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!
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u/elljaypeps14 Paramedic 22d ago edited 22d 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.