Other Health Professions

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Hi Everyone

I am a pre-health career student who was planning on going into nursing. My school recently developed a respiratory therapy program that will start this summer. When I was around 17 (I'm 21 now) my aunt had had asmatic bronchitis. I loved seeing her get her RT treatments. I started looking for RT programs then, but there were none in my area and I didn't want to move. Naturally nursing was the closest to it, so I began investigating that career. I am thinking about applying to this program because I have been so interested in RT in the past. It is hard to narrow down between two such wonderful and helpful careers!

Anyone else out there considering other health careers? :)

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RT and X-ray tech are both good job choices but are "one horse" careers. If you burn out, you have no where else to go without more schooling. Nursing is much more versatile and usually pays more.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

here is information in your state on the licensing of respiratory therapists.

http://wv.gov/offsite.aspx?u=http://www.wvborc.org i could not find a list of respiratory therapy schools in your state at this site, so i checked the web site of the american association for respiratory care, one of their professional organizations http://www.aarc.org/ you can find schools that teach respiratory care by using this link http://www.aarc.org/education/accredited_programs/ to search by state. however, i did a quick check for west virginia http://www.aarc.org/education/accredited_programs/results.cfm and found there are three schools in your state that teach respiratory therapy:

carver/wvuit respiratory care program in charleston, wv

wheeling jesuit university in wheeling, wv (a bachelor's degree program)

west virginia northern community college in wheeling. wv

as my physical condition has deteriorated i have been retraining to do health information management and medical coding.

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You have to follow what you want to do ultimately. Have you tried shadowing RT's or nurses to get a feel for what their job might actually be like? I know that working as a CNA and volunteering in a hospital in a nurses unit (along with the science classes solidifying my love of science) really gave me the perspective I needed to know that nursing wasn't for me. So get involved as much as you can with actually RT's or nurses and see how it feels to you.

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You have to follow what you want to do ultimately. Have you tried shadowing RT's or nurses to get a feel for what their job might actually be like? I know that working as a CNA and volunteering in a hospital in a nurses unit (along with the science classes solidifying my love of science) really gave me the perspective I needed to know that nursing wasn't for me. So get involved as much as you can with actually RT's or nurses and see how it feels to you.

I volunteered in a hospital with an OT for quite a while. I loved the hospital environment but wasn't fond of OT work. That is a very good idea though, I might have to contact the hospital again to see if shadowing of a nurse and respiratory therapist is possible. You said nursing wasn't for you after you volunteered-- any reason? Or was it a mistype and you meant nursing was for you? THANKS so much for your input!!!:)

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here is information in your state on the licensing of respiratory therapists.

http://wv.gov/offsite.aspx?u=http://www.wvborc.org i could not find a list of respiratory therapy schools in your state at this site, so i checked the web site of the american association for respiratory care, one of their professional organizations http://www.aarc.org/ you can find schools that teach respiratory care by using this link http://www.aarc.org/education/accredited_programs/ to search by state. however, i did a quick check for west virginia http://www.aarc.org/education/accredited_programs/results.cfm and found there are three schools in your state that teach respiratory therapy:

carver/wvuit respiratory care program in charleston, wv

wheeling jesuit university in wheeling, wv (a bachelor's degree program)

west virginia northern community college in wheeling. wv

as my physical condition has deteriorated i have been retraining to do health information management and medical coding.

thanks so much for all of your research!! i will definately check these sites out. how did you decide health information management and medical coding was the career you wanted to pursue? thanks again!:)

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I volunteered in a hospital with an OT for quite a while. I loved the hospital environment but wasn't fond of OT work. That is a very good idea though, I might have to contact the hospital again to see if shadowing of a nurse and respiratory therapist is possible. You said nursing wasn't for you after you volunteered-- any reason? Or was it a mistype and you meant nursing was for you? THANKS so much for your input!!!:)

It wasn't a mistype. I still love and respect nurses, though, so I come on here and post still :)

It wasn't just the volunteering. I worked as a CNA also, and as I took more and more science classes, I found that I had a huge desire to do something move "behind" the scenes, so to speak. I could see myself getting extremely burned out as a nurse (heck, I was burned out as a CNA in an extremely short amount of time). So I'm now pursuing a double major in Microbiology and Medical Lab Technology (which means I'm in classes with a bunch of overacheiving pre-meds!).

Good luck with your goals! Volunteering and getting exposure to the occupations will be a great asset for you no matter what. Colleges love that stuff on applications!

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It wasn't a mistype. I still love and respect nurses, though, so I come on here and post still :)

It wasn't just the volunteering. I worked as a CNA also, and as I took more and more science classes, I found that I had a huge desire to do something move "behind" the scenes, so to speak. I could see myself getting extremely burned out as a nurse (heck, I was burned out as a CNA in an extremely short amount of time). So I'm now pursuing a double major in Microbiology and Medical Lab Technology (which means I'm in classes with a bunch of overacheiving pre-meds!).

Good luck with your goals! Volunteering and getting exposure to the occupations will be a great asset for you no matter what. Colleges love that stuff on applications!

I am so glad you have found a health field you are interested in. I looked into med tech but I wasn't sure I could handle the math classes. Thanks for all your input!! I hope I will get into the program. I find out in a month and a half. It sounds like forever!! How much longer do you have in the program??:specs:

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I am so glad you have found a health field you are interested in. I looked into med tech but I wasn't sure I could handle the math classes. Thanks for all your input!! I hope I will get into the program. I find out in a month and a half. It sounds like forever!! How much longer do you have in the program??:specs:

Good luck getting into whatever program you decide! Just have persistance. Have you completed all the nursing pre-req's and everything? If you do decide to go the RT route, they're probably similar to the nursing pre-req, which is always nice!

I, too, was intimidated by the math. I skated by in high school, never enjoying it or understanding it, but now I'm actually taking the time to practice and study and understand the why's and it's so much easier.

I did a lot of my nursing pre-req's, but unfortunately only a couple were similar to the Microbiology/Lab Medicine pre-req's, so I've basically had to start over in a lot of ways. I have three years left, or so, because of how science--oriented it is and it is a double major in both microbiology and lab medicine. I might decide against doing a double major, but I really love microbiology, and I figure why not just go for it. I'm almost finished with my year of biology requirement, and I just started my year of Inorganic Chemistry requirement (but I will be finished with it before Fall 2006), then I start my Organic Chemistry and Physics requirement. It was a little overwhelming to be taking two lab sciences and a math class at first, but I've seem to have fallen into a nice pattern. I'm in lab 10 hrs a week though, but I actually enjoy lab.

Good luck with everything! Let us all know if you get in! :)

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Good luck getting into whatever program you decide! Just have persistance. Have you completed all the nursing pre-req's and everything? If you do decide to go the RT route, they're probably similar to the nursing pre-req, which is always nice!

I, too, was intimidated by the math. I skated by in high school, never enjoying it or understanding it, but now I'm actually taking the time to practice and study and understand the why's and it's so much easier.

I did a lot of my nursing pre-req's, but unfortunately only a couple were similar to the Microbiology/Lab Medicine pre-req's, so I've basically had to start over in a lot of ways. I have three years left, or so, because of how science--oriented it is and it is a double major in both microbiology and lab medicine. I might decide against doing a double major, but I really love microbiology, and I figure why not just go for it. I'm almost finished with my year of biology requirement, and I just started my year of Inorganic Chemistry requirement (but I will be finished with it before Fall 2006), then I start my Organic Chemistry and Physics requirement. It was a little overwhelming to be taking two lab sciences and a math class at first, but I've seem to have fallen into a nice pattern. I'm in lab 10 hrs a week though, but I actually enjoy lab.

Good luck with everything! Let us all know if you get in! :)

Hi again!

Thanks so much for responding! I know what you mean about math in high school and in college. I had that change of opinion on chemistry. I was so scared of it in high school, but absolutely loved it in college.

I am done with my pre-reqs for respiratory therapy and nursing so I am working on co-reqs for both to improve my chances for acceptance. I applied for RT this year (if I get in, the program starts in May). If I don't get in, I plan on applying for both nursing and RT next year. I have A&P this semester so wish me luck.

I loved learning about lab sciences. I took a tour at a hospital lab before and I LOVED it! Especially blood banking! So interesting! If I were you I would stick w/ microbiology if you are so interested. I mean in the grand scheme of things 3 years is nothing.

Keep me posted on schooling and everything!

Hugs!

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Hi Everyone

I am a pre-health career student who was planning on going into nursing. My school recently developed a respiratory therapy program that will start this summer. When I was around 17 (I'm 21 now) my aunt had had asmatic bronchitis. I loved seeing her get her RT treatments. I started looking for RT programs then, but there were none in my area and I didn't want to move. Naturally nursing was the closest to it, so I began investigating that career. I am thinking about applying to this program because I have been so interested in RT in the past. It is hard to narrow down between two such wonderful and helpful careers!

Anyone else out there considering other health careers? :)

I AM THINKING OF GOING INTO THE RT PROGRAM CAUSE THE WAIT FOR THE NURSING PROGRAM IS UP TO TWO YEARS AT MY SCHOOL. ON THE OTHER HAND THE RT PROGRAM HAS NO WAIT. I WOULD LOVE TO GET INTO EITHER PROGRAM BUT AS I SAW HERE, IF I GET BURNED OUT I WILL HAVE TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL TO MOVE INTO SOMETHING ELSE, LIKE NURSING. AND OF COURSE NURSING PAYS BETTER EVEN THOUGH THAT'S NOT ALL IM LOOKING FOR

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