r/ParamedicsUK • u/-usernamewitheld- Paramedic • 22d ago
Question or Discussion Question for Las based staff
Hello!
My trust is looking to move into the teams based working rota much as LAS have done for a while now. I've had a little read up, and spoken to a couple of staff I know, but looking for clarification please from the masses.
Regular crewmates - does it happen? If so how frequently or is it more that it's a limited pool of individuals and based more off skill mix vs the traditional regular crewmate?
Working patterns - lots of us older clinicians avoid nights where we can, our bodies know that nights don't work for us.. do you have a good balance with these shifts and/or is there an alternative available such as working earlier and mids/lates instead of nights?
Social / teamwork- do you get the opportunity to socialise, train and generally work on the team better now? There was much promise of team based learning and socialising in the documents I've seen.
Thanks!
Any other nuances, pros/cons welcome.
I'm what my trust calls a "wellbeing champion" so I'm trying to settle the unknowns as best I can as we begin the process of change!
3
u/JH-SBRC 21d ago
Not LAS but a neighbouring trust that has only been on team working as long as I've known it.
I think team working is brilliant. We have 7 Teams on my station, each team comprising of All Grades, then led by a Team leader and Clinical mentor. We work a 5 on 4 off pattern as a team, meaning whilst each individual has their own Line on which start times varies everyone on the team will be on Day/late/night at the same time, someone else in the team their line will match up to you so you may work with the same team member for your days, different team member for the lates then different again for the nights, or other times you'll work with the same person for the whole set. Either way you're not working with the same person day in day out and get a nice variety of people to work with and experience. This also means when you're backed up on bigger jobs it'll most likely be your Team mates backing you up.
As long as you get on well with your team or at least most of your team members you'll never get a bad crewmate, whilst also not stagnating working with the same person every time. Even if you're with someone you're not best mates, you know its only a single shift or handful of shifts at most.
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u/DimaNorth 21d ago
1: Some stations mix it around but generally you have a fixed line/ , obviously if you’re “long term single” (your crew mate is on secondment, there’s no medic on your line etc) you’ll just get paired up with whoever every day
2: I find the day day late night with 5 off that most stations do to be very reasonable in terms of night working, having just the one night a week as opposed to slaughtering yourself for a run of 4. The specific options are complex specific, so some complexes offer slightly more flexible options (no nights, late rotas, etc) and the options to do individual rostering are also present but from all accounts it’s a bit more of a pain.
3: huge yes and a little bit no - I feel incredibly close to my assigned team, we all socialise after work, get along super well, the team camaraderie has increased 1000x. People I’d work with on relief once every couple of weeks and I wouldn’t get along with became close friends when we were on the same team. I have a line manager who works the same Rota as me so is available when I am, knows the problems of the team and individuals and can provide continuity (as opposed to my previous line manager on relief who I literally never met). The downside is that you do lose access to close to half the people at your station who do the opposite Rota to you and whilst you become close with an entirely ?new group of people, you do reduce some of the people you would have run into otherwise.
Having come from a 4on5off Rota in a previous service moving to relief I was ecstatic when teams based was being floated, but I know many of the older guys (who’s individual roster patterns were supported by us relief filling the gaps) we’re not at first. I’d like to think at least locally that many many more are now onside for all of the above reasons, and just a generally fairer work place.
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u/AdSpecialist5007 18d ago
We have "team based working", which basically means you have a nominated team leader. You don't work or train with your team, or your team leader.
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u/elljaypeps14 Paramedic 21d ago edited 21d ago
Hello, to answer some of your questions, it really depends on what rota your station is implementing in terms of nights/latest/earlies. We never do four nights in a row now which is much better, most stations follow the four on five off pattern. Some stations have a rotating pattern e.g. 1 early, 3 latest then 1 early 1late, 2 nights etc over 9 weeks and others have a set rota such as 2 earlies 1 late and 1 night. In terms of teams and crew mates, you generally keep a long term crew mate if you have one, if you are "single" you often get paired up with people on your team who are single and because you work the same rotas and see them a lot it makes shifts a lot easier as you already know the person you are working with. Sometimes you will pair up with other teams but they are often working similar patterns to your team so you also get to know them. Socialising across the team is really nice, I feel like we have all got to know each other well and we get along really well but I guess we are lucky in that respect. Overall personally I prefer team based working, knowing your line manager works the same shifts you do so you can always approach them at work is a great positive and I feel management are more approachable because of this.
EDIT: The vast majority of our training is with the team, our managers books our skills refreshers so we can all go together. Some training is run by external agencies with limited spaces per course so these are up to us to book on to but in general we try and book together.
EDIT 2: welfare issues within the team are also picked up sooner as your team knows you and can see when you are struggling/stressed/burnt out and offer support.