radiology tech vs respiratory therapy vs nursing

[Nursetobe25]

I know this is a nursing board, but as healthcare professionals you all have exposure to these different fields. What are the pros and cons of these different field. which if you had to do it over would you go into or recommend going in to?

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

From all of your posts.....you seem so....torn. You have asked this questions several different ways.....((HUGS)). One isn't necessarily "better" than the other....it is what do YOU want. I love being a nurse. I love respiratory therapists I work with but it isn't for me. I have a cousin who is a Rad tech...she loves it...her sister is a nurse and going to be a NP. One wouldn't ever be a nurse and the other wouldn't be a Rad Tech.

What are YOU looking for?

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

Why don't you arrange three job shadows with each of these professions - and then ask people who are doing the jobs your questions? Nurses cannot tell you if they would rather be a rad tech- because we're not rad techs. KWIM?

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I hope that a few posters here that have posters in the past that were rad techs and RRTs can give you some insight.

MMJ and Esme are spot in with some sage advice; combine the two-shadow all three and THEN figure out what YOU want.

Best wishes.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Can you arrange to shadow some people in these fields to see what it is like? Or at least talk to some people, preferably more than one so the opinions you receive are more varied. Most of what you hear on AN will of course be nursing related, with a little luck maybe some of us have experience in radiology or respiratory and can help a little more.

[ctnjason]

go to xray school, become a CT, MRI, US, or Nuc Med Tech. DO NOT go into nursing.

[blackeyedsusan]

There are pros and cons to any profession. One of the things that drew me to nursing was the endless array of possibilities - I can work in a hospital (which includes everything from the OR to the NICU), outpatient center, home care, surgical center, hospice, long term care, physician office, management, health department, schools, etc. Nurses are pretty much always in demand. Any city I go to, it's basically guaranteed that SOMEBODY will be hiring nurses. Rad techs and RT's are more limited in their options. I might get some angry eyes from RT's for this next statement, but nurses have more responsibility. It's just the nature of the beast. RT's are focused primarily on the cardiothoracic system, but nurses are responsible for the whole patient. Don't get me wrong, I have worked with some awesome RT's. But I've also had plenty of shifts when, if I had left it up to the RT, my patient would have had significant complications. Part of this is because the RT might be covering several units at once. (Although I still think that when you work in ICU, you should see the RT more than once in a 12-hr period, no matter how many units they have.)

I've heard RT's say that the reason they didn't go into nursing was because they can't handle cleaning up poop. The biggest complaint I usually hear from rad techs is that they can't be in 2 places at once (maybe they're shooting stat XR's in the ED and ICU is calling for a chest xray because they just intubated somebody).

Another thing to consider is why you want to go into health care in the first place. Do you want to take care of people? Be a nurse. Do you like technical skills, anatomy, and less responsibility? Be a rad tech. Do you want to be an expert on ventilation and perfusion? Be a respiratory therapist.

One last note about nursing: You're pretty much responsible for everything that happens to your patient, whether it was in your control or not. If a CT scan wasn't done when it was ordered, the doc is not going to call and yell at the rad tech. He'll yell at the nurse for not making sure it got done. If a patient didn't get their breathing treatment or didn't go on their BiPap machine when they should have, it will be the nurse's fault for not calling the RT. If the labs aren't drawn, the medications are wrong, etc., it always seems to come back to the nurse. I love nursing, but there are days when I wish all I had to do was show up to work and go take some x-rays.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

One last note about nursing: You're pretty much responsible for everything that happens to your patient, whether it was in your control or not. If a CT scan wasn't done when it was ordered, the doc is not going to call and yell at the rad tech. He'll yell at the nurse for not making sure it got done. If a patient didn't get their breathing treatment or didn't go on their BiPap machine when they should have, it will be the nurse's fault for not calling the RT. If the labs aren't drawn, the medications are wrong, etc., it always seems to come back to the nurse. I love nursing, but there are days when I wish all I had to do was show up to work and go take some x-rays.

Just FYI, nurses can do breathing treatments and place pts on a BiPAP machine; it's within our scope...even in some settings, nurses are responsible for Respiratory care-just want to clear that up.

[GrannyRRT]

There are pros and cons to any profession. One of the things that drew me to nursing was the endless array of possibilities - I can work in a hospital (which includes everything from the OR to the NICU), outpatient center, home care, surgical center, hospice, long term care, physician office, management, health department, schools, etc. Nurses are pretty much always in demand. Any city I go to, it's basically guaranteed that SOMEBODY will be hiring nurses. Rad techs and RT's are more limited in their options. I might get some angry eyes from RT's for this next statement, but nurses have more responsibility. It's just the nature of the beast. RT's are focused primarily on the cardiothoracic system, but nurses are responsible for the whole patient. Don't get me wrong, I have worked with some awesome RT's. But I've also had plenty of shifts when, if I had left it up to the RT, my patient would have had significant complications. Part of this is because the RT might be covering several units at once. (Although I still think that when you work in ICU, you should see the RT more than once in a 12-hr period, no matter how many units they have.)

I've heard RT's say that the reason they didn't go into nursing was because they can't handle cleaning up poop. The biggest complaint I usually hear from rad techs is that they can't be in 2 places at once (maybe they're shooting stat XR's in the ED and ICU is calling for a chest xray because they just intubated somebody).

Another thing to consider is why you want to go into health care in the first place. Do you want to take care of people? Be a nurse. Do you like technical skills, anatomy, and less responsibility? Be a rad tech. Do you want to be an expert on ventilation and perfusion? Be a respiratory therapist.

One last note about nursing: You're pretty much responsible for everything that happens to your patient, whether it was in your control or not. If a CT scan wasn't done when it was ordered, the doc is not going to call and yell at the rad tech. He'll yell at the nurse for not making sure it got done. If a patient didn't get their breathing treatment or didn't go on their BiPap machine when they should have, it will be the nurse's fault for not calling the RT. If the labs aren't drawn, the medications are wrong, etc., it always seems to come back to the nurse. I love nursing, but there are days when I wish all I had to do was show up to work and go take some x-rays.

I hear this from some nurses but I have yet to see any of them step up and say THEY are RESPONSIBLE for what the RT did or did not do. RTs answer to their own supervisors and directly to their Medical Director (doctor). They then must answer to their licensing board.

I have yet to see nurses take the responsibility for RT treatments not being done or even showing the statistics when CMS comes for an audit. I also have never seen an RN attend a Board of RT hearing to say it was their responsibility and not the RT's when something goes wrong.

If the patient did not get a prn RT tx but needed it, then yes you should have called. If the patient was requiring a BiPAP machine for respiratory decline then you should have called. If it was a pre scheduled time, then the RT has the responsibility and sometimes they must triage their priorities. If someone is getting a routine neb "just because" and not for any other reason, that treatment might need to be pushed to a later time if a child is requiring intubation in the ED. The RT also has to fill out a "not done" form which is part of the statistics and reviewed by the Medical Director and CMS (or JCAHO or whatever accrediting agency).

You also take it for granted that it is your right to mess with the ventilator settings and some don't even bother to chart what they do change. Some nurses even mess with the alarms. Chances are if the outcome of the patient is negative you will disappear into the background. The RT will be responsible for whatever happens to that patient for what you did and the ventilator memory will be the record against the RT if you did not chart it. I doubt if you will be tooting your horn about being "responsible for the whole patient".

Some nurses just seem to forget that RTs are licensed by the state and still believe most for just disposable techs who can easily be replaced if you don't like them. I bet many on this forum do not know that RTs require at least an Associates degree and some have a BSRT.

That is probably one of the biggest reasons I would not recommend anyone going into Respiratory Therapy. Not only do you have to watch yourself but you also are subject to the actions of others who disrespect what you do and feel you are a disposable tech. Some nurses even flock together to get great RTs banned from a unit because that RT might have said something which someone didn't like no matter how trivial.

Radiology would be a decent choice if you can get all the certs and stay away from nurses as a group as much as possible.

But both RT and Radiology have a very limited number of jobs.

If you want more job opportunities and power, perceived or otherwise, over others go into nursing.

[GrannyRRT]

Just FYI, nurses can do breathing treatments and place pts on a BiPAP machine; it's within our scope...even in some settings, nurses are responsible for Respiratory care-just want to clear that up.

It might be within your state scope of practice but it also has to be within the policy for the hospital you work in.

Some nurses will mess with things they have not been properly trained for. CMS and its accrediting agencies require a competency to be on file by nurses if they do anything pertaining to RT including the giving of an MDI. Many places require a yearly competency to be done as well. If someone really has some of these responsibilities, they should know if they have had the training and competencies on file. If not, CALL RT.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

It might be within your state scope of practice but it also has to be within the policy for the hospital you work in.

Some nurses will mess with things they have not been properly trained for. CMS and its accrediting agencies require a competency to be on file by nurses if they do anything pertaining to RT including the giving of an MDI. Many places require a yearly competency to be done as well. If someone really has some of these responsibilities, they should know if they have had the training and competencies on file. If not, CALL RT.

Not every nurse works with respiratory pts in the hospital setting; there are facilities in my state that permit nurses to work with vents because it is with the nurses scope; we learn about ventilators and care of a ventilator in nursing programs because when there are no or not

enough RRTs or CRTs a nurse is placed in the RT role; I have been a "Respiratory Nurse" in the acute rehab setting, post-acute pediatric setting (currently) and had to know the anatomy of vents in the home health PDN setting.

Most of my nursing career has been working with ventilated patients newborns-adults/older adults outside of the hospital setting.

[NewYorkerGirl]

I'll be honest, I really wanted to be a rad tech, and still wish I were doing that instead of nursing, but I became a nurse because the jobs just aren't there. Each hospital only needs a few rad techs, whereas they need tons of nurses. Before applying to any schools, I watched the classified ads and searched hospital job boards. Rad Tech jobs just weren't posted much, but nursing was always posted. I considered RT, but dealing with coughing, hacking people all day isn't my cup of tea. Also, I'm not into the critical care stuff: they're always in the ICU and ER intubating and extubating patients. I don't want that high-stress, but maybe you do. Good luck to you in whatever you choose.