Curious if anyone works a "reverse" 24 hr schedule? I work for a busy county 9-1-1 organization and I also work on a busy 24 hour ambulance. We are trying to get this particular truck back to a 12 hr shift (we have both), but due to money constraints the higher ups will not allow this as of right now. We are looking to find other remedies. If you have any information, it would help out astronomically!
Thanks for your time,
Michelle Quaranto, NREMT-I, BS
LOL!! Ok I guess I should have written this a little better..
Currently we start our shift at 7 am. We have 12 hr shifts (our busier trucks) and most of our 24 hr shift are slower..
So with that being said... We are looking to try and change one of our 24 hr trucks to start at 7 pm instead of 7 am.
Oh yea! We have many part timers as well and a good portion of them are from The College of Charleston. They have there own student volunteer "ems" organization. So a lot of the college student get jobs w/ us..
The reason I posted this is that I'm trying to find out how people feel "circadian rhythm".
Here is some background information on the organization I work for:
Charleston County EMS is a third service Advanced Life Support system that responds to approximately 48,000 9-1-1 calls per year. Fourteen full-time medic units, three part-time medic units and two Quick Response Vehicles are strategically located to cover approximately 919 square miles. Extensive standing orders and transport protocols are supported by dedicated and committed Medical Director and Administrator. Our field operations personnel work 24/48 and 12 hour shifts.
Now... I believe our call volume has increased since the above information was posted on our county website.
Hope this information helps.
starting at 7 am is the normal isnt it? Thats what I would rather work. I dont think I could work a night then the day after. but then again Im not good with sleeping during the day.
The Simpsonville, S.C. Fire Department uses reverse 24-hour shifts. I know several of their firefighters. Most of them like it, but a few would rather be on standard 24's like their neighboring departments.
The City of Baltimore had once considered going to a reverse " 24" . Most where against it so we do the typical 2 ten hour days two fourteen hour nights with four off. The Medics here where still not going to be placed on the 24 shift if we had went to it, they had considered keeping them on eight hour shifts. We researched the reverse " 24" and found that on the positive side you see your family and friends for a part of the holiday, the major downside was working working or sleeping allnight , and as an officer trying to wake the members up at 7a . The question also came up as to hygeine and the whole Morning shower thing ;if to give a time period off or not,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Just my two cents hope it helped Jim
Permalink Reply by FETC on December 2, 2009 at 9:48am
So when you have your butt handed to you on the first half of a reverse 24, do you let the shift sleep all day?
I can see that department administration would frown on the fact that training, pre-planning, public ed, and building familiarization tours would suffer. Not to mention trying to explain to the public where everyone is when they come into the station for a question, permit or tour.
From an administrator standpoint, the regular 24 eliminates all of those concerns. Arrive rested, work during the day, get your chores, details and busy work done, sleep if you can at night. If you are busy and sleep in...
I TOTALLY agree w/ you, Ben! We want to go back to 12 hr shifts!! The truck I'm on is way to busy to work a 24 hr shift mainly for safety concerns!! But due to working for a county organization that is NOT union based this is easier said than done!
Believe you me, we want to go to a 12 hr shift... we would work: 2 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off...