MSDeltaFlt
RRT/NRP
- 1,422
- 35
- 48
Sleep when you can, especially if you're a little tired. Stock up on calories and sleep when on duty; quality calories.
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With all due respect to your situation and everyone elses, you shouldn't be counting on getting any sleep at work. come to work rested, be ready to run all shift.This weekend, I pulled my first long week. I'm an active-duty soldier, and I work part-time in Van Horn, Texas. Despite a 5-hour sleep period between the end of my Army-mandated ball and my commute to Van Horn, I was feeling a bit tired by the end of my shift...and it didn't get any better. I took my wife to dinner (part of our working date weekend) and went to bed- only to get called out for a transfer to El Paso. Patient care wasn't an issue, but I had to rely on my partners to keep awake and my EMT drove home- and when we got toned out on arrival again, I made a documentation mistake.
I can easily see sleep deprivation becoming a major issue in my career, or in any EMS career. What do y'all do to manage your sleep?
if you work 24s, you usually have downtime, but you are on the clock for 24 hours, and are supposed to be working for 24 hours. now if you are working and (many) people are getting drowsy toward the end of your shift, than maybe you should ask management to switch to 12s or 8s.
One place ground EMS could learn a huge amount from HEMS is rest periods.
(and have slept in the passenger seat of the ambulance while returning from a job), I know that it's my responsibility to be awake and ready to do my job as my employer expects me to be.
With all due respect to your situation and everyone elses, you shouldn't be counting on getting any sleep at work. come to work rested, be ready to run all shift.
if you work 24s, you usually have downtime, but you are on the clock for 24 hours, and are supposed to be working for 24 hours. now if you are working and (many) people are getting drowsy toward the end of your shift, than maybe you should ask management to switch to 12s or 8s.
Sleep deprivation is a problem, but its more an individual one than an industry or agency one.
Where I work, we do 48 and 72 hour shifts. Sleep when you can, if you get the chance. I don't think there's anyway to really prepare for that. At least we aren't doing 96s anymore..
DrParasite, if sleep deprivation is such an individual issue, why do the military, FAA, ACGME(oversees physician resedencies), CAAS and CATMS all address it?
Getting paid to sleep is even better.
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Which is why I like 24's