Sleep in EMS

[MSDeltaFlt]

Sleep when you can, especially if you're a little tired. Stock up on calories and sleep when on duty; quality calories.

 

[DrParasite]

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?

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.

My job works 12 hour shifts as our standard shift length. we are expected to be awake and available for 12 straight hours. If you do 18 jobs in those 12 hours, that's a busy day. 14 jobs is about average, 20 is really busy in the summer. If you do a double and chose to work 24 hours, be ready to run for 24 hours, and don't expect any sympathy, because you chose to do the 24.

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. It is the individual's responsibility to come to work all rested and ready to work, not expecting to sleep to compensate for being up all day or all night before a shift. Same problem happens when you go job to job and are tired at your second job.

that all being said, have I taken naps at work? sure. have I came to work exhausted, crawled into bed and slept for the first 4-6 hours of my shift? yep. and I've done 18s (frequently), 24s (rarely) and twice, 36 hours straight by going from job to job to job. And while I personally sleep and nap every change I get (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.

and I know if I come to work exhausted, or don't sleep well the night before, or if I run errands all day before my night shift, and I crash on the couch when i get into work and end up running for 12 straight hours, then I have no one to blame but myself for my situation.

 

[MissK]

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..

 

[BandageBrigade]

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.

I highly doubt any employer that schedules you.for.a 24 hour shift expects you working the full 24(i am not including being held over, or choosing to work a double. I don't have the citation on me, but im quite sure if you are scheduled more than 16 hours sleeep time must be allowed. Although that does not mean you will necessarily have time for it. We normally work 6am to 6am. allowed to sleep any time after 4pm.

 

[Nerd13]

I work 36 hour shifts. Once we get done with our rig checks and know that everything we need for calls is in order, we sleep. We sleep whenever we have time because you never know if you're going to run 35.5 hours or not at all. If you run the whole time it can get dangerous but there isn't any way to plan for it so you just do the best you can. Thankfully, it's pretty rare that we have to run the whole shift.

 

[ArcticKat]

One place ground EMS could learn a huge amount from HEMS is rest periods.

Yeah, but I suspect that if the FAA didn't have maximum defined "Flight duty time" and "Flight Time" they'd be doing 24s too. Perhaps the DOT could implement such rules, similar to trucking.

 

[Tigger]

(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.

I think I do that after every third call haha. It's something about being in a quiet moving vehicle that just knocks me out. But I'd rather be falling asleep then as opposed to in back with a patient or driving.

 

[JAMedic]

I usually sleep on 24s whenever i have all my duties done and nothing to keep me occupied. At my previous company I got a write up for sleeping in the truck 20 hours into the shift while posted on the side of the road for the last 2 hours. My new company seems to be more relaxed about it. And they are both CAAS certified.

 

[Smash]

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.

I have to vehemently disagree with this position. There has to be joint responsibility between both the individuals and the organisations. There is a reason why the flight and trucking industries are regulated; safety. Whilst the employee must take a degree of responsibility for their own actions, the industry also has to take responsibility for setting in place the systems to allow for fatigue free workplaces.

It is known that after 17 hours of wakefulness you are as cognitively impaired as if you had a blood alcohol content greater than 0.05. However employers regularly expect paramedics to be trying to make complex, time critical and potentially life threatening decisions and carry out interventions whilst so impaired.
If it were entirely down to employee responsibility, and I was working an 8 hour shift, would you be happy if I came to work having had 4 beers? Of course not; no doubt I would be summarily dismissed. However employers regularly force people to work whilst similarly impaired through fatigue.

Progressive systems work with their staff to help manage fatigue through lifestyle initiatives like healthy eating advice and gym memberships, as well as attempting to mitigate fatigue through modification of rosters. There is an increasing amount of research into the dangers of fatigue, and there are also published fatigue calculators that take into account a wide variety of factors to determine the level of fatigue an individual has.
My organisation provides bedrooms and bedding and in some workplaces chill-out rooms for relaxation, is modifying rosters to minimize long shifts and the impact of night shifts, and is actively involved in employee health, because they recognise what a danger fatigue is, to their staff, their customers, and ultimately, the bottom line.

I find it bizarre that big, successful employers like Google provide rest and relaxation facilities to their staff whilst at work, having recognised that a well rested employee is a productive employee, and yet all they are doing is typing away at computers.
We on the other have this macho bull:censored::censored::censored::censored: culture of HTFU and get on with it, and we are directly impacting on lives, trying to carry out complex tasks and critical thinking on the fly whilst fatigued. Very odd.

 

[Fish]

http://www.emsworld.com/news/10426691/ky-emt-fired-after-complaining-about-fatigue-overtime

 

[RocketMedic]

Tradition? It does affect care though.

 

[Fish]

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..

Jealous!


We work 24/48 here.

I find eating light at work and eating healthy makes the shift go by a lot easier!

 

[usalsfyre]

DrParasite, if sleep deprivation is such an individual issue, why do the military, FAA, ACGME(oversees physician resedencies), CAAS and CATMS all address it?

 

[Fish]

I like sleep deprivation, It makes coming home and sleeping in my bed that much better.

 

[RocketMedic]

In combat zones, 8 or 12-hour guard shifts are the authorized limit. Anything more literally risks passing out or alertness decreasing to negligible levels. In reality, we trade out guards every hour or two.

 

[Smash]

DrParasite, if sleep deprivation is such an individual issue, why do the military, FAA, ACGME(oversees physician resedencies), CAAS and CATMS all address it?

Clearly just meddling!

 

[IRIDEZX6R]

Sleep deprivation is a good thing.. I get paid for all the hours i work 24 paid hours in a shift.... so my bank account likes it...

 

[Sasha]

Getting paid to sleep is even better.

Sent from LuLu using Tapatalk

 

[IRIDEZX6R]

Getting paid to sleep is even better.

Sent from LuLu using Tapatalk

Which is why I like 24's

 

[fast65]

Which is why I like 24's

Me too, unless I don't sleep, like last night :/


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk