The End of 24/72. Could It Be.

[BMIG]

I had to get this posted. I know view counter will blow on this one :D


Heard that the movers, and shakers of the department are looking to going to a 2/2/4 schedule. Supposedly the dearth of volunteers to take the detail to an ems unit, and the initiation of the second phase of unification process has them looking in that direction.

Also heard that the ambulance detail will be shortened from a year to six months.

[ESBagpiper]

Your partly correct. Both the Fire Chief and Chief Martin were at the Union Meeting on Monday. They both spoke at length about Dual Roll X Training etc. The Fire Chief wants more accountability and consistency with the F/F ambulances so one of his ideas is to put those units on 2/2/4. Assign F/F's to them on a 6 month detail, give them tech pay and 5/12ths of a point per month for tech exams.They used Fire Prevention / Investigations as the example because that Division has always been on the split shift.

Starting in 2006 Recruit School will be 10 months because EMT / IP is going to be a requirement. And lastly look for Fire Officers to be sent to MFRI for EMS Admin. Training this fall. As far as 24 / 72, " Its a sacred cow and we dont plan to touch it" ( Chief Martin's quotes )

Take care, Doo

[resqsqd]

BagPiper -

Can you comment more on the ideas for "cross-training" and "dual-role"?

Does this mean that you'll have firefighters (either FF/EMT or FF/Medic) rotating between an ambulance and a fire truck?

Or is the intention to have medically qualified FF's (at both the EMT and Medic level) on suppression units while still leaving the transport to EMS division (and seperate EMS employees)?

[BMIG]

If the department is going to lengthen recruit training, and initiate emt/ip to the recruit curriculum. Can the dept continue it's (SOG) of hiring an entire applicant list? I have come to the conclusion that by doing such the dept didn't care what caliber of employee it was getting.(being that going further into a list you continue to hire the weakest applicants)Being that more time and training will be spent on future recruits. You would only want to pull the most qualified applicants(test ranking wise).

[Brooks]

BMIG, i'm not sure what that has to do with 24/72, but I agree with your concern. I also think that the 'midnight' announcements for job vacancies are at least, unethical, and are certainly counterproductive. I'd like to see testing more convenient and frequent, at least monthly, and preferably at will (much like the GRE is now). That way you get to A) hire only top scorers, and B) attract non-traditional applicants, who don't see the benefit of jumping through the hoops for a one-day-only application process.