The Coffee House

[snowbear123 55]

15 hours down, 9 to go!

Does your shift plan work out to about 8 days per month?

I'm curious about why so many in the medical field - EMTs, nurses, interns - have such long shifts. What is the advantage of cramming in all those hours in fewer days rather than spreading it out?

For many firefighters, there is a lot of down time - you aren't out running calls for the whole shift; it just depends on the station and jurisdiction. Some of our stations may only get 5 calls in a day, while others seem to run constantly.

 

[pixmedic5 5]

We're 24 on 48 off.
Not firefighters tho. We're a private ambulance company.
We do have a station where we can rest, but last shift we were only there for 2 hours, and I worked a 36 hour shift.
We do interfacility transports as well as transports from nursing homes to the ER. We are also backup for several other emergency services.
A few of our trucks, like mine, also run critical care and ventilator transports.

It's nice only working 10 days a month, but some shifts make it feel not worth it.

 

[snowbear123 55]

Our shift workers are 24/36 - four shifts (teams). Some of the people are on straight daywork. The EMS have a convoluted schedule - some 36 hour shifts. I can't figure them out.

 

[pixmedic5 5]

Our shift workers are 24/36 - four shifts (teams). Some of the people are on straight daywork. The EMS have a convoluted schedule - some 36 hour shifts. I can't figure them out.

Ours aren't normally 36 hours. I just picked up a shift on a day truck when I got off my regular shift.

 

[limr37 7]

I get that there is a lot of down time, but why such long shifts to begin with?

 

[pixmedic5 5]

I get that there is a lot of down time, but why such long shifts to begin with?

For coverage. Less shifts to fill.
Our contact with the county requires that we have a 24 hour crew and station in their area.

 

[snowbear123 55]

I get that there is a lot of down time, but why such long shifts to begin with?

I don't know. Most of the people who work it love it (at least here); plenty of time off for school, part-time or your own business, and many opportunities for overtime. We have people that commute from DE, NJ, WV, and PA.

 

[limr37 7]

I get that there is a lot of down time, but why such long shifts to begin with?

For coverage. Less shifts to fill.
Our contact with the county requires that we have a 24 hour crew and station in their area.

That makes sense, as long as people are allowed to get some sleep. Otherwise I imagine there would be a lot of errors made by very tired people.

 

[snowbear123 55]

I get that there is a lot of down time, but why such long shifts to begin with?

For coverage. Less shifts to fill.
Our contact with the county requires that we have a 24 hour crew and station in their area.

That makes sense, as long as people are allowed to get some sleep. Otherwise I imagine there would be a lot of errors made by very tired people.

Yep - bunks at the stations. Some of the firefighters are straight day, depending on the station. We are a hybrid department - some career and some volunteers. If the volunteer station has enough members to "get out" at night, the career crew is only there during the daytime hours.

 

[pixmedic5 5]

I get that there is a lot of down time, but why such long shifts to begin with?

For coverage. Less shifts to fill.
Our contact with the county requires that we have a 24 hour crew and station in their area.

That makes sense, as long as people are allowed to get some sleep. Otherwise I imagine there would be a lot of errors made by very tired people.

Sometimes...
We've been on since 0600 and have not seen our station since we clocked in.

 

[limr37 7]

That makes sense, as long as people are allowed to get some sleep. Otherwise I imagine there would be a lot of errors made by very tired people.

Sometimes...
We've been on since 0600 and have not seen our station since we clocked in.

Dude, go to sleep!

 

[snowbear123 55]

I get that there is a lot of down time, but why such long shifts to begin with?

For coverage. Less shifts to fill.
Our contact with the county requires that we have a 24 hour crew and station in their area.

That makes sense, as long as people are allowed to get some sleep. Otherwise I imagine there would be a lot of errors made by very tired people.

Sometimes...
We've been on since 0600 and have not seen our station since we clocked in.

That sucks. It's almost over - hang in there.

 

[pixmedic5 5]

Some shifts are like that. Some are slower. What hurts us most as a private company is when we have people call out and we are down trucks. Saturday we were supposed to have 17 trucks on the road....due to call outs we only had 12. So 12 trucks have to do the work of 17. The calls have to get run regardless of how long we've been up. There's no protocols in place to mandate down time if we've been running too long. They just keep giving us the calls

 

[bribrius]

you could unionize like all the nurses did..

 

[bribrius]

now they only work sixteen or twenty hour shifts.