Respiratory Therapist VS Nursing

I did a semester of RT school before I decided on nursing. I wanted to do total patient care, but RT was great. There are more opportunities in RT than are being said: you can work at a hospital, you can also do home healthcare, you can do asthma education, polysomnography, work in all different departments in the hospital, specialize in neonatal care, etc. There are case management jobs as well. You can be a flight RT. Many universities offer a BS in Respiratory Care. In fact, many RT's with associate degrees get their BS paid for. Hospitals are offering tuition reimbursement, sign on bonuses, and most start their RT's out at $20 an hour (in Colorado anyway). And you don't just bag patients and adjust vent settings. You do patient eval, breathing treaments, arterial blood draws, ABG assesments, even some form of physical therapy (I can't remember the name) to help patients breathing (CF patients for example), intubations, take sputum samples (yum!), and yes, vent settings. But setting a vent is not a piece of cake. It is complicated and can have a profound effect on patient outcome. RT's also have a great deal of autonomy and are specialized - they have vast knowledge of all things respiratory, so in reality, they are, second to the doctor, the authority on the issue.

I'm sorry, I spent a lot of time around RT's that one semester. I hope I don't sound biased.

I was in Respiratory Therapy school here in Denver and then decide to go to nursing. I think Respiratory is a GREAT field but Nursing is what I orignal wanted to do! I also like that I could do alot more with nursing.
THe two things I didnt like about respiratory therapy was 1: the school I attended here in Denver(very unprofessional!) and 2: I could get a straight story when it came to what I would make out of school. On salary.com I was getting alot higher, but when I was calling hospitals and asking pervious students I was getting something completley different.
I would love to sit here any say that the money doesnt matter, but it does on some level!

What school did u go to? I went in Denver, too.

Yes, please let us know. I'm thinking about getting my RRT and I live in Denver. Thanks!

Hello Everyone!!!

I love this forum by the way. It has taught me soo much of what I should expect. Anyhow, my sister is interested in Respiratory Therapy and was wondering about their job. Does anyone know what a RT can do (since intubation cannot be done). Like, what kind of procedures they usually perform?? Any kind of info you know would be so helpful. Thanks again.

Intubation is within an RT's scope of practice, though it depends on the facility whether or not they get to do it very often. Also, pulmonary function testing, suctioning, etc.

Concorde College, Pima Medical Institute, and Front Range all offer RT.

Obviously this is a predominantly nursing site, therefore you likely won't get much feedback from the RT prospective. I am an Rt in Canada at the primary Ortho hospital in my area. It is hard to compare workload for the 2 positions. I like to look at it as comparing pain... Much like chronic back pain Vs. Severe Cardiac pain. Nurses have many less desireable jobs. I can leave a room when a patient has a "code Bown" and let him/her with the help of a heathcare aide clean things up. Each Facility has different tasks required of an RT or RN. In my current hospital we don't do neb treatments, we are generally too busy. Everything is don't via a MDI With spacer, therefore the nurses do it. I spend a great deal of time weaning patients off the vents, doing Metabolic carts, pulmonary functions testing, placing artlines, placing iv's,doing ABG's, intubating (which many RT's Do), and mostly doing respiratory assessments. When someone is having problems we tend to be the first people to be called. I can be crazy busy for 12hrs, not getting a break at all(no extra coverage), or I can sit for half my shift... I look it as being kind'of like a firefighter. No one member of the team is more important... just different. I am an adrenaline junky, and being an RT gives me my fix. The hard part of being an rt is that we are the ones the D/C treatment in or hospital... if you can't handle pulling the plug, it's not the job for you. Yes there are RT's that do very little, but I dare say there are proportionally just as many nurses who look to do as little as possible. Isn't that typical of all jobs.

I appreciate everyone who replied to my previous post. I enjoying reading all your responses. BUT, I think I may not have been as clear in my last post. I realize that this is a nursing post, but I thought becuz there were some members who are RT's that I could get a insight of the procedures of an RT. I never said I nor my sister wanted a job with little workload. I am actually a nursing student and my sister is thinking about RT. Just thought someone could give us a idea of what to expect as a RT.

[quote=KatieBell]Our respiratory therapist has less work- and I sometimes see him just sitting about the department.

As an RT in a 230 bed hospital (43 RTs on staff) I sometimes have to clock out "No Lunch" after a 12 hour shift. I also see many nurses sitting around talking about last nights TV shows while I am rushing from one room to another. It goes both ways.

This said, Our dept is very strict on work load vs. staff. We figure workload for every shift every day. If the work load is too light we call off RTs. Think goodness for ETO. If the work load is too high we call in more RTs. We keep it close. The only problem with this system is it is easier to call of an employee then it is to call one in.

On thing to consider is that in a hospital, every time a patient complains of something, the nurse has to check on him/her. With RT the only time is when its respiratory related and even then the nurse or nurse aid has to check and then call RT.

I went to school at Pima(and I wasnt really impressed ) I know they recently just changed there program director to what was the Clinical director, so it might be better.
I did look at Concorde program and it was nice.....all new and NICE equipement(something Pima didnt have!) and more then 2 rooms for the whole program. I was told that Pima was about to or almost did lose their accediation. I would really look into Concorde if your serious about RT. I also was in a class with several others that could give you horror stories about Pima!