Can a nurse be part of the Special Operations and Response Team (SORT)?

I believe that I have replied to this on another thread from you.

In short, yes, nurses and mid-levels serve on the BOP's SORT team, which is our version of a SWAT team. Our nurses also qualify on firearms yearly. SORT has now integrated firearms into their tactics, as well as the more traditional use of chemical munitions.

SORT teams are now regional...each team covers several institutions. DCT (Disturbance Control Team) are located at each institution and have integrated many of the weapons and tactics that were once SORT-only. The idea is that DCT needs to be able to deal with problems that arise, and if the problem is very large to contain it until SORT can arrive.

I am not part of either, though I thought about it...I am now Public Health Service and we cannot serve on the teams.

Teams vary, because they are made up of people from the institutions. That said, I have seen several teams in exercises and have been impressed. If you want to be kicking in doors and throwing gas on a regular basis, though, this isn't that. DCT and SORT rarely get activated. Mostly, they train. However, our SORT and DCT have been called out to assist other prisons and in riot suppression such as in LA in the 90's.

Yeah, PHS cannot be armed in the BOP. Though we could be militarized and armed attached to a military force, so go figure. Between the two, I'd rather be PHS and not SORT...$$$

Shifts and schedules are completely a result of the mission and needs of the institution and what has been negotiated. Some use 24/7 coverage, some 16 hours of staffing, some 12 hours of staffing. It all depends on the needs. Medical centers, high acuity facilities, detention centers, and complexes (more than one prison at one site) tend to have staff on site 24 hours a day. Lower medical care level sites cover less of the day with someone on call the remainder of the time. My site has staffing on site 0600 to 2200 daily, while a lower acuity facility in our region has staff 0600 to 1800. Weekends are, again, related to needs and what has been negotiated. In essence, PHS will work a regular schedule as if they were civil service.

With that said, there are supervisors who view PHS nurses as an unlimited resource to plug gaps and cover shifts. Thus, PHS nurses may be assigned to work 12 to 16 hours daily, everyday. However, as our PHS liason likes to say, just because you CAN do something doesn't mean that you SHOULD do something. Treating PHS nurses in this manner tends to lead to PHS nurses leaving the institution and other PHS nurses not coming to the institution. We have a lot of options, after all.

I am lucky and have not experienced such treatment. I currently work a somewhat difficult schedule that involves two mornings and three evenings including one pair of days where I work until 2200 and then return at 0600...but everyone at the place has a similar schedule and it's not just PHS people being scheduled in that manner.

Yes, PHS officers are "available for duty 24 hours a day" and thus it is tempting to call them first to cover a shift. Again, people vote with their feet and it is on the supervisor if all their PHS nurses leave over such things.

Hope this helps. The best answer to what schedule you might work is to speak with the institution that you would work for. But, realize that anything can change at any time.