Do you hear nurses will take over respiratory work?

Many places you work now you may do all the duties of rt without rt

Having a respiratory therapist on the floor is a sort of a luxury. Generally you find them in hospitals. Most other places will use nurses, with RT telephone support available. I would say more often than not, your average company (long term care, home care, etc.) will not have a full-time respiratory therapist. If the patient's respiratory status is severely compromised, the patient needs to be in a hospital setting anyway, because it could be a high-risk situation.

Slowly, in our hospital, the nurses are responsible for what was peviously done by RT.

Some countries don't even have RT. The RN is responsible and if necessary the PT will come in and do therapy with the patient

When I began in nursing we had no RT on the floor except for emergencies. We did all the neb treatments, inhalers, suctioning, trach care, and even chest PT (with our hands, not the fancy vests...it was exhausting). I was very relieved when RT's came along and took over some of those tasks. Saved the nurses a lot of time. I still corroborate w/ RT... how the pt.'s lungs sound, secretions, O2 use, etc. I find them to be invaluable.

The only downside I see is that nurses who have always worked w/ a RT on the floor can become overly dependent on them. From what I have observed, they are not as comfortable in the respiratory arena (setting up the different modes of O2 delivery, suctioning, trach care, CPAP, BiPAP). We had a pt. w/ a trach one night who required frequent suctioning and no one on the unit (including charge) had ever suctioned a trach before. I ended up w/ the pt. since I felt comfortable w/ suctioning. The RT cannot be everywhere at the same time so I do think the nurses need to be well versed in respiratory assessment/tx. so they can step in when needed.

Australia doesn't have any RT

RT was nursing's job for a long time and in the nursing homes respiratory work is the work of nurses still! When I came to the hospitals as a CNA I was shocked that there was actually a position for people who do a small piece of work that RN's do. I thought of it as a luxury, no doubt this is how hospital CEO's and administrators who are trying to cut costs will see respiratory therapy as well.

What is the role of RT? Assess respiratory status? Nebulisers? Oxygen therapy?

Can they prescribe O2 or nebs etc?

Does a nurse have to do anything respiratory wise for a patient or does RT do it all?

Interesting that US created this job.. Sorry for the questions!

At a major medical center, the RN would learn chest percussion as part of new employee orientation.

That was back in 1990.

Nothing new it seems.

What is the role of RT? Assess respiratory status? Nebulisers? Oxygen therapy?

Can they prescribe O2 or nebs etc?

Does a nurse have to do anything respiratory wise for a patient or does RT do it all?

Interesting that US created this job.. Sorry for the questions!

No, knowledge is good. :) RTs assesses respiratory status (though we do that too) and do all respiratory treatments, whether the patient is on the vent or not. RT does not prescribe any more than nursing does, they need orders just like we do. I will do some things for my patients, like put on oxygen, I'll suction vents, trachs, etc., but largely that is RT's responsibility. RTs also know a lot more about the ventilators than I do - I can hit the O2 breaths button, and I know what the different modes do and how to find out what the vent is set at as far as tidal volume, PEEP, etc., but I don't know how to change things like that on the vent. If the doctor prescribes a change in the ventilator settings, RT will do it.

There are other things they can do that we can't - RTs can do arterial sticks, so they get our ABGs and drop arterial lines as needed. Radial ones, anyway. They are also allowed to intubate patients, so if someone is crashing and we have orders to put the patient on the ventilator, we don't necessarily have to chase down a physician if a RT is immediately available.

Quick question for you - who does ABGs in countries without RTs? Only RTs draw ABGs in my hospital - nurses and lab are not allowed to do it.