By Allison G. S. Knox
Contributor, EDM Digest
Many public service employees often struggle with fatigue. Because emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics do not earn a lot of money, they routinely work two jobs back-to-back to make ends meet.
While working two jobs helps first responders financially, this situation has dangerous repercussions for patient care. Fatigued EMTs or paramedics are often too tired to make good patient care decisions.
Also, fatigued first responders driving a motor vehicle or an ambulance are less able to react quickly to avoid traffic or obstacles in the road, thus increasing the potential for accidents.
Fatigue Problems Have Forced National Organizations to Take Action
Fatigue issues among first responders have become so serious that the National Safety Council (NSC) recently announced guidelines and recommendations to help EMT agencies overcome employee fatigue. The five recommendations are excellent ways to combat this serious issue:
- Use fatigue and sleepiness surveys to measure and track staff fatigue.
- Limit shifts to less than 24 hours.
- Make caffeine accessible.
- Allow opportunities for on-duty naps.
- Provide education and training on fatigue risk management.
Making Changes to Allow First Responders to Handle Fatigue
Educating employees to manage fatigue is important. Even more important, agencies must work to create a culture in which working too many hours without sleep is not acceptable. By changing the existing culture, agencies may reduce the cases of EMTs and paramedics suffering from fatigue.
Ultimately, the issue of fatigue will need to be addressed one agency at a time until the problem no longer exists in the industry. Perhaps wages will increase as well, eliminating the need for first responders to work second jobs.
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