How do hosp staff treat resp therapists?

Nurses General Nursing

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I am currently trying to mk a decision between resp therapy or nursing...What are your opinions on the difference? Also; how are resp therapists treated in the hospital setting?

Thanks in advance for all advice, opinions and comments....

Originally posted by Agnus

What are you trying to say here??

Your post is unclear to me.

nurses specialze we are generalist in that speciality because of the broad area we must cover unlike therapists.

I hope I misunderstood you.

I'm saying that where I work most of the people in RT worked outside of health care 2 weeks ago, did on the job training last week and are telling the nurses on the Peds unit what the kid needs and in some instances are telling parents the physician has ordered the "wrong treatment, wrong medication, the nurse doesn't know...." etc. We have two (2) registered respiratory therapists and a handful of techs that did a correspondence certification course that are great to work with but unfortunetly there is a real shortage here(as well as with nurses and pharmacists) and they are relying heavily on college kids who are majoring in criminal justice and such who work short term, big turn over and are usually clueless but don't know it and will attempt anything. One even had the gall to report the Assistant Peds Clinical Educator because she did an ABG stat instead of waiting for him and he likes to do "all arterials on his watch". He has worked in RT since just before Vetrans Day.(previous employment - tire factory).

Call for standby O2 on a seizure kid and he comes and puts up a croup tent and tells the parents under no circumstances take the baby out no matter what a nurse says(???)

It's a big problem here. The department was recently put under the supervision of the VP of PAtient Services instead of the VP of Human Resources so we are all hopeful it will get better .

I rely greatly on RT's that's why we are so frustrated with what we have -- the good ones we have stay so busy in ER,ICU and NICU we are out of luck.

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Originally posted by Mattigan

I'm saying that where I work most of the people in RT worked outside of health care 2 weeks ago, did on the job training last week and are telling the nurses on the Peds unit what the kid needs and in some instances are telling parents the physician has ordered the "wrong treatment, wrong medication, the nurse doesn't know...." etc. We have two (2) registered respiratory therapists and a handful of techs that did a correspondence certification course that are great to work with but unfortunetly there is a real shortage here(as well as with nurses and pharmacists) and they are relying heavily on college kids who are majoring in criminal justice and such who work short term, big turn over and are usually clueless but don't know it and will attempt anything. One even had the gall to report the Assistant Peds Clinical Educator because she did an ABG stat instead of waiting for him and he likes to do "all arterials on his watch". He has worked in RT since just before Vetrans Day.(previous employment - tire factory).

Call for standby O2 on a seizure kid and he comes and puts up a croup tent and tells the parents under no circumstances take the baby out no matter what a nurse says(???)

It's a big problem here. The department was recently put under the supervision of the VP of PAtient Services instead of the VP of Human Resources so we are all hopeful it will get better .

I rely greatly on RT's that's why we are so frustrated with what we have -- the good ones we have stay so busy in ER,ICU and NICU we are out of luck.

Boy I sure did misunderstand. This is LEGAL? How do they get away with this? They're thearapists???!!! Your state needs to enact a requirement that All RTs be REGISTERED. The public deserves the protection of being treated by a licensed individual.

I don't get it. How can they even be called RTs. You said there are techs that are better and better trained. Very confused.

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Yes, it is confusing. Essentially there are 2 registered therapists and tech who are certified ( a few) the rest are just kids who get jobs and get hired on like a unlicensed nursing assistant. They have some sort of loophole where if they are working on certification course they can work ( under supposed supervision of registered/ certififed personnel- who is generally 2 floors away). There is a time limit thay have to finish certification, however, most quit before they get very far to go somewhere for better pay, hours or for easier work. So we have a constant stream of newbies who have never even heard of a Krebs cycle prior to hiring on. As soon as you get one broken in, they are out and another is starting from scratch. Yes, it's legal.

The best tech we have (and he is great) can't work on Peds even because he is such a heavy smoker he reeks of cig smoke and pedatricians and parents have c/o him so much.

Rural areas in this state informally call anyone who works in RT a RT regardless of education ( kinda like a CNA getting called a nurse).They sign charts RT but not CRT or RRT.

We desperately need more registered. There is an AD program for resp. therapy 1.5 hours aways and we are recruiting students to this area but it really hard to get them. Lots of competetion.

We love Registered Respiratory Therapists- give them to us. They are working on this on a state level ,also.

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Mattigan, what state do you live in? :eek:

In the Seattle area, we may not have a surfeit of RT's, but there are at least two community college RT programmes in the immediate area. There is NO WAY anyone who took a correspondence course or who had not graduated from an accredited RT programme would be allowed anywhere NEAR a patient. All of the RT's that I've ever run into here in Washington have been Registered Respiratory Therapists, and my husband's friend has a four-year degree plus the RT training. I've never seen a job ad that didn't specify that applicants had to be RRT's.

Heck, if there's a state where taking a correspondence course or working in a tire factory qualifies you to practise as an RT, please let me know. That'd be a good way to pay for nursing school. :rolleyes:

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I have worked with some wonderful RT, as a matter of fact I can't think of any RT that I would not want to work with. The RT is just as over worked as the RN , I think you have more job growth and opportunities as a RN but if RT is your Bag (get the joke, hahaha) then go for it.

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RN2B2005- I PM'd you.

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I love the respiratory staff. Everybody does. They are wonderful and love to teach.

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RTS who worked at Burger King last week? All of our RT'S have to have bachelor's degrees.

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Some of our RTs are wonderful, and moreover, eager to share their expertise with a novice nurse like me.

On the other hand, I have repeatedly gone into a room after and RT and found things like a dry mist bottle.

Once, I entered a room as the RT was leaving and found the patient sound asleep with his trach out and lying on his pillow. The patient was know for pulling his trach when gets upset, but he was ASLEEP so I know it wasn't freshly done. The RT didn't even look at it.

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Oooh. One more thing. I did go to school with some RTs who sere getting out of the field because they were bored with it. I think they were both working in LTC.

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California College offers a distance course for RT's...they must find a facility willing to train them and they do the bookwork and exams through the college to obtain their certification. It seems like a fair program by my experience with grads.

Generally speaking these grads are seen working as staff RT's (in my area) and the supervisors/directors have RRT's and more advanced degrees.

I think RT is a great job personally....but this comes from my nursing experience as I said. Less responsibility sounds good to me right now, and a little less $$$ for lots less headaches sounds OK to me.

Good luck and let us know what you decide. Some RN's and RT's get into power struggles...if one of them is a control freak this can occur...but most work together in a team approach. We both do a little of each other's job and the work gets done. I have always appreciated my RT's in critical care and utilize their knowledge in making decisions regarding my vent patients/weaning etc.

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