A Career as a Respiratory Therapist

Respiratory therapists eat, sleep, and work mainly in hospitals. It is common to work in nursing homes or even travel to patients’ homes. From the time babies are born to the adults reaching old age, they assist anyone who has breathing difficulties. Typically, RT’s interview/examine patients, perform diagnostic tests, treat patients, monitor/record the progress of treatment and teach patients how to use treatments (“Occupational Outlook Handbook”). The environment in which they work in is extremely clean to prevent patients from catching bugs that can put their health in more danger.

When I decided I wanted to be a respiratory therapist, I never imagined that I would be dealing with any psychological aspects. As I have learned more about the respiratory system and the patients that I will treat, I can see that I will deal with some psychological factors quite often. In respiratory therapy there are psychological factors that can affect a person’s ability to breath and their quality of breathing.

Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to help people, from a Doctor to a Pediatrician, even an X-ray Technician. As I got older I realized my true calling was in Respiratory Therapy. The human body is such an incredible thing and I found myself wanting to learn more and more about it.

The EKG Technician is the person responsible for performing diagnostic tests to access the heart rhythm and rate in patients. EKG technician is an integral part of the management of patients with heart disease. The EKG Technician may also clean equipment, maintain and process data reports. The course will prepare students with the theory, academics and clinical education necessary to function as an entry level EKG technician. This course may be taken as a module toward completion of the PCT program, or it may be taken independently as an individual skills course. The course structure will consist of introduction to EKG, applied EKG and clinical EKG.

My career goal is to become an Occupational Therapist and specialize in pediatrics. I want to specialize in pediatrics because I have always loved to be around children and be able to help them in whatever they need. Also, pediatrics is important to me because kids are our future and if I can help kids for their future I will be glad to do so. Helping kids become more independent on their activities of daily living makes me happy because I am helping them to become more independent and make them feel like they can accomplish anything. In order to be able to do this I have to get a Master Degree and I plan on getting this degree from Loma Linda University. In five years I see myself working in the Occupational Therapy setting and working with kids. I see myself, making others

Respiratory Therapists work in sleep laboratories helping to diagnose disorders like sleep apnea, in skilled nursing facilities and pulmonary rehabilitation programs helping older people breathe easier and get more out of life. Respiratory Therapists play an important role in asthma education. Not only can they treat disorders and breathing complications their job are to diagnose the patient and follow diagnostics procedures. Common procedures respiratory therapists perform are Arterial Blood Gas Analysis, Pulmonary Function Studies, Sleep Studies, EKG and Cardiac Test, Sputum Specimens, and Stress/Exercise test. Smoking programs assisting those who want to kick the habit for good also in air transport and ambulance programs rushing to rescue people in need of immediate medical attention.

It is applicable to obtain arterial blood gases (ABG) or pulse oximetry for patient experiencing a severe exacerbation (Booker, 2014). Chest X-ray and ECG

I didn’t know what to expect with my observation with the respiratory therapist. All what I knew about them was they floated around and gave patients aerosol breathing treatments. I learned that a respiratory therapist does a lot more than that. They have access to the Pixis, and are able to give patients any type of respiratory medication. They teach patients how to correctly use inhalers. They educate their patients on way they have to do breathing treatments, or why they have to take certain respiratory medications. They also do an examination to find out what type of breathing treatment or oxygen device is needed to help a patient get the oxygen they need, or help with expanding their lungs, etc

Respiratory therapists care for patients who have trouble breathing—for example, from a chronic respiratory disease, such as asthma or emphysema. Their

I have always been unsure about what my purpose is. With each job, I find myself getting bored and moving on to the next hospital. My thought is that eventually I will discover the missing piece that will keep me motivated and excited. I have been at the VA Black Hills Health Care System for more than 5 years and that is the longest I have worked at any place. Unfortunately, I have stayed here this long because of the long term retirement benefits.

Respiratory care makes a difference. And there are reasons why a Respiratory Therapist would be a great job. A guest speaker came into our class to explain more about the job. He explained education requirements, the job description, and the job opportunities.

An incentive spirometer is a device that our patients use to improve the function of their lungs. This main underlying principle is that breathing can be exercised to train the expansion of lungs capacity (Potter, Perry, Stockert, & Hall, 2013). Patients who qualify for this intervention include those who have recently had a surgery, were under anesthesia, or have been placed on bed rest. Our main concern here is that these situations create opportunity for less activity within the lungs, which can put the patient at risk for pneumonia.

Some of the duties of a Respiratory Therapist are to interview patients and examine their breathing disorders. Therapist use many different kinds of tests to diagnose patients, there are breathing instruments that patients will breathe into to test lung capacity. Also they use a gas analyzer to test the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Physical therapists develop specific programs for each patient's needs. They may apply therapeutic exercise, ultrasound, massage, and applications of heat and cold to alleviate pain and restore normal function to the body. The physical therapist is able to evaluate a patient's joint motion, muscle strength, endurance, functional abflity, muscle tone, reflexes, and stability of walking. The physical therapist also assesses the need and use of braces and artificial limbs, function of the heart and lungs, integrity of sensation and perception, and performance of activities required in daily living. ("A Future" 18). Another important part of the job of a physical therapist is to maintain careful documentation. The documentation is mainly used to keep a record of rehab used, to reflect back on improvement, and to provide legal records.

The role of the pulmonologist is to perform additional diagnostic test and prescribing the right medication that works for the patient. The role of the respiratory therapist is provide patient with nebulizer treatment and patient education such as inhaler training. The role of pulmonary rehabilitation therapists is to provide care for COPD patients to improve their symptoms, endurance and quality of life, (Lilly & Senderovich,2016).