Nurse VS Respiratory Therapist?

wheeliesurfer · Oct 11, 2014

The SNF I was in for a while had several RRTs on staff. Mostly in sub-acute but they also checked on the LTC pts who required O2 or neb treatments.

amoLucia · Oct 11, 2014

In my many years, I've not worked a LTC that had RT. Thinking about it, those facilities were not so large. But I could see a definite use/need for them.

eddieboy101 · Feb 19, 2015

You need to make that decision for your self, however as an RRT myself, married to a Nurse with a daughter who is a Nurse, I would still pick RT.

I have major respect for what nurses due, and honestly where I am at, the pay is pretty much the same, I make more because I have pretty much every certification and acronym in our field, RRT, CRT, RPFT, NPS, ACCS, AE-C.

Don't use the salary as an excuse to choose your field, do it because you love it. The money will come in either field.

I see a lot of comments about money, and it's sad. When did we all forget that this is about patient care, I know a lot of nurses can manage the vent, and can draw gases, but we spend years training for this (in my case 4 years with 3 of clinical), it snot (see what I did there) just about making changes for pH, it's about understanding the difference between a patient who needs ventilator changes or metabolic changes, whats better? which one is quicker? what are the risks? how do I monitor this?

In our hospital, we have almost full autonomy, we intubate, we draw gases based on our opinion, we treat with medication based on our assessment, we insert Arterial lines and monitor them, we monitor the swanz ganz catheter. And work together with our fellow nurses.

Yes, a hospital can not operate without a nurse, but is it easier with an RT by your side? and as a person, wouldn't you like a specialist taking care of your love one? someone who spend all these years studying for this one little weird looking machine? I know I would, just as much as I would love to have a nurse who is going to take care of me and not have to worry about my high Co2, or that I'm stacking my breathing, or that PEEP level is too low, etc.....

RT are part of the healthcare industry, and the only way to go is up, AARC along with COARC are now developing a APRT, that will allow RTs, to work just like PA and NPs. It was only a matter of time.

So to answer your question, do what you think is best for you, and pick a career that will allow you to wake up every morning excited to go to work. I have and for 10 years have not needed an alarm clock to wake me up.

Asystole RN · Feb 19, 2015

The two professions are related but very different.

Without getting into too much detail I will say that nursing has many, MANY times more specialties that one can get into and many, MANY more job opportunities.

I personally work in medical sales/industry and although there are some RTs on this side of things, they are extremely rare where nurses are common. My wife works for an insurance company, while they have hundreds of nurses and physicians on the books they have 0 RTs.

Just a career consideration.

BreatheDeep · Jul 11, 2015

Just for the sake of clarification I feel obligated to add:

Nurses in fact do not have more education. On purely a "content" level, RT's and RN's are on equal footing.

Pre-requisites:

-Anatomy with lab

-Physiology with lab

-Microbiology with lab

-Inorganic chemistry with lab

-Some schools from both fields will also require organic chemistry with lab

Looks familiar right? It's because they're the same. Typically they both also have to take Nutrition, Human-Lifespan Development, and Psychology or Sociology. In addition, RT's are also required to take a separate class on physics (because you know, ventilators and junk).

RT and RN school are both typically 4-5 semesters long totaling 50-70 credits (depending on your school of choice). Both are also offered on the Bachelors or Associates level. You guys take the NCLEX-RN, we take the NBRC-RRT. You guys have a legal licence to practice nursing, we have a legal licence to practice respiratory.

We are equals.

That said, you guys definitely do have many many more career options. The perks of being a well-trained generalist vs. a specialist!

And just like you would pick RN I would pick RT. I love y'all to death though! In my ICU we and the nurses are like different fingers of the same hand. I couldn't imagine working in a place where my nurse wasn't the first person I felt I could trust or brainstorm with about my patient. Aint nothing better for any patient than a solid RT/RN team =)