24 hour schedules

[backinboston]

I feel like there are a lot of different ways it will work...

At my 911 medic job....

We work two 24hr shifts 1als truck 1 bls truck in each city. Personally I work Sun/Wed and it works out great

At my 911 fire/medic job...

We work 10hr days 14hr nights

4 days a week on a rotating schedual.

Each of them really work well.

[spenac]

I think it would be better to have rotating calls and sleep when no calls. Amb1 responds Amb 2 is next up. Soon as Amb 2 responds Amb 1 is next up. Otherwise one crew gets all the runs as it seems calls come in cycles. Plus the crews in your method would be trying to sleep while the other crew was up and would be hard to get rest. From a dead sleep you can still can be rolling in 90 seconds.

[mobey]

Minimal sleeping of on-duty crews would be allowed.

Shoulden't that be "adequate sleeping"

[FireMedic65]

Shoulden't that be "adequate sleeping"

Adequate would be nice, but some is better than none.

I think it would be better to have rotating calls and sleep when no calls. Amb1 responds Amb 2 is next up. Soon as Amb 2 responds Amb 1 is next up. Otherwise one crew gets all the runs as it seems calls come in cycles. Plus the crews in your method would be trying to sleep while the other crew was up and would be hard to get rest. From a dead sleep you can still can be rolling in 90 seconds.

That's really great in the perfect world of 911. Amb 1 gets dispatched... then Amb2 gets dispatched moments after. Amb1 gets a refusal, then Amb2 ends up getting sent on a long transfer. Now Amb1 is stuck running all the calls. Both crews are lacking sleep.

Your idea works though. We try to do that.

[wemedic40]

i do it all the time working 24 hours on primary ambulance but i get to sleep at night but i need a little more info to make a better post

[cynical_as_hell]

At my job we work 48 hours at a time, with 4 days off in between. We have three 2 man crews consisting of 1 emt and 1 paramedic. we rotate our calls the entire shift. For you, it will all depend on your call volume as to what will work best for you and your coworkers. We are able to go to sleep after 12:00 but we have speakers in every bedroom with a light that comes on when tones go off and we have speakers in the dayroom as well. If you could set up something similiar, then your two crews would be able to sleep as needed, rotate the calls so that not just one crew is handling the traffic, and still have the 24 hour coverage you are looking for. Yes, there will be times that your crew may not wake up to the tones going off, as that happens with all workers. I don't know that I have been any help to you but good luck in your pursuit.

[AnthonyM83]

Here are three sample schedules:

Los Angeles County Fire Dept (1 day off, 2 days off, 1 day off, 4 days off, repeat)

Los Angeles (City) Fire Dept (1 day off, 1 day off, 4 days off, repeat)

48-96 Schedule (used by smaller cities in LA, like Redondo Beach FD) (48 hour shift, 96 off, repeat) (lot of good info in the link)

I listed them in order of least desirable to most desirable, in my opinion.

I would imagine 48's would only work in quieter areas (maybe why the quieter smaller cities adapt them more), though they are or have been used by larger departments (San Jose FD).

[Just Plain Ruff]

Ant, this was exactly what I was wanting.

If anyone can provide more schedules like that would be appreciated.

[WolfmanHarris]

Hey Ruff, this probably goes without saying (but I've gotta hit 2500 posts, so what they hey ) but I hope your system is low-moderate call volume so that crews can actually get sufficient sleep reliably during their 2nd out time. Otherwise, despite the generous amounts of time off such a schedule allows for crews, I think the risk of errors during care or driving are too high.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Doc, we run 2 crews on with a average call volume of 4-8 calls on day shift and 1-5 calls on night shift.