needed to be woken before....

well when that happened we were 3 min from the hospital and it was relatively light sleep where i would have waken up totally if i felt the speed slow etc.

and yeah i know i messed up but i just brought up ethnicity to give you a better picture of me and also cause i got alot of funny looks, and comments about my name/appearance. but whatever that's irrelevant.

 

[waaaemt]

Ummmm....there may be an obvious answer, but why were you in the back all alone, as a probie?

i don't know how most other agencies are but the one i was with, we had about 1 month of training being the 3rd guy and then 90 days of probation after that.

 

[waaaemt]

Trying to insinuate something?

Anyhow, did your company have CODE 7s/breaks?

so what if i was insinuating something? it's not like the world is rid of racism, that stuff happens.

if code 7 is the same, do you mean airlifts?
but we didn't really have set aside break periods. we were on rotation in 4 crews at daytime and 3 at night, and your break would just be whenever you aren't up on rotation.

 

[terrible one]

so what if i was insinuating something? it's not like the world is rid of racism, that stuff happens.

Obviously the world is not rid of racism, however, if you try and play the race card it will be much more difficult to find employement elsewhere within EMS as it is a small community. Also, it will be very difficult if not impossible to prove and even if you did you will be looked at differently by your peers and management. So why even mention it? If they hired you fully aware of your race/ethnicity why would they suddenly terminate you? Did your race/ethnicity suddenly change during the course of your employment? If you believe that such prejudices did arise why not take the opportunity to prove them wrong?

if code 7 is the same, do you mean airlifts?
but we didn't really have set aside break periods. we were on rotation in 4 crews at daytime and 3 at night, and your break would just be whenever you aren't up on rotation.

code 7 is a termed a lunch break or downtime between calls

 

[EMTGUY12]

A long time ago, I worked for a certain rural ambulance company located just outside Seattle that loved to do things like send us on a non-urgent 4 or 5 hour long round-trip transport an hour before the end of a 12 or 24 hour shift.

The relatively few options for EMT jobs in the area and the steady stream of fresh new EMTs just out of school looking for work means they have little trouble finding replacements when people get sick of it and quit, or do something stupid and get terminated. I'm surprised I lasted as long as I did there, but it was an experience that made me never want to work for a private for-profit ambulance or other health care organization again.

You took the words right out of my mouth, but mine was when I was a fresh Paramedic, we were having to work mandatory OT 48hr shifts and I MIGHT have been getting 8 random hours in that time period, and would often score a round trip 8hr transfer 1hr before getting off. Once was even 5 min before shift was over and our replacements hadn't arrived yet....NEVER AGAIN

 

[NYMedic828]

The OP stated they told him he was terminated for falling asleep on a patient AND a few other things...

Mind filling us in? Sounds like you had a few prior offenses you aren't being clear about...

 

[waaaemt]

The OP stated they told him he was terminated for falling asleep on a patient AND a few other things...

Mind filling us in? Sounds like you had a few prior offenses you aren't being clear about...

i said it was cause they thought "my heart wasn't in it" because i wasn't able to cover as many shifts as they wanted me to which is bs since they scheduled me almost everyday so i can't cover shifts i'm already working. and a lot of times when i did call to cover an open shift it was already taken. and the 24 that i worked the night of falling asleep was a shift cover!

 

[STXmedic]

Not to be malicious, but could it have been a general performance issue?

 

[waaaemt]

Not to be malicious, but could it have been a general performance issue?

hmm i don't know! they didn't say anything and i was always very thorough with my assessments, i caught things the FD medics missed a couple times like stroke signs and neck pain. most of the FD liked me, and i was one of the few who always gave the rigs total wipe downs with disinfectant every shift. i even vacuumed the rigs which no other person did!