The 48 hour shift

[domswen]

Is anyone here working the 48/96 shift schedule? If so, what efforts does your department make, if any, to make sure you get a minimum amount of sleep during that 48 hour period of time?

[DrParasite]

no. my EMS agency limits us to 12 hour shifts, with 18 hours max without a break. if you are in a semi-busy system, going 48 hours straight can be killer.

and killer, I mean dangerous for you behind the wheel and the people you are treating.

[domswen]

I agree, but I've been hearing a lot of talk about how these 48/96 shifts are becoming quite popular in some areas. It concerns me, especially if crews aren't guaranteed a minimum amount of sleep. Can you imagine a paramedic running a code (or driving an ambulance) on hour 45 with little or no sleep?

[croaker260]

Our local FD (a career department) is going to this I hear. Fine for them , as a busy shift if 5-8 EMS calls.

For us where we run 3 times that, it is not a possibility.

[NYCCEMTP]

Is anyone here working the 48/96 shift schedule? If so, what efforts does your department make, if any, to make sure you get a minimum amount of sleep during that 48 hour period of time?

The closest in this region is a 24 hour shift.

I think it depends on your call volume. For example, shifts in busy urban areas are limited to 12 hours. When you go from call to call and end up doing anywhere from 12 to 16 calls a shift, you tend to be thankful that you go home after 12 hours. Then again, the 24 hour shifts are in the much slower rural areas where a busy shift is one or two calls. There are no guarantees for down time to sleep, eat or clean up. i.e. - if you go call to call, you're pretty much screwed.

If you can guarantee a lower than low call volume, then I can see 48 hour shifts. Then again, would you want the paramedic that's on hour 47 show up at your front door if he/she has had no sleep and no showers in that time period? Probably not, right?

[RyanEMVFD]

The hospital I work for has operations that are 48/96 but I think they only run about 3-6 calls for the 48 hours. So I imagine sleep is not a problem.

[Wmed60]

Where I work we have the 48/96. They don't have a minimum alowed sleep time. But after 11pm they do not move up to cover. They also do not do interfacility transfers. Everyone seems to like them. Even in the busy stations.

[kriceslo]

We are allowed to work up to 120 hours (5 days) in a row via shift-trades and overtime and there is no guaranteed minimum sleep. No one complains about that, and the times that you really and truly get slammed are rare. Even after a busy night, mornings are usually somewhat quiet (because the thugs and losers are asleep).

I've worked five days in a row at a 20-calls per day station and never lacked the ability to keep up on sleep.

I know plenty of people against 48/96, but they work 48, 72 and more regularly. Those who say 48/96 is dangerous are not dealing straight. You can be just as tired after 24, and a nap or two after a busy night fixes that.

[DrParasite]

I've worked five days in a row at a 20-calls per day station and never lacked the ability to keep up on sleep.you worked 5 days in a row, 24 hours a day, at a station that gets 20 calls a day and, assuming you went on all the calls, never lacked the ability to keep up on sleep? maybe it's just me, but I have a really hard time believing that one.....

[NYCCEMTP]

you worked 5 days in a row, 24 hours a day, at a station that gets 20 calls a day and, assuming you went on all the calls, never lacked the ability to keep up on sleep? maybe it's just me, but I have a really hard time believing that one.....

ditto

I would like some clarification on some of your statements <b>kriceslo</b>.

What kind of EMS system do you work in? A busy urban agency? A sleepy rural agency? etc...

Just the thought of working five days in a row gave me a headache. 24 hours straight is just about as much as I can take with the call volume we have here. [suburban, municipal EMS-only agency]

[pocambu]

Never heard of this myself. I do know some places that do the 24/72. Our service is a mix of 12's and 24/48's

[firefighterbeau]

Our agency does 40-48hours on duty, then 5 days off. Once in a while you end up working 3 or 4 days straight, but that is very very rare. 56 hours on happens once in a while. We have 3 crews on duty, so if one crew has gotten slammed they will take a 4-5 hour break and another crew will cover your station and calls.

[the1141man]

Around here, where "here" is a semi-rural area with four incorporated cities (3 of about 20k people, one of about 50k), and two small "village" sort of areas that are unincorporated, about 2-5k pop each. County Fire covers all but the 50k pop city, which has its own paid FD, and one 20k city, which has a VFD, but County runs auto-aid with them on all structures, hazmats, etc.
EMS is single-provider for 3/4 of the county, one city maintains their small contract company.

FD--straight 48s. During fire season, the busy stations may run 1 (maybe 2, but that's a stretch) long call(s) (structure or wildland), about 5 relatively short calls (TAs, especially w/ pin-ins; dumpster fires, roadside fires, vehicle fires, etc), and maybe 5-10 med aids. Stations rarely send units to cover other stations unless there's a major wildland or structure response requiring four or more stations to respond (we have 10).
During the "off-season" even the busy stations may average only 5 calls a day, usually "short duration" type calls.
Even during fire season, certain of the "out in the sticks" stations get 0-call days. Mine is one such station... :-(

EMS--their weekly schedule is a 60-hr work week with 2 (usu non-consecutive) 24-hr shifts, and 1 12-hr shift. There're 7 24-hr rigs (units are all ALS, EMT-1/EMT-P staffing) in the county, and 2 12 hr rigs (typically 1100-2300 and 1200-0000 are their hours). 12-hr cars are automatically "first-out" in their areas, and draw all IHOPs if not already committed. The county utilizes SSM for EMS units, if available a 12-hr car will be sent for area coverage; if not, a 24-hr rig is sent.
Once the 12-hr units are off, though, the 24 crews are subject to wake-up for the "system status shuffle" if one of the areas that staffs a single rig gets a call.

One of my good friends works back-to-back 24s on one of the busiest rigs in the county (more "status shuffle" than running calls, though), and she's usually pretty toasted by the end of her 48 (which falls Thurs-Friday).

Personally, I don't think EMS crews who don't get "guaranteed rest" or are subject to the Status Shuffle should work more than 24 straight, for the reasons mentioned above. You should at least get ONE day off for rest before being thrown back out there... just my 2¢, though.