RT vs. RN? Is RT a useless profession?

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What is the purpose of Respiratory therapists when nurses can do all of the same things that they can do. Is there anything that a respiratory therapist can do that an RN cannot?

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

A few things:

Unless anyone has undergone a complete educational standards for each position, no one can speak on educational requirements; I say this as a nurse who leaned extensively the respiratory system in A& P and in my nursing program as a LPN and my BSN studies; we discussed the physics part, Boyle's Law (which was heavily discussed in Chemistry-another pre-few for nursing) and even got to take pts on vents.

As a nurse who consistently had ventilated pts outside of the hospital setting; it is the nurse that has to identify and critically think and collaborate with the provider on making changes if possible; although I work inside of the hospital, when a pt may or may not respond to CPAP or BiPAP, I still have the knowledge to state whether the frequency needs to be changed or the pressure itself; I collaborate with RRT more than the MD, especially when the provider doesn't always have an idea as far as what the patient needs.

Maybe I'm unique, but I know I'm not; outside of the hospital nurses CAN effectively step into the role of RRT, and have done so; in a hospital setting, that is not always the case, but one should never make the mistake that nurses do not and can not do the position; there are many nursing programs that teach a thorough education and pre-reqs go into detail.

The issue for the OP is in terms of jobs; the main root of the thread...in my experience, RN is a preferred route in terms of flexibility in specialties.

Since this is an older thread, I hope the OP has made a decision that they are comfortable with. :yes:

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Specializes in EMT since 92, Paramedic since 97, RN and PHRN 2021.

Speaking from a critical care transport side, respiratory therapist are awesome!!!!!! They collaborate with me in setting up the patients settings for ventilator transports. I have brainstormed with RTs to figure out issues when a patient doesn't tolerate switching from a hospital vent to a transport vent.

They are far from useless!

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This very attitude is why I stopped being active on this board years ago. (I only came back because of Sean Dent) This type of attitude is why some RTs have gotten so jaded. It baffles me that the relationship between RTs and RNs can be so prickly. We are all there for the betterment of the patient. I don't understand why SOME RNs have such a hard time acknowledging that no matter how great of a nurse you are, you can't be all things to the patient. That's why other disciplines evolved.

I work with a "super nurse" right now. While I like her as a person, I cringe when I see her name on the assignment board. I already know my day is going to be difficult when I see her. I just hope and pray she doesn't have any of my high acuity patients because that means I'm going to have to spend the majority of my shift correcting the dumb decisions she makes regarding respiratory care. (i.e weaning a trach patient to RA by just taking his trach collar off...um hello, he needs the humidity or rapidly weaning a patient's nasal cannula to his home setting when he just came off of high flow

I have only written one person up in my 20 year career. I don't like doing that. I like talking to the person and trying to educate them on what I think was done wrong and why. That's what I would want someone to do for me. I attempted talking to the nurse and she couldn't get past her ego to receive what I was saying. I went to the manager requesting that she talk to her because maybe it would be better received. The only reason I wrote an incident report is because the manager told me to. I didn't do it with a gleam in my eye. I actually hated doing it but it affected patient safety. If there is a group of RTs that are taking joy in creating this type of friction, then shame on them. I wouldn't want them caring for me because they don't have the patient's best interest at heart. No patient should be cared for by a team composed of the Hatfields and the McCoys!

And can a nurse do a RTs job outside of the hospital? Yes. My cousin is an LPN and manages ventilator patients in the home care setting. Can she do it as well as me? No she can't. She doesn't have all of the training that I do. Doesn't make her a bad nurse. She's an excellent one. As a matter of fact, I'm the one that encouraged her to become one because I knew she would be great at it. Her weeks of training in no way compares to my years of training though. It just is what it is. No disrespect meant. In undergrad, I worked as a PT assistant. With a refresher course, I could probably go back into it and would probably do it well. Does that make me as good as a current PTA or PT? It sure doesn't. I don't have their training and skill set. For a while a facility that I used to work at crossed trained RTs and RNs. We could both do the rudimentary aspects of each others jobs but neither could be all things to the patient. It just doesn't work like that.

I ABSOLUTELY ADORE MY GOOD RNs, SLP, PT, OT and MDs. We all work together as a TEAM for the betterment of our patients. When I make decisions regarding my plan of care, I keep the RNs in the loop. Not because I'm asking for their permission. I don't need their permission. I'm not their CNA. I take my orders from the MD. I do it because it's the right thing to do. They're at the bedside and the things I do will affect the care they provide and vice versa. Again, WE ARE ALL THERE FOR THE PATIENT! I often discuss my plan of care with SLP and PT too for the same reason.

Now I'm going to end this rant and go back to occasionally dropping back in. For all of you wonderful RNs that appreciate us hardworking RTs, I sincerely love and appreciate you as well. I just hope and pray that I have RNs like you caring for me or my loved ones during our most vulnerable times.

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I know this post is old but insert slow clap right here. You actually get it. Thank you. And I mean this sincerely.

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Specializes in Respiratory Therapy.

I mean absolutely no disrespect, but yes LadyFree, I can speak to educational requirements because there is an obvious difference between the two.

You say you "discussed the physics part", but did you take an actual physics class or just discuss key topics?

You say you learned cardiopulmonary A&P extensively in your nursing program (And I hope you mean the BSN - I will be distraught if you are comparing the depth of your respiratory education in an LVN program against a 24-27 month RT program) but what exactly does that mean? Did you take 10 semester units of A&P and then a separate 6-8 month long cardiopulmonary A&P class? Did you just learn Cardiopulmonary in your regular A&P?

And as for vents/BiPAPs, again, how long was your education on them? Was it 8 dedicated months in length?

This is the whole point I'm trying to get across. Pre-req's do not go into great detail, they are merely the foundation upon which your specialized knowledge is built. At the same time there also is not a single nursing school which delves as deep into respiratory pathology and A&P as any RT program. Why would RT's even be here if such programs existed?

Think about it logically, how could they? My RT program spent 6-8 months with individual classes specifically related to mechanical ventilation, cardiopulmonary pathology and pathophysiology, respiratory pharmacology, and radiology interpretation. Where could that much additional education be added to nursing curriculum without stretching the programs out to 36+ months? But it comes at a price - in turn we sacrifice a percentage of knowledge related to other body systems in order to fulfill our role, a specialist.

Which is why I said before in my old (a year old at this point!) post, it's the 10% which separates us. You could easily do 90% of my job - but it's that 10% you don't know which is why me and my profession exist.

It's also why this attitude of "I know as much as you"/"I can do your job" needs to die. You don't know as much as me, and I don't know as much as you. You know and understand things I don't, and I know and understand things you don't. It's why we're a team. I expect you to be able to handle your job, and when you call on me, you should fully expect me to be able to handle mine too.

In the hospital it's all about synergy, and that's why there's nothing out there that can beat an awesome RN/RT combo =)

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If you think that an RN can perform ALL of the tasks as an RT just as effective, you are the problem with nursing.

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mechanical ventilation = gas in and gas out, respiratory system = air in air out, bronchodilators = open airways to get gas in and gas out, better.

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RTs are just thought to know about the respiratory system but we also have fairly extensive knowledge about the heart... The lungs and heart go hand in hand so it's not all about just the lungs. We also learn about the kidneys seeing as that can cause respiratory distress causing a metabolic acidosis. I'm all for nursing, don't get me wrong we rely on them but I feel like RT is not respected like we should be sometimes, but NOT all the time. If your wondering which is better I guess it depends on what your looking for.. sputum/mucus vs poop.. the ability to float from different ICUs/med floors in one shift vs being stuck on one floor during a shift.. being able to leave after a task vs being stuck with a difficult family. Idk but you gotta think about what you want don't let others influence you, yes RTs may not make as much but it's not all about money.

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Sigh.... We actually have Nurses who question and undervalue other members of our medical team? Especially a Respiratory Therapist, a trained specialist in pulmonary medicine and respiratory therapeutics? A professional who augments the very care we provide to our patients?

As Nurses we are held to a higher professional standard. I'm trying to maintain some order and respect here, but how does a Nurse come to the frame of mind that RT's are not needed? What planet do you practice Nursing? And what Galaxy .....

..sigh..

Sorry. I can't seem to maintain my composure to answer this question respectfully.

I'm going to stop now.

Thankfully I posted a vlog post recently that supports our amazing RT colleagues. For anyone that is interested in viewing and sharing the vlog, let me know.

This pretty much nails it. I'm an RN and never have wrapped my mind around how some RNs get on this holier-than-thou kick. I abhor the memes I see about nurses saying their job is to keep the docs from killing people, etc. It's totally demeaning, unprofessional, and makes them look like fools. I can't imaging working in critical care without the help of the awesome RTs!! I've always had really great relationships with them and found them indispensable to the team. They are literally partners to me. I'm not superior to them one bit. We work together; we collaborate. I need them, and I can't express how much I appreciate them! RTs rock! :)

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