Very annoying this volly EMT thing...

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Gabe0725

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With 2 volly's & I scheduled myself for maybe about 6/7 maybe 8 shifts already and so far 3 of those shifts were cancelled due to no other members signing up. Both companies need 4 people on a bus: Driver, Chief, 1 EMT-B & 1 EMT-B in training (forgot the term they use). This really blows. I have another shift coming up this Fri night w/1 company and 2 other shifts on Saturday & it looks like it's gonna be the same deal. So far only 1 other people signed up along w/me for the shift but so far, nothing written in stone yet.

REALLY need to look & apply for any Paying companies cuz this volly thing doesn't look like it's gonna provide much action...
SMH.......

:glare:
 
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Gabe0725 said:
Both companies need 4 people on a bus: Driver, Chief, 1 EMT-B & 1 EMT-B in training (forgot the term they use).
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Um, cool story bro .... not :rolleyes:

What in the bloody hell, you mean to tell Brown you still have a Driver-only model?

We do have a third-person on a vehicle sometimes for the purposes of Clinical Mentoring so that part I can understand.
 
I have never known a volley agency to require 4 people. 2 people are required at mine, the driver/emt and an emt.
 
This is not a "Volly EMT" thing. This is a (your) particular department/agency thing. There are plenty of volunteer departments that see plenty of action.

This thread will not become another paid v. volly debate.
 
We have a volunteer and paid EMS, we have 2 ambulances there is a paid crew ( 1 paramedic & 1emt/emt-i) on the truck 24/7. If our paid ambulance is busy and there are 2 volunteer members that are certified EMT/EMT-I/EMT-P, they can take the 2nd ambulance to a call... our volunteer department has PLENTY of calls, medical and rescue.

For 2009 we had 2,127 calls total. 1,442 of those were EMS calls...the rest were rescue/dive calls.
 
We had 2700 EMS calls last year as an all volly agency and handled 99% of them. And we are just a little agency on Long Island...
 
Isn't there a law or something in your state, that mandates an ambulance needs to be staffed 24/7/365?

I have worked for a couple "volly" services and we were NOT EVER allowed to not have the ambulance staffed 24/7 or we could not only lose the service we would lose funding.

Just asking???
 
slb862 said:
Isn't there a law or something in your state, that mandates an ambulance needs to be staffed 24/7/365?

I have worked for a couple "volly" services and we were NOT EVER allowed to not have the ambulance staffed 24/7 or we could not only lose the service we would lose funding.

Just asking???
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Not all states have that law. I don't believe NM does, and with my recent experiences in the south of my county now I know TX doesn't
 
The company i run with is paid/volunteer, monday-friday paid, nights and weekends vollunteer, we only need a driver and emt, sometimes another emt or an emr/mrt as a third, we always have someone on. Your situation is surprising, 4 people on the crew seems a little much.
 
It sounds like a volly which supplements a paid municipal service

I'm gonna take a stab in the dark but this often happens with NYC vollys, since they are not the first due they dont need to be staffed 24/7
 
I'm really not sure about the staffing but I double & triple checked this & it is a requirement for 4 members on each bus. Guess that's the reason why it's hard to get many shifts filled.
 
Gabe0725 said:
I'm really not sure about the staffing but I double & triple checked this & it is a requirement for 4 members on each bus. Guess that's the reason why it's hard to get many shifts filled.
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Are there any other volly departments around you that you could join? Maybe they don't all have that same requirement, or have more active volunteers.
 
Gabe0725 said:
I'm really not sure about the staffing but I double & triple checked this & it is a requirement for 4 members on each bus. Guess that's the reason why it's hard to get many shifts filled.
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That's insane. I've rolled a rig with four members, but if it were required, we'd never roll, either.

As long as you have an EMT, and someone (preferably an EMT, but a First Responder/Driver is okay, too) to drive the rig to the hospital, there's no reason you can't go in service.
 
Yup, I hear ya. Having 4 members on 1 rug is alot to me but I guess every volly squad is different. I know 1 of the volly's deals w/an EMT school so it's basically Driver, Chief, EMT & EMT student. The other volly which I seen by their schedule is definitely more busy is the one w/Driver, Chief, EMTB and EMTB (probie).

I'm gonna stay and just look for a regular paying EMT job but we all know that without experience it'll be hard for me but I'm ready for the challenge.
 
I know a lot of medics who if riding officer won't let a 4th jump on... consider it too crowded in back. 2 is minimum, 3 is ideal, 4 is pushing it. YMMV
 
MedikErik said:
I know a lot of medics who if riding officer won't let a 4th jump on... consider it too crowded in back. 2 is minimum, 3 is ideal, 4 is pushing it. YMMV
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I tend to agree, for what it's worth, though I will let a fourth come along. We usually pick up a fourth if we have a cadet riding for some of the night, and they can't really be left behind.

Interesting little factoid that shows that things differ depending on your EMS system... We have tiered response, as many people have heard me say before. If the call is serious, then both medics (NJ only has 2 medic trucks) might ride the call in. Then someone from our rig needs to drive the medic rig in the convoy to the ER. While the medics can certainly be left alone, I prefer to have three so that we can still have an EMT in the back. At the very least, the EMT knows where everything is in our rig, while the medics may not.
 
Gabe0725 said:
Yup, I hear ya. Having 4 members on 1 rug is alot to me but I guess every volly squad is different. I know 1 of the volly's deals w/an EMT school so it's basically Driver, Chief, EMT & EMT student. The other volly which I seen by their schedule is definitely more busy is the one w/Driver, Chief, EMTB and EMTB (probie).

I'm gonna stay and just look for a regular paying EMT job but we all know that without experience it'll be hard for me but I'm ready for the challenge.
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4 as a requirement??? that's absurd.

As I told someone in another thread, if you have no experience, getting hired by a paid agency which will give you experience is next to impossible. don't kid yourself and think that you will be different than everyone that came before you.

Plenty of squad will allow you to get the experience, and not cancel shifts. In fact, if I was on a squad that did that, I would probably quit within a month and find a different squad that didn't have such a stupid rule.

IIRC, you are on Staten Island, where you squad jumps more calls than it actually gets dispatched to. So even if there is no crew on, there is an FDNY truck or a hospital based EMS truck still assigned to that area.

Cross the river my friend, plenty of EMS agencies (that will be busier than your SI vollie squad) that would gladly put you on a truck, without requiring 3 other people to keep you company.
 
Since you're in NJ this might be a moot point, but keep in mind some professional agencies will not count volunteer time as experience. Or they might count it against you.
 
count it against you? can you please go into detail on that?
 
jtpaintball70 said:
Since you're in NJ this might be a moot point, but keep in mind some professional agencies will not count volunteer time as experience. Or they might count it against you.
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I know some professional services do not count "volunteer" time as experience, however I have never heard of it counting against someone.

Every agency around here does take volunteer work into consideration, whether or not they count it as experience...they will take the references from your volunteer chief/captain/supervisor, etc.

I'm interested in knowing how volunteering can be counted "against" someone.
 
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