It is officially Respiratory Care Week, and like many years there are tons of post floating around, written by other respiratory therapists (RTs) explaining what our exact job entails. Because the truth of it is if you have never been treated by an RT or had a family member that has you probably do not know of us. Or even better, you think we are nurses that woke up and put on the wrong color scrubs. Below is one of the best excerpts I have found (and modified slightly) to help describe what exactly I do all “night” when the rest of the world is sleeping.
“A Respiratory Therapist isn’t “just a Respiratory Therapist.”
We do indeed go to college. Many of us have an associates degree, but that associate’s degree still took us four full years. Two years of mandatory prerequisite and two focused solely on specific aspects of respiratory care.
We take national registries and are licensed in all fifty states just like nurses.
We can further our education and receive a bachelors or master degree in Respiratory Care.
We can specialize in specific fields, such as pediatrics, adults, critical care, asthma educators, rehabilitation and more.
We know diagnosis’s, just like nurses.
We know medications and their purpose, just like nurses.
We read chest X-rays and report the findings to doctors.
We think on our feet.
Many decisions are made in a matter of seconds (most of the time without a doctor present).
We identify breath sounds and provide appropriate care according to our findings.
We know normal and critical lab values.
We know heart waveforms.
We know how to read an EKG.
We know what size endotracheal tube to use on your newborn baby who stopped breathing and turned blue or your ninety-year-old grandparent who is suffering from severe pneumonia.
We are specially trained, so we do not push too much air into your lungs, resulting in a pneumothorax.
We draw blood, but unlike nurses, we draw it from your from arteries, not your veins.
We know what ventilator settings to set your loved one’s ventilator to when his doctor is not there during an emergency.
We know how to intubate.
We know CPR and perform it on a regular basis, on all walks of life.
We are 911 trauma trained.
We get blood, vomit, spit, even pee or poop on us.
We don’t have just 2 or 3 patients.
We usually have 3 or 4 floors at once.
3/4 floors equals 20+ patients sometimes.
We are always in a hurry.
Sometimes we don’t get to eat.
We never give up our phones.
We respond to code blues.
We go on neonatal transports to other cities to rescue premature babies and newborns in distress to bring them back to our NICU.
We comfort the mother who has just given birth and is watching her baby fight for his or her life right before her eyes.
We know how to manage your grandfather’s COPD appropriately, so his hypoxic drive isn’t knocked out, preventing him from turning blue and stopping breathing.
We give life to our patients.
We are the ones who remove breathing tubes when the patient has been pronounced brain dead.
Sometimes we even remove them as a withdrawal of care protocol, respecting the family’s wishes. We watch as our patient takes their last breath.
We don’t just give breathing treatments.
We do chest percussion therapy (CPT) for hours on end to help assist our patient’s that can’t properly cough up mucus.
We provide education, medication, and teach parents how to do CPT on themselves or their children who have been diagnosed with certain respiratory diseases, such as Cystic Fibrosis.
We attend natural and c-section births for babies who we expect will have breathing problems after birth.
We provide oxygen and humidification to your grandmother who is on hospice and taking very shallow breaths. We make sure, along with her nurse, that she is as comfortable as she can be as she passes into her next life.
Have you ever been truly short of breath? I don’t mean you went running, you’re out of shape, out of breath. I mean 100%, get me to a hospital, short of breath? Those who have been, you appreciate us, and you know our job title.
We have had patients burst into tears when they see us walk through their ER door because they know we are going to help them breathe, or their child breathe.
We give doctors our professional opinion when it comes to caring for our patients. We stay with them for 12 hours a day. A doctor might see them for 10 minutes. Our doctors trust us. They have too.
Thank your Respiratory Therapist this week. Whether you’re a doctor, a nurse practitioner, an ICU nurse, a floor nurse, a patient, a family member or just a friend. You are important to us. We should be important to you.”
While this excerpt says many things, I think the most important to take away is the amount of things we are trained on and how hard we worked to get there. Many of us may only have an associated degree, but we spent two FULL years, learning about one system. We know it better than anyone else in that hospital, and we take pride in that. We take pride in the ability to care for so many different populations all in one shift. We take pride in our ability to think on the spot critically. Our profession is no better than any of the other medical professions; we are all on the same team.
Before I finish this post, I want to write about why I choose to become a respiratory therapist instead of a nurse initially.
My younger brother Kyle was very sick when he was young. He had a disease that many newborns get called RSV, which is a common cold for anyone with an established immune system. However, for a brand new baby, RSV can be quite dangerous. Babies are nose breathers, so when their nose is congested, they have to work a lot harder to breathe, which can tire them out and lead to severe complications; this is what Kyle had. He was in and out of the hospital a lot when he was younger. Since I was only 4.5/5 years older than him, I don’t remember the specifics about his illness, but I do remember my parents taking turns staying at the hospital with him, and the other at home with Nick and I. I remember visiting him and thinking how pale he looked. I recall giving him many breathing treatments as the years went on, to help him from avoiding getting that sick ever again. During respiratory school, when the time came to give our first breathing treatment, I was complimented on how well I did it, and how natural it seemed to me. Well yeah, little did they know I had been doing treatments for years. Day after day, it was my responsibility to make sure Kyle sat through his entire treatment, which if you know anything about toddlers, you know how hard that was.
As I got older and into sports, I, myself, developed exercise induced Asthma, requiring me to carry an inhaler around. Like everyone else I hated how I felt when I would become short of breaths, unable to take deep breaths without coughing. Panic would begin to set in. At that time, I became very passionate about figuring out how to help myself and preventing me from getting that sick. It wasn’t until years later I realized there was an entire profession dedicated to helping people breath easier.
Insert respiratory school.
From the moment I shadowed at a local hospital, I loved it. I loved the ability to go from one unit to another, following-up with patients and watching as they progress from one day to the next. This is still my favorite thing about my job. Seeing as those itty-bitty babies continue to grow and improve day after day. My least favorite thing about my job… the lack of respect. This fact is not pointed at anyone or any profession, in particular, just an overall health care observation. Respiratory therapy is one of the most underrated professions we have. Part of me attributes the fact that unless you are an RT, or an MD (which some of them don’t even) fully understand every in and out of our job. But you know what? That’s ok. We are supposed to be the experts in anything having to do with the lungs, ventilation, oxygenation, etc. Why are we not being utilized to our fullest potential? — Perfect example: When I moved to an outpatient clinic, in Pulmonary (a department that revolves around the lung and vascular issues) mind you the medical assistants were the ones doing the education about respiratory medications and diseases. The nurses were the ones involved in the research. The only job the RTs were needed for was to run testing on the lungs, which yes, is important. However, why were we not doing the education on a system we are supposed to be the “licensed experts” in? Because of that exact reason, I decided to get my Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing. If that’s the game that will be played then fine, I will get my BSN and bring my expertize into the job, making me even more qualified than required.
As I stated before, this is in no means a dig at nurses, some of my best friends are nursing, amazing nurses. Hell, I am going through these hellacious classes right now, to become one. All I am saying is as an RT, we do and know a lot more than we are given credit for. If you, your family, anyone you know finds yourself in a position that you need help with breathing, please know you are in good hands. We take pride in our work and will work together with other RTs, RN, MD, PCTs, Rad Techs, Pharmacist, PTs, OTs and everyone else who makes up your care team.
To all my other RTs, Happy Respiratory Care week.
For everyone else, enjoy these overly shared, but still amazing respiratory memes!
