Respiratory Therapists Have Clear Prospects
Ready for some exciting news? Take a deep breath. If you enjoy working
with people, like science and have an interest in medicine, you can build
a great career in respiratory therapy.
Respiratory therapists work under the direction of a physician to help
people with breathing problems and related cardiopulmonary (heart and lung)
disorders. It's a challenging profession with a big need for new people.
"It's one of the hot jobs," says Debra Laken. She's a respiratory therapist
who teaches in the respiratory therapy program at the University of Alabama
at Birmingham. "It's because of the increasingly elderly population. There's
more of a need for respiratory therapists and this trend will continue into
the future as our population ages."
Respiratory therapists evaluate and care for all kinds of patients. Patients
range in age from premature infants with underdeveloped lungs to senior citizens
with lung disease. They deal with any kind of lung problem you can imagine.
Their patients might have chronic asthma or emphysema, or they might be victims
of a heart attack, stroke, drowning or shock.
"The demand is there, as with other allied health professions," says Tom
Kallstrom. He's the chief operating officer for the American Association for
Respiratory Care (AARC) and has about 30 years of clinical experience as a
respiratory therapist.
"The mean age of the respiratory therapist is in the mid 40s, and our projections
show that in the next 10 years we will see about a third of working respiratory
therapists eligible for retirement," Kallstrom says.
Chronic Lung Disease on the Rise
"[T]here is a definite need for them, and a lot of this has to do with
the fact that a lot of what the respiratory therapist does is work with patients
with chronic lung disease," says Kallstrom.
"Two of the most well-known ones would be asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease), and we're seeing an increase in both of those chronic
diseases... so there's certainly a demand for qualified respiratory therapists
to treat and to educate these patients."
Kathy Spurr also sees growing demand for respiratory therapists. She worked
clinically as a respiratory therapist for 13 years and now teaches respiratory
therapy.
"Our population is aging, and with an aging population and people living
longer, the burden of chronic disease is heavier, and some of those prevalent,
more chronic diseases are cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease and asthma, obstructive sleep apnea -- diseases and disorders that
have an association with the cardiopulmonary system," says Spurr.
Laken says demand varies across the country. "Probably more rural areas
would need therapists [because] it's harder to get people to work in these
areas," she says.
"Therapists are usually trained in the cities. Even though some of our
students are from rural areas -- a few of them go back to work in their communities,
but some stay and work in the larger cities. The same is true for our international
students."
Choice of Different Work Environments
Respiratory therapists have many choices as to where they work and what
they specialize in.
"We do so much -- we're not narrowed down to one area or specialty," says
Laken. "We take care of small children, infants, [and] we can specialize in
certain areas if we like... Some therapists specialize with the neonates [newborns],
other therapists like to work with children at the children's hospitals and
some therapists specialize in critical care.
"There are openings now in doctor's offices, home health care, rehabilitation
centers, pulmonary function labs, research, management, education, hospitals,
flight therapists, sales of respiratory medical equipment, and there are jobs
for asthma educators."
Education Required
Every state except Alaska and Hawaii requires respiratory therapists to
be licensed. The minimum requirement to become licensed is an associate's
degree from an accredited respiratory therapy program.
There are three-year training programs offered by community colleges and
institutes of technology. Some universities offer four-year degrees. Those
who pass the certification exam earn the CSRT Registered Respiratory Therapist
(RRT) designation.
Respiratory therapy programs include courses on human anatomy and physiology,
pharmacology, physics, chemistry and microbiology. You also study such things
as diagnostic procedures and tests, patient assessment, cardiac and pulmonary
rehabilitation, and health promotion.
There is also a growing need for respiratory therapy educators.
"To be an educator, you're going to have to have at least a bachelor's
degree, and if you want to work at a university, you [need to] have a master's,
and some universities really would prefer a doctorate degree," says Laken.
"There is a shortage of therapists now in education, it seems, as people are
getting older and retiring."
Getting a Feel for the Profession
If this sounds like an area you would enjoy, try to do some volunteering
or job shadowing.
"We recommend that if you're considering going into respiratory therapy
that you go to a shadowing situation where you contact your local hospital,
contact a respiratory therapy department, and ask if you can follow a therapist
around for a day," says Kallstrom.
"Something like that would be a good way for you to get a good feel for
what this profession is, rather than finding out about it after you've started
your clinicals (hands-on training) maybe a year down the road into school."
Job shadowing or volunteering will expose you to the more challenging
parts of the job. Wanting to care for patients is essential, but so is being
able to handle stress.
"I think you want to have compassion for patients," says Kallstrom. "You
need to have an ability to deal with a situation that might be quite scary.
If a patient comes into an emergency room from a car accident, you're going
to see blood, you're going to see trauma.
"At the same time, if you're working with small children or neonates, it's
sometimes difficult too, when you're dealing with a patient going through
the dying process," Kallstrom adds.
"So there are things that are not easy, but the benefits of having made
a patient [healthy] in large part by something you've been able to do, is
really what the reward is for respiratory therapists."
If that sounds like it might be a bit much to handle, the good news is
that respiratory therapy offers many different work environments. Not all
of them are as stressful as others.
"You can work in an area that can be very stressful, like the ICU (intensive
care unit), emergency departments. And then you can work somewhere where the
environment's quite controlled, like an operating room or a sleep lab or in
homecare," says Spurr.
"And then there are a variety of other things that you can do. You can
go into education and research, or medical equipment sales -- those types
of things."
Links
American Association of Respiratory Care
A great source for career info and videos
Why Asthmatic Kids Love Their Respiratory Therapists
An account of the difference a good therapist can make
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