rrtDude

I love my nurses because they are smarter than me and can do 90% of the work that I do. But with all this venting about them stupid and lazy RTs, does this all mean that I can no longer come onto your floor for free coffee and donuts? Just trying to clarify some things here before I start making my rounds

No problem. For me it wasn't hard finding work at all, I already had been offered a per diem position before I even graduated at one of the hospitals I did my preceptorship at. I was getting good hours there then got hired by another hospital for another per diem. So I was averaging between 40-60 hours a week. Just be a good student and try to make some connections but don't kiss up. Attitude is everything. Also where you live will dictate if it's easier or harder to find a job as well as plain luck.

Ok so I'm just going to paste here what I wrote in another section of the forum, since it's pretty much the same post which I failed to see... :) Hi there, I'm an RRT and although I have not personally gone through nursing school, I do work closely with another therapist who has. Therefore, I'll just try to answer some of your questions as best as I can based on the experiences that he shared with me. First of all, it wouldn't be realistic for anyone here to tell you if the respiratory or the nursing school is harder because it's really individually dependent on your interest and your ability to learn certain concepts. Before you decide which field you'd like to pursue, take a look at the curriculum of each program just to see what type of things you get to learn and ask yourself which to you are more interesting. I do think that most of the time the program will seem easier IF it's something that you like to learn because let's face it, if you're studying something that you're not really interested in, it will take a lot more effort for it to stick. If you're not doing too well in nursing school, try respiratory and you may like it so much you'll be soaking up the material like a sponge and do great. For some people, respiratory is too specialized and they'd rather learn a little bit about everything else instead of just focusing on breathing. Now, the therapist that I told you about breezed through nursing school and graduated with a 4.0 GPA. According to him, nursing was a lot easier than the respiratory school but then again, he was already at an advantage having a strong critical care background and in respiratory, we're all in critical care unless you work in a sleep lab or do PFTs. So would nursing be a walk in the park for every therapist entering their program? Most likely not, they could probably do pretty well in some areas of nursing but others not. If you're not a therapist and are entering either program for the first time, well, then it'll just come down to your intellect and your desire to learn. It's true that as a nurse you do have to know a little bit about a lot but you don't have to know everything about anything, nobody does. In my girlfriend's first nursing year which she just finished, she studied respiratory for 2 weeks, I studied respiratory for 2 years and I still don't know everything so I doubt she's ahead of me when it comes to breathing (she thinks she is though lol). As you work more, however, you will learn more and more about a lot, including respiratory if you get to work in the ICU but you will still never know everything. Some ICU nurses are very good when it comes to the respiratory stuff, but some don't have a clue and I often wonder who let them into the unit. But then again, some therapists don't have a clue about what they're doing and I also wonder who let them into the unit. It all comes down to the individual, not the two letters behind their name. There is a lot in nursing that I don't have a clue about but I promise you there are things in respiratory that I can talk about that'll make your head spin. Nursing isn't just wiping asses and respiratory isn't just giving treatments, you get out of it what you put into it. I'd tell you to stick with nursing just because there is more room for advancement, but always stay humble and do ask your RT colleague questions if you're interested in respiratory. I can't even begin to tell you how much I learned from my ICU RN friends by picking their brain and even though I specialize in lungs and partially in the heart only, everything is connected so it's nice to be able to get as big of a picture as you can. Whatever you pick, be a sponge and do the best you can. Let me know if you have any more questions that I can answer for you. P.S. Forgot to say, as a respiratory therapist you are also on the front lines, more so than you think. It just depends on where you work, how much autonomy you get, how good you are and how bad the attending is. In one of the hospitals I work in if one of the patients' respiratory status deteriorates I can pretty much do whatever I want to fix him. If the doc orders something that I don't feel is beneficial or can be harmful (does happen) to the patient I can basically "recommend" something else and I will get it. In another hospital I work for, I basically do what the order says because most are really good docs and know very well what they're doing. Rarely will I have to say anything but sometimes I will if I feel I can contribute.

Forgot to say, as a respiratory therapist you are also on the front lines, more so than you think. It just depends on where you work, how much autonomy you get, how good you are and how bad the attending is. In one of the hospitals I work in if one of the patients' respiratory status deteriorates I can pretty much do whatever I want to fix him. If the doc orders something that I don't feel is beneficial or can be harmful (does happen) to the patient I can basically "recommend" something else and I will get it. In another hospital I work for, I basically do what the order says because most are really good docs and know very well what they're doing. Rarely will I have to say anything but sometimes I will if I feel I can contribute.

Hi there, I'm an RRT and although I have not personally gone through nursing school, I do work closely with another therapist who has. Therefore, I'll just try to answer some of your questions as best as I can based on the experiences that he shared with me. First of all, it wouldn't be realistic for anyone here to tell you if the respiratory or the nursing school is harder because it's really individually dependent on your interest and your ability to learn certain concepts. Before you decide which field you'd like to pursue, take a look at the curriculum of each program just to see what type of things you get to learn and ask yourself which to you are more interesting. I do think that most of the time the program will seem easier IF it's something that you like to learn because let's face it, if you're studying something that you're not really interested in, it will take a lot more effort for it to stick. If you're not doing too well in nursing school, try respiratory and you may like it so much you'll be soaking up the material like a sponge and do great. For some people, respiratory is too specialized and they'd rather learn a little bit about everything else instead of just focusing on breathing. Now, the therapist that I told you about breezed through nursing school and graduated with a 4.0 GPA. According to him, nursing was a lot easier than the respiratory school but then again, he was already at an advantage having a strong critical care background and in respiratory, we're all in critical care unless you work in a sleep lab or do PFTs. So would nursing be a walk in the park for every therapist entering their program? Most likely not, they could probably do pretty well in some areas of nursing but others not. If you're not a therapist and are entering either program for the first time, well, then it'll just come down to your intellect and your desire to learn. It's true that as a nurse you do have to know a little bit about a lot but you don't have to know everything about anything, nobody does. In my girlfriend's first nursing year which she just finished, she studied respiratory for 2 weeks, I studied respiratory for 2 years and I still don't know everything so I doubt she's ahead of me when it comes to breathing (she thinks she is though lol). As you work more, however, you will learn more and more about a lot, including respiratory if you get to work in the ICU but you will still never know everything. Some ICU nurses are very good when it comes to the respiratory stuff, but some don't have a clue and I often wonder who let them into the unit. But then again, some therapists don't have a clue about what they're doing and I also wonder who let them into the unit. It all comes down to the individual, not the two letters behind their name. There is a lot in nursing that I don't have a clue about but I promise you there are things in respiratory that I can talk about that'll make your head spin. Nursing isn't just wiping asses and respiratory isn't just giving treatments, you get out of it what you put into it. I'd tell you to stick with nursing just because there is more room for advancement, but always stay humble and do ask your RT colleague questions if you're interested in respiratory. I can't even begin to tell you how much I learned from my ICU RN friends by picking their brain and even though I specialize in lungs and partially in the heart only, everything is connected so it's nice to be able to get as big of a picture as you can. Whatever you pick, be a sponge and do the best you can. Let me know if you have any more questions that I can answer for you.

You're not really doing much of dose calculating in respiratory school so I would advise against taking a nursing course just for that. You will have to do some med calculations but they are very, very basic and as long as you pay attention in the lab and take notes then you will be just fine. We actually do more equations rather than med calculations and if you want some examples then look up alveolar air or the arterial oxygen content equation. Better yet, get yourself a copy of Egan's and flip to the very last page of the book on the hard cover. You see all those equations there? Learn those and you're set.

I am an RRT and I'd like to address a few things that you said here. First of all, let me just say that it is unfortunate that interacting with the respiratory staff has not been a positive experience for you. If an RT walked by the vent while it was alarming and did nothing about it, then in a way I can understand why you seem to lack trust in my colleagues' abilities. However, it is also unfair that you seem to paint the entire profession as incompetent just because of a few inadequately trained RCP's that show up on your floor dragging in vents for "your" babies. I don't know what hospital you work in but just to be clear, the level of responsibility that RT's take on in the NICU vary from hospital to hospital. I have worked in a Level 3 trauma center with a large NICU and we had RT's assigned to that floor permanently. They DID, and DO touch the babies, and they also perform intubations, vent set ups and dial in the settings. They don't just drag the equipment in for the nurses to handle as they work with them every day and night. So in short, just because your floor doesn't seem to include the respiratory staff in the care of neonates, it doesn't mean that it's the same for every single NICU in the country. If the OP wants to be an RT and work in NICU, then he/she should first research the hospitals that provide respiratory with this kind of specialized training and where there is an opportunity for RT's to be permanently assigned to that unit if they so choose to. I personally did not want to be in NICU all day although I could've, and god bless those nurses that did it but I'd rather roam around the hospital rather then being stuck working on one floor (not that you think of it as being stuck, but I did). Second, as I already mentioned, I can understand your frustration about the whole vent alarm thing. I would, however, hope that you'd understand my frustration when I ask the nurse to put my patient on 3L nasal cannula as I get called into the ER for a stat call, just to get back a few minutes later to find my patient desatting on 3L OF AIR and with the prongs turned the WRONG way (simple things tho, right?). Those damn nurses, how dare they touch my patients, they just drag the nasal cannula in with the bubble humidifier for me maybe but IT'S ME, the RT, that hooks it up and dials in the setting on the flow meter. Most of the time I don't even trust them now. But no seriously, is this the way I'm supposed to think now? That all nurses are incompetent when doing their jobs? Some of my best friends are nurses and some of them, especially the ones that work in the adult ICU, are excellent when it comes to ventilator management, weaning, drawing ABGs, you name it. Some are even better than the RT's I've worked with but you know what, I don't care, it is the fault of those RT's that didn't do what they needed to do to get on that same level. There are really, really great RT's, and there are also RT's that I wouldn't trust with a flow meter. And there are really, really great nurses, but there are also those that still make me scratch my head trying to figure out how they've made it through nursing school. I could go on and on typing up some of the things that nurses have done trying to perform some of the respiratory duties, such as a notoriously simple task of giving a neb treatment, but what is the point? The bottom line is, it is the individual that matters along with their clinical skill and experience, not the two or three letters behind their name. The credentials only allow you to practice nursing / respiratory but it says nothing about how good you really are when you actually do it. And I'd think for anyone intelligent enough to get through all the schooling and the examinations to earn the title of an RN or RT, that it'd be very simple to understand that we're all humans, and that there are good and bad RNs and RTs, and one, or a couple, or even the whole department, does not represent everyone in the profession. I don't even know how many Registered RT's we have in the country but I guarantee you that not every single one of them has been to YOUR NICU floor "dragging in" the vent. To the OP, whether you become just a neb jockey as nicu4me called it will depend entirely on you and the hospital which you work in. It will be up to you to research a potential work place and how involved the RT's are in the NICU setting but it will also be up to you to decide what kind of RT you become. If you're good and you show to know your stuff, you will build strong rapport with the physicians and other nurses and you will be an important part of the health care team. But if you do nothing to further your knowledge or skill, then you will become exactly what nicu4me described, and you'll just run the nebs and push buttons on the vent so that you can go and watch TV in your office when you're done, with no one to care for you or your opinion. But that's all up to you. I am personally in great communication with the doctors and many times they let me make decisions that under normal circumstances I should not make because of the scope of my practice. But that's the relationship that I've built with the entire staff by not being cocky and always trying to learn more whether it be from a physician, a fellow RT, or even some experienced critical care nurse. I believe I'm very good at what I do but I never feel like I know everything nor do I act like it and that is also what makes my work colleagues respect me. I love my job and I am never bored when I come to work, I'm always in different parts of the hospital doing different things. Anytime something goes down you hear RESPIRATORY STAT over the intercom and it's a great adrenaline rush because you get in there and you start bagging, intubating, and securing the airway, then bringing the vent in and setting everything up and putting the settings in. It's very rewarding when you save a patient's life and you really do feel like you're a part of the team. Specialties do exist within the respiratory field so yes you can branch out, although not as much as nursing. We have pulmonary function testing, sleep lab, pulmonary rehabilitation, and also the flight team where you're on the helicopter or fixed wing aircraft transporting patients. I AM my patient's advocate as we all should be, and if you'd like I'll give you some examples of the many times I would get on the phone with a doctor and asked for an order to be put in for a particular treatment, and it was done right there over the phone. I always connect with my patients and I do not agree with what nicu4me said. I don't simply go into a room and say "here, there's your neb" and bust out. As an RT, I spend a lot of time with my patients chatting it up about whatever they want to talk about, like about a Philly game or the weather outside. I doubt you can do that with the neonates but if you do manage to get one to talk to you and make a connection "on a deeper level" then kudos to you, because I was never able to I have a great relationship with my patients and their families too, and some I still keep in touch with. If there is anything that I notice regarding my patients' care that needs the attention of either their doctor or their nurse, then I speak up. Now, in closing, respiratory school is the same length as nursing school unless you go for the BSN. The tuition for nursing and respiratory is the same if you're choosing between the two programs at the same school. I can tell you being an RN is generally better if you plan to branch out a little bit, because then you can do just about anything. You can work in the ER, Oncology, Medsurg, Peds, etc. Respiratory is more specialized in that we're trained more in providing critical care so we're always in the ER or the ICU giving breathing treatments, drawing and analyzing arterial blood gases, intubating, suctioning, weaning, extubating, etc. We're also on the general floor performing assessments and providing treatments such as aerosol, chest PT, BiPAP, CPAP, things like that (we do all that in the ER and ICU too, or wherever we're called). Our focus is mainly on the cardiopulmonary system which we study for 2 years, as opposed to the nurses who study a little bit about all the body systems but are not as specialized in the cardiopulmonary system as we are (unless they're the ICU nurses, some are really good and know their respiratory stuff too). The best thing you can do is to shadow both an RN and an RT, and do it a couple times with different people so that you don't get stuck with a miserable nurse or a miserable respiratory therapist and think geez, these people must really hate their jobs If you think you'd be happy being a nurse then go be a nurse, but personally I wouldn't be a nurse if you paid me $10 extra per hour just because my heart is not in it. Nursing is a great profession, but it's just not for me. I believe you have to be born to be a good nurse, just like you have to be born to be a good respiratory therapist. I can tell you that I am the latter and there is no point of trying to change that fact. You have to figure out which one is you and no one on this forum will do it for you but you. Best of luck! (sorry for the long post :))