jjohnnym65

The lower salary probably won't be an issue. I've got 2 bachelor's degrees (one in respiratory therapy), the "advanced" respiratory therapy credential (RRT), and my RPSGT credential from the Board of Registered Polysomnographic Technologists (BRPT) plus almost 12 years of experience between RT and polysom and I still only make about $43k/year. I work a PRN job to bring that up above $45k. I don't expect 6 figures in my first role, believe me. I'll just be thrilled to have a job that can meet my previous standard of living and doesn't involve sitting in front of a screen all night monitoring patients and adjusting CPAP/BiPAPs, tweaking vents, or pushing SVN txs. A livable salary is all I want, along with a career that has some sort of growth potential. Basically, I'll just be happy that I won't have to be an RT anymore. I'll even take an unpaid internship that requires me to quit my full time job if I have to, that's how much I want the experience. That's comforting information, thank you. That's kind of a long story, I'll try to be as brief as possible. Basically I was a pre-PT/Kinesiology major right out of high school at a major Big 10 party school in the midwest. Grades were never horrible, but they were never really good either. At the time, PT programs had just shifted to the 3 year entry-level doctorates that they have today. The programs I had the best shot at would've put me probably $70-80k in debt to start out as a PT making mid 50s. My senior year I stumbled on information about the RT bachelor's program at my school's big commuter/medical campus in the state capitol. I had all the pre-reqs and admission was a breeze. I stayed at the main campus to finish up my first degree because I only had 6 credits left and started my RT program the following fall. I knew I was going to hate RT from the time I started the program, but at age 22 I was terrified of being stuck in college forever (I mean it had already been 4 years of my parents' $$ and I only had a piece of paper to show for it). I needed something that would lead me to a job and at least RT fit that bill. So, I finished, passed my exams, and started working. 12 years, one lateral move, and 6 jobs later I still hate it. As time went on I found myself drawn to technology. I love building PCs and solving problems with software. I love showing coworkers how to get from one point to another in Paragon when they're fumbling around and frustrated. I realized that Informatics was a way that I could leverage my clinical background for a technology-related career that actually had some potential for growth. Life and work had relocated me to TN so I enrolled in the MSPS: Healthcare Informatics program at MTSU, I originally considered UT's program but it is all online and offered out of the Health Science Center in Memphis (but they are CAHIIM accredited). I didn't see CAHIIM accreditation as a big deal because there are only 9 CAHIIM accredited graduate programs in the entire US and even programs at VERY highly respected schools like U of Michigan and Northwestern aren't CAHIIM accredited.

I've been reading some of the threads on this forum talking about the difficulty some people are having finding work even after earning advanced degrees. I do have a clinical background as a respiratory therapist and am in my second semester of work on my MS in healthcare informatics. The program is at a state school with a mix of traditional and online coursework. Fortunately the clinical informatics job market in this area seems to be fairly strong (a PRN co-worker graduated this past semester and at least he's getting interviews). Also, the program has a capstone internship instead of a thesis or project which I feel is a definite plus. I still have a few concerns: I'm not an RN. Will having a non-nursing background be held against me? No real informatics experience. My internship will be 100 percent of the experience I have going into the job market. I'm 36 and when I'm done I'll be around 38, will ageism be a factor? So should I switch gears and do an MBA or something? Our program is actually quite business heavy but I'm not sure if any credits will transfer. I'm $10,000 in the hole in loans so if I'm not going be able to find a job I'd rather cut my losses. I'm really sick of tweaking vents, giving nebs and running sleep studies and I thought this was a good way to leverage my clinical background into working with technology. I just hope I haven't made a huge mistake.

As an RRT, RPSGT (Registered Polysomnographic Technologist) and psych patient (depression) I think I can weigh in/rant on this issue. I have been in an "intensive" and only slightly bearable outpatient therapy program for 2 months following 5 days of inpatient tx for suicidal ideation hours after losing my job. This was the first time I've been fired from anything and came two weeks after I had liberated myself from a financially and emotionally abusive girlfriend (BPD pt) of 2.5 years. Needless to say my coping skills were suboptimal. During my standard intake interview with the outpatient nurse practitioner I made the mistake of being honest about some collegiate chemical experimentation. I also admitted to drinking 4 beers (gasp!) while watching a NASCAR race with my old man--I tip the scales at almost 300 so if I wanted to get drunk 4 beers would be an appetizer. It had been 14 months since I had last been intoxicated at a friend's bachelor party. I've been a night shift worker since college and have always had difficulty with sleep and have made my provider aware of this. I was on trazodone initially at 100 then 200 mg. It was ok for the first two weeks. Then I self-medicated with 300mg and was able to sleep after that lovely vertigo feeling resolved. I got sick of this vertigo feeling and told the advanced practice nurse it wasn't cutting it. After two weeks of this crap I finally got through to her and she switched me to Rozerem which worked initially but flamed out after a week. I asked for some samples of Ambien CR or Sonata and got the following reply: "Oh, we have to be careful with controlled drugs in people with a history of substance use." It took everything I had to keep myself from exploding considering what little respect I had for her as a clinician was now evaporated. My "substance use" was not relevant; it was not why I was seeking tx. I have never been to rehab or detox and have no criminal record of any sort let alone drug related. The only reason she knew anything was because I was honest with her. My reward? A label as a junkie. Rozerem works on the melatonin system (I will give her credit for at least knowing that) and is highly specific to 2 of the 3 melatonin receptors (MT1 and MT2). Melatonin is a hormone released by the pineal gland in the brain and is responsible for our sleep/wake cycle or circadian rhythm. The release of melatonin is highly dependent on light as there are paracrine melatonin receptors on the retina of the eye. Even low levels of light (mainly in the blue light spectrum) are capable of inhibiting melatonin production. Chronic exposure to light throughout the 24 hour cycle can result in disruption that can be tough to reverse. Here is the link to the Rozerem website: http://www.rozerem.com Click on prescribing information and read the section under controlled clinical trials. The efficacy of the drug was evaluated using polysomnography in a sleep lab. Now, there's nothing wrong with that inherently; however, sleep labs (at least accredited ones) are built to be the ideal environment for promoting sleep; the walls are well insulated to seal outside noise and the room is pitch black with the lights out. Now I've worked nights for 6 years and my bedroom is not exactly optimal for sleep. Do ya think my melatonin release system may be a bit screwed up? My blinds do not shut out any light at all and my lease prohibits replacing them. In other words I'm likely producing very little melatonin at all when I need to be. Now giving me a drug that stimulates the melatonin receptors isn't a bad idea if I worked a normal schedule and was able to sleep in total darkness, but with the lifestyle I have to lead it's like kicking a horse with a broken leg to get it to run faster. Oh yeah and Rozerem costs 135.00 for 30 doses at Walgreen's. https://www.changehealthcare.com/rx_brands/13020 Enter my family doc, my savior. He has prescribed both ambien and valium for me in the past in reasonable amounts with 1 or no refills. I don't bang down his door begging for dosage increases or refills. He trusts me and I refuse to betray his trust by taking advantage of his generosity. However he has understandably stated that since I am now seeing a psych provider on a regular basis he doesn't feel comfortable treating problems that they are supposedly more "qualified" to address. Oh yeah and the cost of 30 5mg tabs of valium? 22 bucks.

I'm also really curious as to what type of vent you were using. I haven't seen any of the modern vents just "stop pushing air" when encountering an obstruction such as a clogged HME or plugged trach/ETT. Usually they'll continue to up the applied pressure until reaching the set high pressure limit then you of course get an alarm or alarms if the vent measures exhaled Vt breath by breath. Then after a minute or so you should get your low minute volume alarms. It definitely sounds like a mechanical issue for your biomed engineering dept to go over. I would think the vent would continue attempting to deliver breaths; a complete stoppage when encountering an obstruction sounds totally bizarre. John M. B.S.^2, RRT