airis

FYI At kaiser RTS are in the union and RTs get paid 30/hr while RNs MEdsurg get paid 32/hr but if you are an ICU RN you get paid 35-40/hr depending on your experience. I am from California also. But the work you do as an RN its not worth the pay because everyone knows RN is underpaid.

Well, Respiratory therapist can work as registry and per diem. There is always in need of RT in hospitals, sleep centers, pharmaceuticals, schools and subacutes. As for advancement its not a lot really. You can only get your Bachelor in RT and thats it. Since RT is already a specialty theres no more advancement unless you want to became a BSRT. As for nurses theres always advancement and you can always specialize in any areas. You can also work in so many fields like schools, offices, prison, county jobs, hospitals, nursing homes, urgent care, amusement park etc. For the job RN have so much work compare to RT. You have to see the chart its like twice the size of a bible. Its thick and they have so many documentation to do. They do more patient care and they interact more with the doctors and patients family. They get the complaints!!! At the hospital where I work ( kaiser ) the RNs are always stress while RT just sit back and relax but when theres a code blue thats when we really get to do work! I am an RT and I love it. I get to be in different areas in the hospital everyday I dont get stucked on one floor. I get to go to ER, L&D ( labor and delivery), peds, NICU, ICU, CCU, DOU, med surg and of course respiratory department where we take out patients for Pulmonary test. RT also deals with a lot of math and physics and no poops hehehe. The pay for RT where I work is $30.00 an hr and for RN is $32.00. They also have RT registry at kaiser and they pay them $550 per 8 hr shift. Even if u stay only 7 hr or 6 u get paid $550. I dont like to work my butt off. I do like to work but not to the point where i get so stressed. Thats why I picked RT you get to sit down and you also get to work. It really depends what you like and how stress do you want to be hehe.

No, I did not have healthcare experience but so were my classmates. Maybe its just not what I really wanted to do. I do have a lot of family that are in the medical field. My husband is an RN, my sister is an RN, my brother is an RadTech, my younger brother is an LVN, my dad is a retired doctor, my cousins are like all RN'S. Dont get me wrong I love studying about the respiratory system, ventilators, PFT, trach, etc. When I was at school I loved it! I was learning so much and everything I learned was something I really love!!!Everything was going fine until I started doing my clinicals. Everything just went dark and I lost my motivation to finish RT. So, I stopped eventhough I only had like 5 months to graduate. I wasnt happy at my clinical. The RT staff was super nice. ALthough I didnt like my classmate I was with during clinical, she was trying too hard to impress everyone in the hospital, pissed me off. She would command me, tell me what to do and tell me what i did wrong infront of the RT supervisor. It really pissed me off because she was only a student just like me. The RT wasnt even telling me what I did wrong my classmate WAS!!!!!!! AGGH. ALso, i would go for a 35 mins lunch instead of 30 mins and she was telling everyone I take longer lunch.SHe timed me everytime i take breaks. When I suctioned a patient she was always looking at me waiting for me to make mistakes so she can tell the supervisor. Everytime i see her I hear " thats not how u do it, you should do like this and that,this and this and that. ANyway, I really did like studying for RT but the clinicals turned me off.

I did and I went for RT. I regret it so bad. I had 5 months to graduate and I quit. I couldnt stand RT. As an RT your the first person to be called when there is a code blue(someone is dying). You will give CPR!!! AGGHHH bagging or compressions. You will experience people die on you almost everyday while you're giving CPR. You deal with a lot of phlegm!!!!! Sometimes I think they should change RT name to Mucus therapy because thats all RT do suction suction suction. Well, thats their basic and everyday job. When you hear a patients trach full with mucus RT is on the way to suction it!!! EWWW... It stink and its nasty. What turned me off the most was when I suctioned a guy that had a gunshot in his head(comatus) and as soon as I started suctioning him he started flipping and his eyes was rolling like hell. So scary. The worse part was I had to suction him from his nose, I had to put a long tube inside his nose all the way down down down. It was scary. Then I had to change trach. Pull a 9 inches tube from this guy's hole in the neck it was filled with mucus and blood kept dripping... The guy seemed like he was choking as i was taking the tube out. SO scary. The only good thing about RT is less paperwork than nursing but aside from that the nature of the job is the same, fluid contact, body contact, the stinkiness, the diseases you encounter, all the same. The only good thing about nursing is that you have more option, RT's dont. Nursing also has more jobs because there are more nurses in a hospital than RT's. Pay is higher also for nurses!!! But if you ask me I wont go for any of those field.. Too scary for me. Thats why I am taking Radiology TEchnology. Pay is high and the work is not scary. If you have the passion of handling blood, mucus, patient care and if you are not scared of someone dying in your hands then go for RT but if you are scared of people dying in your hands but still have the passion to do patient care, deal with patient fluids/diseases than go for nursing. Hope this helps. Goodluck!

You shouldnt worry about the pay. You should worry about the nature of job as an RT. I was an RT student for a year. I had 6 months to graduate but I quit. I couldnt stand it. Everyday I went to my clinical I was the first person to respond to code blue. I was bagging and doing compressions, taking ABGS. People die on my hands almost everyday. And yes there is fluid contact!!! Worse than $hit!! I had to change trach oneday, I had to take out a 9 inches tube from this guy's hole inside his neck. The snot was coming out mix with blood, it was stinky and color was kinda yellowish. As I was pulling it the guy seemed like he was choking, it was so scary. Thats when I realized that RT wasnt for me. Dont make the mistake I did. I wasted time, money and effort just to realize that I wanted something else. Now, I am going for Radiology Technology. Pay is good, no/less patient fluid contact, no adrenaline rushing haha. Well, hope this helps and goodluck with your career.

hi there! I actually started RT school at concorde. Right now I am doing GE but so far I like it. I also like how its not a big class (20 classmates) we all get along and get together for group study. I like it so far . Any field you get into you will always go through stress, overwhelm, sleepless nights heheh but thats part of trying to be successful. The reward of it will be greater. As for nursing, I was a nursing student but it wasnt for me. I really dont like taking care of the same patient all day. I want to be able to take as many as I can but not stay longer in a patient room. Just in and out of the room. To be a nurse you have to like to really really take care of the patient from head to toe. Even their waste thingy. You also have to deal more with their family, their complaints and so on. Dont get me wrong nursing is a great career but remember what nurse means. To nurse someone... On the other hand, RT is also technical and basically just have patients who suffer from respiratory diseases. Nurses handles every kinds of patients but not RT. There are days that RT are extremely busy and days that arent as for nurses based on my experience they are always busy because there are always new patients that gets admitted. Eventhough there are new patients get admitted everyday but not all of them suffer from respiratory disease. Anyway, try to call your school and see if you can go visit a hospital and you can ask or observe what both fields do. What school r u going to??? Anyway, goodluck!!!

shame all of you!!! You should act like professionals and stop talking about RT's. Being an RN is not about who does more work and who does less. It is about giving total care to sick people and do your job as an RN. If you dont like what RT does , is that why you are an RN.......??? If you talk behind peoples back it makes you not professional at all. Just be a good RN. If you think RT doesnt do more than you guys do then maybe you should be an RT. Do not criticize them. Go to work and just do what you gotta do. focus more on your patients than RTS.

By the way CRT are professionals. They go to school the same length as an ADN. You have to earn an associate degree in science respiratory therapy to be a certified respiratory therapist. If you are talking about the respiratory technician (certificate) which is NOT A CRT then yes they only do technical. To be a Certified respiratory you have to take prerequisites and general educations also just like an ADN.

focus on your job not their job. If RT dont do their jobs its their loss not yours. The important thing is to know what makes you a good nurse. If you are allowed to do it then do it. Dont wait for someone to do it for you. If you need help ask for help, dont expect someone to just assist you right away, some people dont think like you.

like i said I contacted the coarc and caahep to verify about concorde and they said that you will be eligible to take the exam. Coarc and Caahep are the one who will give schools the accreditation so students will qualify to sit for the examination for their licensure. I called the examination center which is the state licensing center and they said that as long as the school is accredited then its ok. THE STATE BOARD OF LICENSURE FOR RT TOLD ME TO CALL THE COARC which means committee accreditation for respiratory care and CAAHEP which means Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health. WHy dont you try calling the accreditation centers yourself.

Travel? if its less than an hr it wouldnt be that bad but choose whatever you can afford and also the school that you like. Right now I am going to concorde career for respiratory it was a very tough decision for me. Eventhough concorde is more money but the school is like 3 miles away from me. I would love to wake up 30 mins before my classes starts and still wouldnt be late for school. If you can afford $7,000 more and if you like the school then go for it but if its too much for you then you are going to have to sacrifice. Before I decided to go for RT I was planning to go for LVN. But after seeing my husband do work in a hospital as an LVN I dont think i will go for it. Respiratory therapy's tuition is about the same amount as an LVN but RT you get higher education which is an associate degree while LVN you only get a certificate. If your not planning to be an RN then I say go for RT but if you are planning to expand your career then I say go for LVN because LVN you have more options to expand than RT. hope this help. by the way what school u r trying to go to?? I am in southern california also

thank u all for your response. It helped me understand more about RT and RN. I am still looking for more answers. I might go to a hospital and observe both nurse and RT. Thank you all again.

I used to believe that collection agency wont take any legal actions. They used to send my husband nasty letters saying they were going to garnage his wages or take him to court. So, oneday we got a letter from the court saying he had to appeal on this date but he didnt. Few weeks passed we havent heard from the court but we still kept getting letters from the collection agency. Last friday when my husband got paid, his paycheck was reduced because the credit company garnished his wages. When they say they will take legal action they are telling the truth. My husband stopped paying this credit card 8 months ago and now the company garnish his every paycheck. The solution is to file bankruptcy.

My husband is going to graduate as an LVN in 3 months and he is planning to file bankruptcy but he is afraid that he might not be eligible to take the NCLEX and obtain his license as a VN. Also he's also afraid that it might affect him in getting a job in the hospital. Please give advice.

Can u tell me all if the job for RT is more dangerous than nursing because RT deals with breathing/ people that are dying. I was told that RTs have the most difficult patients. While nurses handles the easiest ones.

I know that if you work in the medical field you have to work a lot. I am very interested in working in a medical field maybe because my brother is a radiologic technologist, my sister is a nurse, my husband is a nurse, basicly my whole family is in the medical field but most of them are nurses and I just dont want to work as a nurse. I want to explore other medical career not just nursing. My family tells me to go for nursing but I am kinda interested in the RT field but i just dont know what kind of work they go through everyday. If RT does more more more work than nursing then it is not for me. I am actually going for radiologic technology because I love the health field and the technology but there is a 3-4 years waiting list so now I decided to go to school for RT while waiting to get in the school. I just want to know more about RT and the job they do. Thank you for your respond..

If you apply in the hospital to work as an LVN all they need is your license. My cousin graduated in a very very small town in the Philippines. She came here, passed the nclex and the hospital hired her. Worry about passing the nclex because that will determine either you will be able to work as an LVN or not.

My husband goes to an LVN private school and he told me that if you are failing your class the school will set up a tutor for you and give you another chance to take the test or do some projects for extra credit. They dont do that at a public school. Once you fail, you are out due to so many students that are on the waiting list. Public school teachers are not going to waste their time giving poor students some tutoring because there are good students that are on the waiting list. Private schools want to make sure you will graduate to keep up with their reputation and also the teachers have to make sure you pass or else what does that say about their performance. If you commit your time to studying and you make sure you will keep up with everything I dont see a difference between public and private except the money and time. Public- cheap but it will take you longer to graduate because of prerequisites or waiting list. Private- $$$$ but no waiting list and no prerequisites.

Thank you all for your respond.My sister tells me what RT does and she said that they have more responsibility than nursing because their patients are criticallly ill.And she also said that RT are mostly around very very sick people. But I said to her if you work in the hospital you are always around sick people or diseases. No matter what health field you go to you will always be around sick people. I like RT because RT specialize on respiratory and their main job is anything that only deals with respiratory(i hope so) But I am scared that it would be more work or more responsibility than a nurse. I know nurses work so much and handles different kinds of patients.

Hello all. I would like to know if any of you knows who has more work load nurse or respiratory therapist. I am going to school for respiratory but at the same time I am thinking about going to nursing school. I know nursing has more options, its an expandable field and also the employment is greater than respiratory but that doesnt really matter to me. What matter to me is the work I do. I want to know the work load and if its more harder than nursing or more stressful. Thank you all.

its probably too late to reply to u but now I am going to Concorde for respiratory therapy and if you go to Coarc or Caahep website concorde is not listed as accredited so I called caahep and coarc to verify and they said that concorde is under review and once you graduated from there YOU ARE ELIGIBLE TO TAKE THE LICENSE EXAM. I also called the respiratory exam center and they said that if a school is under review that school will be given temporary accreditation so that students who graduate from there will be eligible to take the exam.

its probably too late to reply to u but now I am going to Concorde for respiratory therapy and if you go to Coarc or Caahep website concorde is not listed as accredited so I called caahep and coarc to verify and they said that concorde is under review and once you graduated from there YOU ARE ELIGIBLE TO TAKE THE LICENSE EXAM. I also called the respiratory exam center and they said that if a school is under review that school will be given temporary accreditation so that students who graduate from there will be eligible to take the exam.