How many hours is your shift?

[ems_booper]

We work 24 hours on and 48 hours off here. Anything over 40 hours is overtime. We have a maximum of 36 hours on at one time.

[WANTYNU]

At my primary service all of us got together and we now will shut our service down for 8 hours so we can sleep if we have gotten slammed. Our city don't like it but they are the ones that choose not to fund a second ambulance crew.

Ever heard the saying: "Citys don't care about individuals, thats why more taxes go to hauling your trash to the dump, then taking grandma to the hospital"?

I like the idea of closing up instead of burning out your resources. But don't you run the risk of being vilified by your community?

Based on these posts the bottom line seems to be, that no one in EMS works a regular 40 hour week.

If theres so much work, and so few to do it, why do we get paid so little?

Next your going to tell me there is no SanityClause.

[Richard B the EMT]

You mention NYC. The FDNY EMS Command runs 3 eight hour tours a day, per "full time" unit. Figuring only a regular work week, a crew person works 8 hours, midnight to 8, 8 to 4 (1600), or 4 to midnight (2400). Gotta mention that we have overlapping tours, there's no time all the ambulances are at the station for tour change all at the same time.

We work 5 days on, 2 off, another 5 days on, and then 3 off. You can figure that for whatever day of the week, you will be working it 10 consecutive weeks in a row, and off for 5 consecutive weeks. That way, nobody can complain "Charlie always gets off Wednesdays, and my wife wants me to take her to a midweek matinee of The Producers." You can schedule that for when you come into your Wednesdays, if there are any tickets available.

You are usually "married" to your tour, so you always work the same time of day or night, and usually with the same 2 partners as they go into either their 2 or 3 days off, and the other one comes back from days off, and they work together when you are on YOUR days off. (Example: I'm "A" platoon, Phil is "B", and Herb is "C". This week, I'll work 2 days with Herb, then 3 with Phil, be off for 2 while Herb and Phil work together, then work 3 days with Herb, 2 days with Phil, and be off for 3 days while Herb and Phil work together. Whoever is just back from days off, by mutual decision, drives, the other "techs".)

Theoretically, we get a half hour off for meal per tour, but as we usually are handling one of those one point three million calls a year, we can and do file for the half hour as O/T. This means while we work 40 hours standard, unless we file for it (meal money), we actually work a 37.5 hour workweek.

Don't worry, after 22 years, I still get confused sometimes.

Anybody working tour 1 (midnights) or tour 3 (evenings) gets Night Differential for hours worked after 7 PM (1900), or before 6 AM (0600).

Strangely enough, if you work a late call, or actually work a second consecutive tour (partial or full), after 8 hours, it is considered O/T, and is usually figured in half hour increments. You might not even make it to the 40 hours, and still earn O/T in this manner.

We had a "minuteman" (someone who comes in exactly on the hour of the tour change, and not one second earlier) who started coming in 5 minutes late. My lieutenant told me, even though my shift was over, and we could see him down the block parking his car, to file for the half hour covering my "relief's" tour. I got paid several half hours of O/T, and the minuteman had to explain to the Captain why 2 people were getting paid for doing the same tour!

As for "mandations", when we would be forced into doing O/T due to someone's unscheduled absence to "maintain coverage", we used to work 4 hours, unless we were O/T whores looking for money, and would work longer, up to the entire 8 hours of that tour following your regular one. After the EMS/FDNY merger, suddenly, we HAD to work 6 hours O/T of the 8, or in inclement weather (read expected snowfall of 5 or more inches, or that much already on the ground), the entire 8!

FDNY EMS has a program, where there are Known Vacancy Openings (KVO), like someone taking a vacation, you can volunteer for them. As long as you bid for 4 a month, even if the KVO falls through, unless some citywide emergency happens, they cannot ask you to do another O/T tour, unless you actually want it (you dirty O/T whore, you! LOL).

Regulations within the department state you cannot be mandated more than 4 times in a regular workweek, so if you want to try for 5, you would risk disciplinary charges. There were a few geniuses tried something, which has since been outlawed. Saturday 1600 to midnight is the last tour of the week, and Sunday 0000to 0800 is the first, on a new sign in sheet. These crazies would work the Saturday day tour as "regular", the evening tour as O/T, and, with the clock restarted for the new week, the Sunday midnight tour, also as O/T, in essence, working a "24" (at least MOST of these folks would only do this when the Sunday was also one of their days off, to recuperate).

[Just Plain Ruff]

12 hour shifts for 3 days then 4 off and then 4 days fo 12 hours and 3 days off.

[njmedic1485]

we do 12 hour shifts with a mandatory minimum of 6 hrs off between shifts.

[Just Plain Ruff]

One service I worked at due to people working many many over time hours and several getting in wrecks both in and out of company vehicles, a mandatory minimum of 8 hours between shifts was instituted. diminished the number of accidents.

[WANTYNU]

One service I worked at due to people working many many over time hours and several getting in wrecks both in and out of company vehicles, a mandatory minimum of 8 hours between shifts was instituted. diminished the number of accidents.

I think thats the Theory for our 8hr shifts, but command rarely sticks to guidelines.

I still believe a DOT standard would help us all, even 24 hours in a quarters with sleeping and eating area is not home, you can't get the same quality of "down time" to recharge as you can at home.

[Dustdevil]

This whole 24 hour shift thing is quite possibly the very worst legacy we have left over from the firemonkey roots. It's just asinine. Yes, a lot of idiots with firemonkey mentalities love it so they can go work another job or two somewhere, but there is absolutely nothing functional about it in most professional systems. This is a throwback to the days when firetrucks had square wheels because of the infrequency with which they actually rolled out on anything. There was little chance that they would actually do anything in 8 hours time, so they figured hey... why not just spend a whole day? That is simply impractical for EMS today, even in most rural systems. Damn few really professional EMS providers even do this anymore. With few exceptions, most agencies you find still doing 24s are either fire-based, or just plain stupid and unimaginative, with poor leadership.

[whit72]

Dustdevil wrote:

With few exceptions, most agencies you find still doing 24s are either fire-based, or just plain stupid and unimaginative, with poor leadership.

I think you forgot in your opinion those agencies are stupid, unimaginative, with poor leadership.

I think every system has to be tailored to their specific needs. Everyone thinks you can use a cookie cutter to stamp out EMS systems around the country. You cant. They all have specific needs and should be designed with those needs in mind. As far as twenty-four hour shifts. I don't see a problem with it., as long as its monitored closely, you shouldn't be doing twenty calls a shift.

[Dustdevil]

I think you forgot in your opinion those agencies are stupid, unimaginative, with poor leadership.

I think you forgot the first three words of that quote, which were "With few exceptions..."

That means I was not speaking of each and every system on earth that uses 24 hour shifts. It also means that I recognise that it is a viable alternative for some systems that works well for them.

Geeze, I get so tired of people who insert the word "always" into every post they read. :roll: