Respiratory Therapy What is a Respiratory Therapist w

Respiratory Therapy

What is a Respiratory Therapist? w Healthcare professional w Diagnosis, treat, and educate patients w Work in w w w w Hospitals Emergency rooms Clinics Homecare Education Private enterprise Research

Can you think of illnesses or injuries that may require a Respiratory Therapist? w Asthma w Emphysema w Premature Babies w Collapsed Lung w Injuries to the chest and lungs w Any time a person has difficulty breathing!

How do you become a Respiratory Therapist? w After High School you can attend a 2 -year or 4 -year college to become trained in Respiratory Therapy. w Then you take a national exam to become a Certified Respiratory Therapist (CRT). w If you choose, you can take two more national exams and become a Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT).

How much will I make as a Respiratory Therapist? w Certified Respiratory Therapists make between $43, 400$48, 800/year w Registered Respiratory Therapists make between $51, 400$58, 200/year

How do they assess and diagnose? w Pulmonary function testing w Blood gases w Sleep studies w Chest X-Ray w Listening to the lungs

How do they treat? w Use of sophisticated devices that administer oxygen or assist in breathing w Mechanical Ventilators w Administer medicine that is inhaled w Maintaining an airway

Who are Respiratory Therapists? w Mean age is 44 (this means that when you are graduating, there will be many job openings!) w Baby boomers will demand the services of the RT w Asthma and COPD on the rise

Typical Day w w w w Medicinal aerosol delivery Assessing patients Educating Managing mechanical ventilators CPR Diagnostic testing Rounding with Doctors and others to develop care plans

Now you try… w One task of a respiratory therapist is to test how well a patient’s lungs are working. w They call this test Pulmonary Function Test. w We can simulate this test with balloons!