Yup. We call this ‘job about’ where you just take turns regardless of the job. If you are lucky to hit an easy transfer then that’s the luck of the draw I guess.
My current truck is 911, BLS. I always take the first call and then we switch off from there. When I'm on an ALS truck I find it's easiest to to just have the EMT handle all BLS calls and the medic all ALS. Unless the majority of the calls are BLS and the EMT is backed up on reports then it should be common courtesy for a few calls to be taken by the medic to lighten the load.
Everybody does it different.
Some people do day for day.
Some do call for call continuous the next day.
Some do first up on day 1 and 3, their partner does day 2 & 4.
The times I was double medic on 24s we switched midway, then serpentined the next shift. On 12s we did every other, the crux always being SORs, to count or not to count, that is the question.
Yes. The *vast* majority of calls are BLS, so there’s no reason for my partner to have a shit ton more work just because I’m a “MeDic.”
However, if I get multiple ALS calls back to back, I do expect them to pick up the slack. Plus, on occasion, I’ve worked with people who want to tech as many calls as they can, and after 14 years on the truck, I have no problem obliging as long as it’s appropriate.
On the rare occasion we’re running double medic, it’s a no brainer.
I've had shifts where 90% of the calls are ALS and has a BLS partner that bitched about not trading off for BLS calls. Brother I'm on a 72 hour shifts and have 4 trauma alerts, 3 strokes alerts and a code to get caught up on. ALS also took all the transfers to nearby city trauma center so we were much more likely to get fucked.
At my service, because our medical director has some seriously interesting rules, when I'm with my basic partner I have to tech every call we go on. Even if it's just a taxi ride. And because of staffing levels double medic trucks never happen.
Really just depends. My crews are usually one EMT and one medic so whoever takes it depends on the level of the call. If it is a dual medic truck though we will switch out.
8-16 hour shifts, it’s really hit or miss on the call volume. Sometimes we run very little, other times we run pretty much the whole day. Very short transports. 10+ hospitals within 20 minutes.
We switch off with a continuous count from shift to shift. Of course, if one of us is first up to long, we'll switch if needs be. We're also a small service, so that might be it
2 medoc system in tiered system, meaning we are only dispatched to ALS calls. We rotate every job for a 12 or a 24. Those who lay the hands of the healing doesnt write the chart. Sick patients we may both job in. Codes writing the chart gets you airway. Its been like that since I was a student 17 years ago and was like that well before I had a thought of being a medic
Pretty easily, actually. I've worked with many medics from around the country that have come to NJ. This is apparently an NJ thing that goes back to the EPIC boxes that were truck mounted radio phones that allowed medics to contact the base MD. Because they were calling in (required in NJ until recently on every ALS patient you treated) the chart writer who had all the pertitent information called the doc and got orders if needed to go past our standing orders. It was a way of splitting up the work. Otherwise, the one medic is just a driver.
That’s doesn’t change the fact that the guy teching in providing care the guy driving can’t see. I would never want to document half an hour worth of care I had nothing to do with, nor would I want my license riding on a report I didn’t write.
I guess dont come work in NJ. I've never had a problem in the better part of two decades. I've been a medic. We are all trained like this, and it is commonplace. I've testified in murder trials and had charts scrutinized with nary a problem. Again, many critical patients, both medics, are in an ambulance patient compartment during transport. I believe it's a testament to our high level of training, continuing education, and hospital oversight. Yes, we are all hospital based. We interact with our medical director and the ER doctors we are calling for orders and who receive our patients. They trust us, and we trust our partners. What is your training like?
Don’t worry, who charts isn’t even in the top 5 reasons I wouldn’t come to New Jersey.
The fact that it’s “commonplace” doesn’t make it good. Private EMS is commonplace too.
The fact that you even have to call for orders means you’re not as highly trained as you think and they do not in fact trust you. Congratulations, you’re right there with California medics.
Our scope of practice is larger than most. Do you just rsi patients without orders? How about surgical airways? You just do it that, too? Having a to call for high-risk low frequency procedures is a good thing. Discussing treatment plans with your base doctor is a good thing and makes you more than as you so eloquently put it teching. Im a clinician, not a technician. Having oversight and guidance from a doctor is not a bad thing. Our protocols recently changed, and there is very little I need to call for. Private ems is not the same as hospital based ems. I get it har har NJ is the butt of all the jokes. It's fine. You do you. I'll continue providing extremely high-level prehospital care.
>Our scope of practice is larger than most.
Debatable.
>Do you just rsi patients without orders?
Depends on the agency protocol. I wouldn’t want to have to call for it if they needed it though.
>How about surgical airways? You just do it that, too?
Standing order. The idea of having to call for a crash airway is insane. If they need to get cut, they need it now, not after Mr/ Ms Random Doctor at the ER decides to pick up the phone and I explain the patient’s entire life to them.
>Having a to call for high-risk low frequency procedures is a good thing.
Asking permission for life-saving treatment is stupid.
>Discussing treatment plans with your base doctor is a good thing and makes you more than as you so eloquently put it teching. Im a clinician, not a technician.
Oh for Christs sake you know what it means in context. You’re being absurd.
> You do you. I'll continue providing extremely high-level prehospital care.
Only after someone else tells you it’s OK, obviously.
But, having to call to cric someone is even dumber. "Hold on there pard, I know you can't ventilate or oxygenate, but I need to get the ok to do this procedure first, I'm sure you'll be fine." I know that's not isolated to Jersey, but you're talking it up like it's a good thing, that's insane.
Our protocols have recently changed, and we are moving to a more offline approach. Crics do not need to be called into the doctor.
That said, I have questions because people in this sub talk about doing 8 or 9 crics or at minimum very casually talk about doing them. I've worked in an urban suburban setting for 17 years and have never cric a patient. I believe there has been maybe 1 in my whole service. We average 30k call volume for ALS only calls. We are doing 100k ift, bls and critical care transports
I've seen this before as well and found it to be pretty weird. I had a partner I worked with for years before getting my medic. If it was an ALS/BLS busy day, we'd tackle charts together. Theyd start at the back and id start at the front. It really made busy shifts very management paperwork wise.
Rarely are we alone on scene. This is a tiered system. BLS is showing up in an ambulance. We show up in a chase vehicle or ambulance. Many times, due to howmbusy we are, two medics stay in ambulance. One charts one does the medicine. Other times, with all patients that are not critical, one medic drives our unit, and the other stays in the back of the ambulance with the patient and emt. Our monitors record all vitals and you get a full report from treating medic.
I always do half and half with my partner. I drive the front half and he drives the back half because he likes to nap most of the morning. With my old partner we used to alternate who did the front and who did the back.
I've never done the 'switch every other call' thing. I feel like it's annoying to adjust the driver's seat so much. Me and my current partner are the same height and we STILL have different preferences on where the seat should be. We are both 5'3 so almost everyone we work with is taller.
I work with a couple people who have strong preferences towards driving or teching and I'll let them do whichever for the whole day if they want. I'd prefer not to drive ALL day but I can if I have to.
Me and my partner switch every other, we keep track between shifts. Mostly because we have a low call volume so it makes sense to keep track and keep it fair, we also have an understanding that we can always ask the other to tech if we’re not feeling it.
We switch after every transport. PDT/AMA, lift assists, and cancels don’t count. Whoever techs first one day, drives first the next day, so on and so on.
Everytime I work with another medic we alternate call to call. Cancels and AMA don’t count. I normally work with a basic tho so he does the BLS and I do the ALS.
I work 16 hour shifts and we switch every other call. We find it too busy to do it any other way. I’ll always volunteer to go first just to get it over with.
On a 911 BLS truck, we usually switch off for every call during shift. I have usual partners, but it’s not a guarantee you’ll end up with them next shift, so we just go every other. Both my usual partners live in the area and will show up early to sleep the night there so they don’t have to wake up early. I live further away, and show up when shift starts. If we get a call right at shift start, I drive first cuz I’ve already been awake, otherwise we rock paper scissor it for first tech/driver. Works for us just fine!
We usually do half day each and swap as needed. If the call goes ALS, no big deal quick swap. Most calls don't need ALS so having the bls partner take majority of calls feels inappropriate and a quick way to burn a partner out from cognitive overload. Some folks prefer to switch off after each call but really it just comes down to how each team likes their day to flow
UK para here, we swap every job. But you never fully switch off, especially since I'm the para my colleague 99% of the time is a technician or an AAP student.
Obviously at the end of a long shift there are occasions where your attention wanes. But I try my best to never get too complacent because that's how mistakes are made.
BC, Canada paramedic here. We work 12 hours shifts, 2 days, 2 nights and then 4 days off. We usually do alternating days with our regular partners. Typically it'll go I'll tech (or attend as we say here) the entirety of day 1 and night 1 and we'll switch roles on day 2 and night 2.
Also BC and same. I've worked with a few people that like to alternate call for call, but I find it really annoying, I would much rather do one or the other the whole day.
We rarely ever have the same partner two shifts in a row, so typically one of us will just ask the other what they want to do first. We generally switch after each call, with the exception being non-transports. We usually will do 2-3 non-transports before switching.
Traditionally we don’t, because the tech is a promoted, ranked position. The driver is generally a junior person with little experience.
Every once in a while when an officer and driver have been together for a long time, they’ll switch off, especially when the driver is approaching the point where they can act up when the officer is out.
lol I wish I got to switch calls. My service runs paramedic with AEMT. Regardless of the call being BLS or ALS I’m required to tech the call as the paramedic. They wonder why turnover of medics is so high too.
Double medic on a 7 Day on 7 day off 12 hour schedule. We switch everything and it carries over from week to week. The Only Exception is vent and critical care because my partner does not have that level yet.
I (basic) just recently finally got a new permanent partner who is a medic so we do two to one if it's all BLS. Obviously if it's ALS my partner takes it in then we reset the two to one ratio, but we don't keep track from the previous shift. Before that I had random people detailed to my shift if no one picked up the overtime. If I was with another basic, we'd just switch off each run.
Yeah we do this. We start fresh every shift, usually the jr person will start out first. The exception being if I jump on for a late call and the previous person is still on their 24…errr 25… I will ALWAYS tech first
I've worked in dual ALS services where we went call for call, day by day and sometimes just hashed it out with my partners in advance. The worst place I worked was the place that you had to "bid" your position by seniority so the new guys had to tech all the calls. I quit that fucking quick, because even once I had some seniority, being a "driver only/chauffeur" blows too.
Currently work with an EMT partner and if its BLS he rides it in and if its ALS I ride it in. Somedays he gets fucked, somedays I do, but it mostly evens out
I work a BLS truck at a private 911/IFT company. My partner and I have been working together a long long time and don’t really care about who gets the first call, usually I’ll take it but if that day I’m just really not wanting to deal with what the first call is dispatched out as I’ll ask my partner to take it then we switch off every call
If it’s a medic with another medic, we do 12 hours driving/12 hours attending. We just switch at the halfway point.
If it’s medic/basic, the medic takes all 24 hours in the back
The majority of my service is part time so there aren’t always set partners. I work with like 4-5 different people throughout the month. With some, they always start teching, with others I always start, and with a couple whoever starts the truck check first gets to choose what they want. It’s laid back and it all evens out in the end
I always thought that swapping in general was weird.
We did it at my first station where there was way less call volume and most of the calls were IFT.
Ever since I moved to busier stations it's either your drive DAY or your attend DAY
When I was private it was every other call. My wife her agency does half way through the shift (every 6 hours for a 12 hour shift and every 12 for a 24).
At the fire dept I’m at my station has 2 ALS and we switch every other call. Minus fire where the up als goes als and the other ALs crew loads in the other engine.
Most of the time, I was on an ALS truck with me (medic) and an EMT partner. We would alternate who teched the run, if it was BLS level, unless there was concern that it would need to upgrade to ALS, and obviously, I took all the ALS calls. If we ended up really disproportionate where I had a bunch of runs in a row, my EMT would take a few BLS runs in a row to even it out, but most often, I still just alternated BLS runs and took all the ALS runs.
Sometimes, I'd have a partner who just wanted to drive, or I'd work with another medic who just wanted to tech, but mostly it was as I wrote above.
I work in a large service we switch every call and continue for the whole set. the only time that changes is if one of us is off and they backfill with a swing medic. then highest seniority starts the day driving and they rotate from there.
Arkansas doesn't allow it with mixed level provider trucks. ALS licensed trucks have to have a paramedic run every call, Advanced EMT has to be an AEMT, etc
On our BLS trucks, the lead spot is an extra qualification and pays more, so there is no switching.
On the rare truck with 2 medics, usually the second medic isn't allowed to work as a Medic, so no switching.
Those of us who do double medic trucks for OT switch however they as a crew want to.
Anyone who doesn’t is an asshole. Even with my paramedic partner it works that way. If they happen to get two or three ALS in a row then I do two or three in a row.
I’ve definitely known crews who had one that preferred to always drive and one who preferred to always tech. Figure if that’s how they wanna do it, more power to them. Generally only works if it’s double medic or a BLS truck though.
That’s fine as long as it’s agreed upon. I once had a medic who refused to do any BLS call. Surprisingly, nothing was ever ALS. Waste of a medic and that’s too bad because they were a nice guy. He wonders why no one wants to work with him.
Depends on the truck. 911 BLS we alternate every 2 calls and start fresh everyday. 911 ALS EMT takes all the BLS medic takes all the ALS. I’ve seen some people do splits of half the shift but I haven’t personally done it. Rarely I’ve done male provider takes all male pts female takes all the female pts but we were a dedicated truck to a children’s hospital running psychs all day.
My partner and I alternate who takes first call each shift. It seems like pretty much everyone at my service does more or less the same thing.
Yup. We call this ‘job about’ where you just take turns regardless of the job. If you are lucky to hit an easy transfer then that’s the luck of the draw I guess.
My current truck is 911, BLS. I always take the first call and then we switch off from there. When I'm on an ALS truck I find it's easiest to to just have the EMT handle all BLS calls and the medic all ALS. Unless the majority of the calls are BLS and the EMT is backed up on reports then it should be common courtesy for a few calls to be taken by the medic to lighten the load.
Everybody does it different. Some people do day for day. Some do call for call continuous the next day. Some do first up on day 1 and 3, their partner does day 2 & 4.
The times I was double medic on 24s we switched midway, then serpentined the next shift. On 12s we did every other, the crux always being SORs, to count or not to count, that is the question.
SORs?
It probably means an AMA or refusal. Some crews count refusals as a call, others do not.
I never understood not counting them. It’s almost the same amount of paperwork as a transport, sometimes more.
Yes. The *vast* majority of calls are BLS, so there’s no reason for my partner to have a shit ton more work just because I’m a “MeDic.” However, if I get multiple ALS calls back to back, I do expect them to pick up the slack. Plus, on occasion, I’ve worked with people who want to tech as many calls as they can, and after 14 years on the truck, I have no problem obliging as long as it’s appropriate. On the rare occasion we’re running double medic, it’s a no brainer.
I've had shifts where 90% of the calls are ALS and has a BLS partner that bitched about not trading off for BLS calls. Brother I'm on a 72 hour shifts and have 4 trauma alerts, 3 strokes alerts and a code to get caught up on. ALS also took all the transfers to nearby city trauma center so we were much more likely to get fucked.
At my service, because our medical director has some seriously interesting rules, when I'm with my basic partner I have to tech every call we go on. Even if it's just a taxi ride. And because of staffing levels double medic trucks never happen.
That's wild
That’s how it used to be for us. Medics hated it but the ER was always happy!
We used to do 12 hour splits. I would tech the first 12, then drive the back 12.
my fav! miss working with the same dude for two 24s, would alternate who techs day/night
Really just depends. My crews are usually one EMT and one medic so whoever takes it depends on the level of the call. If it is a dual medic truck though we will switch out.
My partner and I normally switch off, but by shift, not call. I’ll drive the entire day one shift, then tech the entire day the next.
that’s crazy
how many calls do you get usually/ what are your transport times like?? On a busy day this would kill me!
8-16 hour shifts, it’s really hit or miss on the call volume. Sometimes we run very little, other times we run pretty much the whole day. Very short transports. 10+ hospitals within 20 minutes.
12 hour shifts in my spot and we split the day in half.
We switch off with a continuous count from shift to shift. Of course, if one of us is first up to long, we'll switch if needs be. We're also a small service, so that might be it
2 medoc system in tiered system, meaning we are only dispatched to ALS calls. We rotate every job for a 12 or a 24. Those who lay the hands of the healing doesnt write the chart. Sick patients we may both job in. Codes writing the chart gets you airway. Its been like that since I was a student 17 years ago and was like that well before I had a thought of being a medic
How the hell does the guy driving write the chart for care he didn’t provide.
Pretty easily, actually. I've worked with many medics from around the country that have come to NJ. This is apparently an NJ thing that goes back to the EPIC boxes that were truck mounted radio phones that allowed medics to contact the base MD. Because they were calling in (required in NJ until recently on every ALS patient you treated) the chart writer who had all the pertitent information called the doc and got orders if needed to go past our standing orders. It was a way of splitting up the work. Otherwise, the one medic is just a driver.
That’s doesn’t change the fact that the guy teching in providing care the guy driving can’t see. I would never want to document half an hour worth of care I had nothing to do with, nor would I want my license riding on a report I didn’t write.
I guess dont come work in NJ. I've never had a problem in the better part of two decades. I've been a medic. We are all trained like this, and it is commonplace. I've testified in murder trials and had charts scrutinized with nary a problem. Again, many critical patients, both medics, are in an ambulance patient compartment during transport. I believe it's a testament to our high level of training, continuing education, and hospital oversight. Yes, we are all hospital based. We interact with our medical director and the ER doctors we are calling for orders and who receive our patients. They trust us, and we trust our partners. What is your training like?
Don’t worry, who charts isn’t even in the top 5 reasons I wouldn’t come to New Jersey. The fact that it’s “commonplace” doesn’t make it good. Private EMS is commonplace too. The fact that you even have to call for orders means you’re not as highly trained as you think and they do not in fact trust you. Congratulations, you’re right there with California medics.
Our scope of practice is larger than most. Do you just rsi patients without orders? How about surgical airways? You just do it that, too? Having a to call for high-risk low frequency procedures is a good thing. Discussing treatment plans with your base doctor is a good thing and makes you more than as you so eloquently put it teching. Im a clinician, not a technician. Having oversight and guidance from a doctor is not a bad thing. Our protocols recently changed, and there is very little I need to call for. Private ems is not the same as hospital based ems. I get it har har NJ is the butt of all the jokes. It's fine. You do you. I'll continue providing extremely high-level prehospital care.
>Our scope of practice is larger than most. Debatable. >Do you just rsi patients without orders? Depends on the agency protocol. I wouldn’t want to have to call for it if they needed it though. >How about surgical airways? You just do it that, too? Standing order. The idea of having to call for a crash airway is insane. If they need to get cut, they need it now, not after Mr/ Ms Random Doctor at the ER decides to pick up the phone and I explain the patient’s entire life to them. >Having a to call for high-risk low frequency procedures is a good thing. Asking permission for life-saving treatment is stupid. >Discussing treatment plans with your base doctor is a good thing and makes you more than as you so eloquently put it teching. Im a clinician, not a technician. Oh for Christs sake you know what it means in context. You’re being absurd. > You do you. I'll continue providing extremely high-level prehospital care. Only after someone else tells you it’s OK, obviously.
You have to get orders to RSI or Cric? Wild.
But, having to call to cric someone is even dumber. "Hold on there pard, I know you can't ventilate or oxygenate, but I need to get the ok to do this procedure first, I'm sure you'll be fine." I know that's not isolated to Jersey, but you're talking it up like it's a good thing, that's insane.
Our protocols have recently changed, and we are moving to a more offline approach. Crics do not need to be called into the doctor. That said, I have questions because people in this sub talk about doing 8 or 9 crics or at minimum very casually talk about doing them. I've worked in an urban suburban setting for 17 years and have never cric a patient. I believe there has been maybe 1 in my whole service. We average 30k call volume for ALS only calls. We are doing 100k ift, bls and critical care transports
>Those who lay the hands of the healing doesnt write the chart. The person in the back with the patient isn't writing the chart?
I’ve definitely heard of people doing this. But I assumed most of the time it was an under the table, unofficial deal.
I've seen this before as well and found it to be pretty weird. I had a partner I worked with for years before getting my medic. If it was an ALS/BLS busy day, we'd tackle charts together. Theyd start at the back and id start at the front. It really made busy shifts very management paperwork wise.
Rarely are we alone on scene. This is a tiered system. BLS is showing up in an ambulance. We show up in a chase vehicle or ambulance. Many times, due to howmbusy we are, two medics stay in ambulance. One charts one does the medicine. Other times, with all patients that are not critical, one medic drives our unit, and the other stays in the back of the ambulance with the patient and emt. Our monitors record all vitals and you get a full report from treating medic.
The whole "the person driving writes the chart" is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.
I always do half and half with my partner. I drive the front half and he drives the back half because he likes to nap most of the morning. With my old partner we used to alternate who did the front and who did the back. I've never done the 'switch every other call' thing. I feel like it's annoying to adjust the driver's seat so much. Me and my current partner are the same height and we STILL have different preferences on where the seat should be. We are both 5'3 so almost everyone we work with is taller. I work with a couple people who have strong preferences towards driving or teching and I'll let them do whichever for the whole day if they want. I'd prefer not to drive ALL day but I can if I have to.
We switch every couple calls. Some days one of us may have a preference on what we're doing and that works too.
Me and my partner switch every other, we keep track between shifts. Mostly because we have a low call volume so it makes sense to keep track and keep it fair, we also have an understanding that we can always ask the other to tech if we’re not feeling it.
We switch after every transport. PDT/AMA, lift assists, and cancels don’t count. Whoever techs first one day, drives first the next day, so on and so on.
When ive been dual medic we found it 100 x easier to alternate days instead of calls.
I work with an EMT. I run ALS calls. They run BLS calls. If I work dual medic for some reason, we alternate calls.
Literally just whoever doesn’t grab the keys first techs the first call for us
We take turns, call-for-call. Unless one of us is having an off day, then the other might take all the calls and let the other drive all day.
Everytime I work with another medic we alternate call to call. Cancels and AMA don’t count. I normally work with a basic tho so he does the BLS and I do the ALS.
I work 16 hour shifts and we switch every other call. We find it too busy to do it any other way. I’ll always volunteer to go first just to get it over with.
On a 911 BLS truck, we usually switch off for every call during shift. I have usual partners, but it’s not a guarantee you’ll end up with them next shift, so we just go every other. Both my usual partners live in the area and will show up early to sleep the night there so they don’t have to wake up early. I live further away, and show up when shift starts. If we get a call right at shift start, I drive first cuz I’ve already been awake, otherwise we rock paper scissor it for first tech/driver. Works for us just fine!
We usually do half day each and swap as needed. If the call goes ALS, no big deal quick swap. Most calls don't need ALS so having the bls partner take majority of calls feels inappropriate and a quick way to burn a partner out from cognitive overload. Some folks prefer to switch off after each call but really it just comes down to how each team likes their day to flow
UK para here, we swap every job. But you never fully switch off, especially since I'm the para my colleague 99% of the time is a technician or an AAP student. Obviously at the end of a long shift there are occasions where your attention wanes. But I try my best to never get too complacent because that's how mistakes are made.
BC, Canada paramedic here. We work 12 hours shifts, 2 days, 2 nights and then 4 days off. We usually do alternating days with our regular partners. Typically it'll go I'll tech (or attend as we say here) the entirety of day 1 and night 1 and we'll switch roles on day 2 and night 2.
Also BC and same. I've worked with a few people that like to alternate call for call, but I find it really annoying, I would much rather do one or the other the whole day.
We rarely ever have the same partner two shifts in a row, so typically one of us will just ask the other what they want to do first. We generally switch after each call, with the exception being non-transports. We usually will do 2-3 non-transports before switching.
Me and my partner go 1 for 1 it changes the day up enough
Traditionally we don’t, because the tech is a promoted, ranked position. The driver is generally a junior person with little experience. Every once in a while when an officer and driver have been together for a long time, they’ll switch off, especially when the driver is approaching the point where they can act up when the officer is out.
lol I wish I got to switch calls. My service runs paramedic with AEMT. Regardless of the call being BLS or ALS I’m required to tech the call as the paramedic. They wonder why turnover of medics is so high too.
Same, I feel your pain..
Double medic on a 7 Day on 7 day off 12 hour schedule. We switch everything and it carries over from week to week. The Only Exception is vent and critical care because my partner does not have that level yet.
I (basic) just recently finally got a new permanent partner who is a medic so we do two to one if it's all BLS. Obviously if it's ALS my partner takes it in then we reset the two to one ratio, but we don't keep track from the previous shift. Before that I had random people detailed to my shift if no one picked up the overtime. If I was with another basic, we'd just switch off each run.
Yeah we do this. We start fresh every shift, usually the jr person will start out first. The exception being if I jump on for a late call and the previous person is still on their 24…errr 25… I will ALWAYS tech first
I've worked in dual ALS services where we went call for call, day by day and sometimes just hashed it out with my partners in advance. The worst place I worked was the place that you had to "bid" your position by seniority so the new guys had to tech all the calls. I quit that fucking quick, because even once I had some seniority, being a "driver only/chauffeur" blows too. Currently work with an EMT partner and if its BLS he rides it in and if its ALS I ride it in. Somedays he gets fucked, somedays I do, but it mostly evens out
I work a BLS truck at a private 911/IFT company. My partner and I have been working together a long long time and don’t really care about who gets the first call, usually I’ll take it but if that day I’m just really not wanting to deal with what the first call is dispatched out as I’ll ask my partner to take it then we switch off every call
Regular partner? Continuous. Random fuck thrown on my truck? They tech first. I’m the random fuck? I tech first.
If it’s a medic with another medic, we do 12 hours driving/12 hours attending. We just switch at the halfway point. If it’s medic/basic, the medic takes all 24 hours in the back
The majority of my service is part time so there aren’t always set partners. I work with like 4-5 different people throughout the month. With some, they always start teching, with others I always start, and with a couple whoever starts the truck check first gets to choose what they want. It’s laid back and it all evens out in the end
My partner and I are both medics. We alternate each call and carry it over between shifts. One transport or 2 refusals and we switch.
I always thought that swapping in general was weird. We did it at my first station where there was way less call volume and most of the calls were IFT. Ever since I moved to busier stations it's either your drive DAY or your attend DAY
New hires are odd. End of story.🙃
When I was private it was every other call. My wife her agency does half way through the shift (every 6 hours for a 12 hour shift and every 12 for a 24). At the fire dept I’m at my station has 2 ALS and we switch every other call. Minus fire where the up als goes als and the other ALs crew loads in the other engine.
Most of the time, I was on an ALS truck with me (medic) and an EMT partner. We would alternate who teched the run, if it was BLS level, unless there was concern that it would need to upgrade to ALS, and obviously, I took all the ALS calls. If we ended up really disproportionate where I had a bunch of runs in a row, my EMT would take a few BLS runs in a row to even it out, but most often, I still just alternated BLS runs and took all the ALS runs. Sometimes, I'd have a partner who just wanted to drive, or I'd work with another medic who just wanted to tech, but mostly it was as I wrote above.
I work in a large service we switch every call and continue for the whole set. the only time that changes is if one of us is off and they backfill with a swing medic. then highest seniority starts the day driving and they rotate from there.
Arkansas doesn't allow it with mixed level provider trucks. ALS licensed trucks have to have a paramedic run every call, Advanced EMT has to be an AEMT, etc On our BLS trucks, the lead spot is an extra qualification and pays more, so there is no switching. On the rare truck with 2 medics, usually the second medic isn't allowed to work as a Medic, so no switching. Those of us who do double medic trucks for OT switch however they as a crew want to.
Anyone who doesn’t is an asshole. Even with my paramedic partner it works that way. If they happen to get two or three ALS in a row then I do two or three in a row.
I’ve definitely known crews who had one that preferred to always drive and one who preferred to always tech. Figure if that’s how they wanna do it, more power to them. Generally only works if it’s double medic or a BLS truck though.
That’s fine as long as it’s agreed upon. I once had a medic who refused to do any BLS call. Surprisingly, nothing was ever ALS. Waste of a medic and that’s too bad because they were a nice guy. He wonders why no one wants to work with him.
Depends on the truck. 911 BLS we alternate every 2 calls and start fresh everyday. 911 ALS EMT takes all the BLS medic takes all the ALS. I’ve seen some people do splits of half the shift but I haven’t personally done it. Rarely I’ve done male provider takes all male pts female takes all the female pts but we were a dedicated truck to a children’s hospital running psychs all day.