Duties of a Respiratory Therapist
The patients range all the way from premature babies with undeveloped lungs, to older people with diseased lungs. A respiratory therapist works right beside physicians, to help and assist with diagnosing and treating patients. They make assessments of their patients’ breathing. They let the patient breathe into a machine that measures lung size and air volume.
Things such as weight, height, sex, and age play a part in the diagnosing of the patients. The therapists also are responsible for taking blood samples. Then these samples get analyzed for oxygen levels and carbon dioxide in the blood. They do it by taking arterial blood samples and placing them in their blood gas analyzer, then they relay those results to the doctor.
These respiratory therapists employ a wide variety of methods for treating their patients. For delivering oxygen to those who can’t breathe by themselves, they can use oxygen masks or simply insert small breathing tubes into the nose of their patient. They make use of chest physiotherapy, and utilize aerosol medications for treating patients. Sometimes they connect their patients to ventilators, which will send pressurized air to the lungs. In order to connect patients to ventilators, they insert a tube down their windpipe to allow oxygen to be directly sent to the lungs.
Some of their other responsibilities are the monitoring of respiratory equipment, the observing and assessing of patients conditions, and then making recommendations for treatment. They will record all the relevant information from this into medical charts. Then they can brief the physician on the progress or lack of progress of the patient. They’re also involved in the education of the patients concerning dealing with their problems while at home.
It’s very important for a good respiratory therapist to daily ensure their patients know and understand about their illness and how to cope with it. They should always try to relieve all fear from their patients. The can also help instruct friends and family members on dealing with any emergencies and how to use the breathing equipment while at home.
Just like other professional health care people, some formal training is definitely required before entering the field. First off, a high school diploma must be obtained. When going through high school, a student wishing to enter this field needs to put an emphasis on their math, physics, chemistry, biology, and health. Then they’ll need to finish a program in respiratory therapy that’s accredited. They can easily find these types of programs being offered by colleges and vocational training schools all over the country. This schooling will range from two to four years. The associate degree will take two years, while the bachelors will take four. After completing those, the student can participate in two additional exams that will enable them to become RRTs (Registered Respiratory Therapist). Any RRTs working in the intensive care units are required to be certified RRTs, as they are for taking on any supervisory role.