EMT to resporatory therapist

[akcw1981]

Hello everyone, I know this is a nursing board but I have some questions about EMT and Respiratory therapy that I just don't think I could get better answers to anywhere else! I start community college next month for the first time. My eventual goal is respiratory therapist. But I have a year and a half until I will be able to start the program. In the meantime I am strongly considering EMT basic training. I would love to start working in the emergency field. I am well aware that it's not an allied health profession but I am strongly drawn to it. I would love to get this experience first since I have the time and it just sounds like a wild ride to see it all and basically just plain fun (not that ppl are in an emergency, but they're gonna have them with or without me). Annnnddd if nothing else as in like if I don't get a job before respiratory therapy school is over, these aren't bad skills to have since I have a young child and an old unhealthy father. So to make a long story short, should these skills help me through respiratory school or even as a respiratory therapist one day?

[Nalon1 RN/EMT-P, BSN, RN]

EMT Basic school will get you minimal exposure to medical care and knowledge, if you work on an ambulance, you will get some, depending on where you work.

If you went through and got your paramedic, then you would learn a lot more just in school, and even more if you worked as a paramedic. Problem is the schooling for Paramedic can take 2 years depending on location.

It won't hurt to get your EMT, but how much it actually helps you as a RT is hard to say.

[ixchel]

I think you'd gain hands on patient care experience (which actually helps because those first times you are required to touch a perfect stranger to administer care are daunting), and you'll gain actual experience with BLS. You'll get more comfortable with the urgency that exists in a coding patient situation.

That said, RT is in depth airway management with a good understanding of the patho that can compromise the airway. It's very different from EMT-B. RT goes beyond intubation and ventilation. Even as an RN, RT was the first phone number in my hospital I memorized. I've learned a lot from my RT counterparts. I've had some situations when I KNOW they prevented my patients from coding when I couldn't do much.

Two different things completely, but both valuable.

[akcw1981]

Thanks for your reply! I do know that becoming an actual paramedic would be better but for two years I'm not quite ready maybe after my respiratory care program. I'm pretty set on EMT basic for now since I have that gap to fill and I'm not interested in filling it with extra history classes or anything of that nature. I'm just curious if it will be of any help later or they will just be two totally different non related jobs

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Two very different jobs but not totally unrelated. RRT are extensively trained in cardiopulmonary anatomy and physiology, conditions that affect the system, tests and interventions. EMT basic can not administer medications other than oxygen or assist a patient to take their own nitroglycerin, rescue inhaler or EpiPen. The A&P is a gross overview. You are taught protocols and prehospital basic stabilization for transport such as how to apply a c-collar and back board, splinting, basic breath sounds (now most programs don't go beyond normal or abnormal breath sounds). The strong majority of EMS calls are basic transport nothing like you see on TV. Elderly CHF or angina patient with chest pain, you transport while medics treat. Minor injuries. I was called for a tick bite and a hang nail once.

There are such dramatic calls such as MBA with fire and extrication, CPR in progress, acute respiratory distress.

Respiratory therapists are experts in ABG obtaining & interpretation, assessing and determining most efficient oxygenation, intubation and ventilator management, non-invasive ventilation to prevent or delay need for intervention, various options for CF kids, pulmonary physiology and rehabilitation and more. Look for posts from members SallyRNRRT and GrannyRRT

[ixchel]

I agree about transport - so often on my unit, we discharge to other facilities and I'll see the same EMTs coming and going, back and forth all day long. In fact, we've contracted with a bigger local company that has mostly EMT-Bs and when we have anyone with running IVs or any type of ventilation more complex than nasal cannula, we have to call in or pull an RN with ACLS to go with them.