resp therapy vs RN

Specialties Pulmonary

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Hi I am a student and am lookng for some opinions/advice. Our local ADN program is impacted to the gills (even with top grades, still a minimum of two year wait to enter the program). Our local RT program is wide open and recruiting (with CAs filthy air, lots of need for RTs) THe prereqs are the same, the programs are the same length, the starting wages/bonuses are the same (roughly). My question is, do you think this might be a good option? The RT instructors have been visiitng the prereq classes and touting how much faster their program is becuase they have no impaction, plus smaller class sizes and student/teacher ratios.

Laura

now that this post is since 2004, i wonder what route did the original poster take rn or rt???

lol, was wondering the same question...i'm facing the same decision rt vs rn. i'm going to try to do both.

I graduated with an AS in RC in May and took my CRT and RRT within 2 weeks of graduation, I'm now working at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. I love my career choice, I thought for a couple seconds if I wanted to be an RN and realized that I'd rather specialize in a field of importance rather than be a "generalist", I'm not saying nursing isn't important, however airway specialists and ventilatory specialist IMO are just as important

. I've found that being the sole RT in a CCU, you are called upon frequently, and urgently. The nurses are essentially in total "care" of the patient, but when you walk in when the patients' crashing, a huge weight is lifted off their shoulders.

This means they don't need to worry about the A and B of the ABC's. Think about it, YOU, as an RT, are trained and credentialed in the first 2 golden letters of the medical field. There are so many career possibilities, depending on where you live.

If you live near a major city, your chances of making good money are high. You can choose either a small community hospital where you as an RT do everything related to respiratory including incentive spirometry teachings to post-ops, neb tx's (times 3, heh) in the ER, and chest pt.

You can also go into marketing, there are MANY companies that sell respiratory equipment that are in need of RT's to travel to different departments and advertise their latest and greatest toys. Also new vent modes and ET tubes etc...

Overall, and so far, I enjoy my job. I also work at a 225 bed community hospital per diem, but the critical care aspect of the career is so great that more and more techniques and modalities are introduced to your job every month. Just when you think you know how to ventilate a full-blown ARDS patient, there's always something more you can do. The alrger hospitals provide you with new equipment and endless CE.

I never thought as a student that this job would be so stressful though! My pager goes off 5 times an hour and I'm beside myself when I have an ABG to draw on a vent patient, 4 IS's to teach, and 2 ER "stat" nebs to give.

IT'S ALL ABOUT TIME MANAGEMENT. You can be busy or bored at any given moment. Nursing definitely a much more popular field, but in my opinion, it seems like everyone is flocking to be an RN. There's a shortage of RT's just about everywhere.

Different hospitals have different job descriptions for you as an RT, some are strictly critical care and some are floor therapy, so you can try both and see which you prefer better, as well as home care, marketing, and research.

The one thing I suggest potential RT's to do: review the program you are applying to, get the graduating pass rate for the RRT from former graduates. I've been hearing of shotty RT programs in which students will complete the program with flying colors but continually fail the entry-level CRT credential, and never get to the RRT.

Thanks so much for this information. I started my program this past Fri for Resp Care and am thrilled to be going into a field where there is such high demand.

Specializes in I can take BP!! lol.

I have to decide by Friday May 6th on either the RT or ADN program. I was accepted by both and will be dropped from whichever one I don't enroll in classes for. I am SO TORN on which one to choose. I like both equally, both having lots of pros (and cons). Anyone gone through this recently.

Specializes in Cardiac Cath Lab/Pacemaker/Geriatrics.

I have been a nurse and am currently an RT. I enjoyed both. But I have to say that being an RT has been more enjoyable for me. The job is in high demand and you make good money. With therapist driven protocols you get alot of autonomy in decision making. More than in nursing inky opinion. You still take care of patients but in some ways you have more time to do it. Hope you are happy in either choice.

At this time I can not really recommend RT as a viable profession. The job outlook is not that great and some hospitals are giving RNs back many of the RT tasks. We have reduced our RT staff by almost 50% over the past year and so far nobody has really noticed. The RNs just picked up doing the MDIs, nebs, IABPs, HBO and ABGs (ICU and ED). Lab is now running the blood gases and the phlebotomists are doing the ABG draws on the med-surg floors. A few of the smaller hospitals have eliminated their nightshift RTs and have trained the RNs to setup and manage the ventilators. The RTs are also being eliminated in LTC facilities or reduced to one per day to function as an equipment tech.

The RN will also give you more flexibility and mobility.

Specializes in Cardiac Cath Lab/Pacemaker/Geriatrics.

The RN may give you more flexibility and mobility, but there are still plenty of RT jobs out there. Especially for Travel Techs. LTC facilities have never used RT's much. There are hospitals training nurses to do these jobs, but they are finding that as the nursing crunch which is going to happen eventually the nurses WILL not be able to do all of these things. It has happened before and it will happen again that nursing is given the responsibilities for so much that patient care actually suffers. Our nurses in our facility LOVE the fact that RT is now on 24/7 and they are not responsible for the ventilators and BiPaps. The lab does draw some ABG's, but we are called more often than not. RT is not going away any time soon.

The RN may give you more flexibility and mobility, but there are still plenty of RT jobs out there. Especially for Travel Techs. LTC facilities have never used RT's much. There are hospitals training nurses to do these jobs, but they are finding that as the nursing crunch which is going to happen eventually the nurses WILL not be able to do all of these things. It has happened before and it will happen again that nursing is given the responsibilities for so much that patient care actually suffers. Our nurses in our facility LOVE the fact that RT is now on 24/7 and they are not responsible for the ventilators and BiPaps. The lab does draw some ABG's, but we are called more often than not. RT is not going away any time soon.

The big ventilator LTC facilities have used RTs alot in the past and so have some of those SNFs that have taken in large numbers of trachs. Some of these facilities are huge and can have well over 50 LTC ventilators at any given time. These are the ones which have decreased their RT staff. In California, LVNs can manage ventilators in LTC.

Unfortunately, just like for nursing, some travel jobs are in places no one wants to live in or work for.

If your facility is just now having RTs 24/7, it would be very easy for them to not have them 24/7 again.

Respiratory Therapy has not advanced to the level it needs to be to have a secure footing in the reimbursement world as the other allied health professions have such as PT, OT and SLP. Respiratory Therapy is still only an Associates degree while the others are Masters and Doctorate. RT is attempting to raise their status with the pending legislation for those with Bachelors and Masters degree in a different category but that may fall through. RT has already seen as much as an 80% decline in reimbursement for some of their services. They will have to reinvent themselves again as they have done in the past with the Cardiopulmonary and Neuro expansion or raise education to justify worth and value. It will all depend on if their 10 year plan for eduation will follow through.

Specializes in I can take BP!! lol.

Thanks for all the info and advice I chose nursing. All the info posted here was very helpful.

If I had known about respiratory therapy when I went to college the first time, I most likely would not have gone to nursing school. RT jobs vary according to location; however, over half of my graduating class already has employment as graduate therapists and the market in my area of the world is saturated by two programmes pumping out around 30 students a year. Some areas that have multiple schools are over saturated and you may have to relocate; however, respiratory is still a viable career.

wow this information really helped me. i cant wait to get started in the RT field

What are the salary differences between RT and RN?

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