Down time-Station or Home?

[bbbrammer]

In my rural system, we do 24hr shifts, and if you live within 2mi of the station then you don't have to stay at the station when you are on call. Besides running around town, we can stay at home (even overnight) and just respond when we get a call. It is alot like volunteer fire, only we are scheduled to be on and get paid for it.

I was wondering if some other EMS services have that kind of an arrangement.

[Connie31079]

Not anywhere in Nova Scotia. that I know of, runs like this anymore.

I used to be like this way back when I first started working EMS, and volunteering for the local ambulance squad. But we weren't getting paid then, and as long as we made it to the station within 10 minutes of getting the call, that was good enough.

Now, I live 1.6 kilometers from the base, and I'm not allowed to stay at home when I'm working, because we have a 59 second "out of chute" time for getting our ass into the truck once the tones go off.

Now that I'm getting paid, I don't think it would be appropriate for me to be aloowed to stay home when I'm @ work.

Connie

[bbbrammer]

Our response time from tones to enroute is 3min. Which means if you stay at home you have to be doggone quick. At first it feels weird to get paid while you are hanging around at home, but the difference is that we only run about 30-35 calls a month and will often go several days w/o a call. We also don't get paid very much at all ($80/24hr) and to be considered full time you have to work 96hrs a week. So the trade off is that you can stay at home when you are working.

[akroeze]

We work 12 hour shifts where we have a 90seconds to 10-8 time. Then for the other 12 hours you have 8 minutes to 10-8 so those who live near enough can go home.

[shade]

We work 24 hr shifts here: 12 at the staion, then 12 "on-call" as long as we can roll the unit in 5 minutes or less. We get paid a small amount to be on-call. Helps on the gross at year end plus it encourages part-timers to help cover call in the evening and night when we have classes or school events. I agree, it was strange to be getting paid to be at home (I'm about 1 1/2 miles from staion), but very used to it now. From a sound sleep we can roll in 4 minutes in the middle of the night. That counts putting on jumpsuit, driving and getting in unit. Worst time is from 7 in the evening till a little after 10. Lots of cars still "cruising", from 10 till 6 in the morning we can make it very easy as traffic is nothing.

[canuckEMT]

The BLS service I work for is considered " on-call". We can stay at home but we have to be within 5 min of the station.

[beckoncall62]

:violent3: We are on call/ at home. Most of us live within 5 minutes of both of our stations.

[akroeze]

How can some people be 10-8 in 5 minutes or less when coming from home? Do you guys sleep in your uniform? Just wondering. I live at the station when I'm on call due to not living in the community where I work and I usually take 5+ minutes.

[OzMedic]

The thing I find bizarre is that you don't all take a unit home with you! I work 7 days straight and on-call at night so essentially 24/7 but all services in Australia take the units home with them when they are on call. If there are 2 of you on call then you take a unit each and meet at the job or somewhere on the way, park one of the units and pick it up later. That way you can have a normal life, go to the shops, pool, beach whatever as long as you park the unit close by.

[akroeze]

The thing I find bizarre is that you don't all take a unit home with you! I work 7 days straight and on-call at night so essentially 24/7 but all services in Australia take the units home with them when they are on call. If there are 2 of you on call then you take a unit each and meet at the job or somewhere on the way, park one of the units and pick it up later. That way you can have a normal life, go to the shops, pool, beach whatever as long as you park the unit close by.

That effectively doubles the number of vehicles you need to have!