I work in the ICU and we work very closely with our RTs. I love my RTs and get along and respect all of them. I even respect and love the RT I'm about to mention, her comment just makes me have more sympathy than anything.
Casually discussing nursing and respiratory education she interjects how her scope is greater than mine and can do more yet still gets paid less even as a head RT. I mean maybe she's bitter because she makes less than the Nurse Clinician 3-5? - and her way of justifying everything is by saying "I get paid less but my scope is larger I can do what you do and more".
Okay sure. I'm not even gonna argue that. I'm sure you can. I'm just a lowly ICU nurse. I wipe booty.... das all guyzzzz.
In most states the RN scope of practice is much wider since it is roughly based on the concept of what you are trained and educated in. There are states where the RT scope is roughly as wide but also have the caveat of what they are trained and educated in, which is limited in breadth but much more specialized.
In some states registered nurses are, under limited circumstances, prescribing medications and performing surgical procedures such as inserting ports or pulling bone biopsies.
RTs at the cutting edge of their practice are inserting PICCs and central lines, something registered nurses have been doing for some time in many states.
Specializes in critical care, ER,ICU, CVSURG, CCU.
Ok, I was a critical care RN, since 1972, in 03 I went to respiratory school and was registered within 10 days of graduation......my scope of practice is greater as a RRT,.......but in Texas as others have posted , salary far less....6 months after graduation, I changed back to working as. RN, not for the $, rather the love of nursing.....but I keep both credentials active.....I do have to work hard at not mixing the scopes up, in my current position I am expected to preform in both.....
Her scope may be larger than yours, but it's limited to respiratory issues only, that's a very narrow and specific field of practice. Your scope extends to the entire patient so of course yours may seem more limited in comparison but you are not limited to only part of the patient like RT is.
If she's bitter then she needs to go to nursing school if she's so sure nurses get a better deal.
Old joke, credit George Burns ( you young'uns can go look him up).
"Doctor, doctor, I'm so depressed!"
"What's the matter, George?"
"It's my neighbor. He's 87 years old, and he says he has a different beautiful young woman in every night, and they have wild sex. It's so depressing, what should I do?"
Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Float Pool/Stepdown.
While I greatly value many of the RTs at my hospital (just like many other coworkers along with nurses alike) I still see my fair share of RTs that talk down to nursing, are not good at educating or explaining their expertise when it comes to helping nursing best take care of the respiratory piece going on with patients, or just overall not working as team players in the interdisciplinary team. These behaviors of course are sprinkled throughout every discipline.
I can say that I am undereducated in the arena whereas a RT would be utilized to provide both RT and nursing care in healthcare facilities but on the flip side am aware of health care facilities that don't even utilize RTs to support pts and the nurses provide the care instead. In these facilities, nurses also do the job of what a phlebotomist would do at hospitals that provide more resources.
So I guess not to devalue RTs in anyway....it seems to me that the RT role inside my facility is to help support nursing (and the patients) and if we didn't have RTs then nursing would just absorb the work that they do but I don't think it could be the other way around...
Either way, we are all in this business to support patient care.
Asystole RN
2,352 Posts
In most states the RN scope of practice is much wider since it is roughly based on the concept of what you are trained and educated in. There are states where the RT scope is roughly as wide but also have the caveat of what they are trained and educated in, which is limited in breadth but much more specialized.
In some states registered nurses are, under limited circumstances, prescribing medications and performing surgical procedures such as inserting ports or pulling bone biopsies.
RTs at the cutting edge of their practice are inserting PICCs and central lines, something registered nurses have been doing for some time in many states.