Should you be considering training to become a respiratory therapist, it’s important to understand what respiratory therapist is and what it’s going to take you to become a full fledged respiratory therapist. The respiratory therapist has an important role and works as a team member with medical professionals and physicians. Respiratory therapists are responsible for patients with mainly lung disorders and they need to make expert evaluations and define treatment programs.
Respiratory therapists’ work is not only confined to hospitals as nursing homes and old people’s homes also use the services of respiratory therapists either on a shared or dedicated basis depending on demand. In hospitals, respiratory therapists can be found working in critical care or intensive care units. Their key job objective is to help patients suffering from various respiratory illnesses to be able to breathe as normally as possible.
As part of your training to understand what a respiratory therapist does, you will learn the following techniques; how to accurately measure a patient’s lung capacity, how to operate the ventilator equipment, setting it up correctly and learning monitoring techniques. You will also become familiar with the correct methods for testing patients to find lung anomalies and deciding on patients rehabilitative exercise programs and assisting patients to understand how to follow them. A respiratory therapist assistant is often considered more important than their right arm; taking notes, assisting with treatments and a myriad of other important tasks fall under their responsibility.
Sadly, many patients can only get minor assistance even from an experienced respiratory therapist. In many cases, breathing problems have been caused by smoking. In general, respiratory therapists are extremely active in anti smoking campaigns and are trying to find all methods to encourage people to cut out smoking. Respiratory therapists are often called into to high schools to teach classes about the dangers to health in regards to smoking. It might be through such a presentation was the first time that you considered that this interesting career could be for you.
What does a respiratory therapists do? They have to work with highly complex hi-tech equipment and their work takes them to deal with patients as small as newborn babies to very old people. Patients can be suffering from long term illnesses such as emphysema or cystic fibrosis. For this reason, a good, friendly and caring manner are key personality qualities looked out for as trainee respiratory therapists are evaluated during their training.
As mentioned, respiratory therapists can work in a number of different locations. Obviously, the majority work in general hospitals but with the ever increasing older generation, a number of respiratory therapists are found working in home care agencies, respiratory therapy clinics and nursing homes. Emergency centers also look to have respiratory therapists on call 24 by 7 as their services can be required at any time for a range of different problems.
In order to understand how to become a respiratory therapist, it is important to understand the studies you will need to complete. You can select from either a 4 year bachelor’s degree program or 2 year associate’s degree. Once you have successfully completed these elements, you can choose from two options to reach full qualification. The first one which is called CRT (Certified Respiratory Therapist) allows you to start practising as a certified therapist. The second, which requires that you have passed the CRT exams consisting of two tests, allows you to become a Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT).
Salaries for respiratory therapists vary from state to state. According to salary.com in a survey carried out in December 2010, the average salary for a respiratory therapist was $58,442. In California, salaries ranged from $42,500 to $66,800, in Texas from $38,900 to $56,012 and in Florida from $36,400 to $52,700. The New York state reported some of the highest salaries from $49,100 to $67,500. The pay scale for the career of a respiratory therapist is generally considered respectable. If you are wondering where to take the first step to embark on the career path of a respiratory therapist after you have read about all the exciting job scope and benefits, always start your search online – the resources on the respiratory therapist career are abundant!