Respiratory Therapy or Nursing School?

[JeJmFs]

Thinking about going back to school. Had looked at nursing and respiratory therapist. Not sure what one is the best option. Any thoughts or guidance would be appreciated. Thanks

[fma08]

Which one are you more interested in?

[Sasha]

Go for respiratory therapy.

[VentMedic]

If you are undecided, I would say go into nursing. To enter a specialized field like RT, one usually has a reason that attracted them to that area. If you are just tossing darts in the college catalog, nursing will give you more options. RT has many options but they are primarily focused around the Cardiopulmonary and critical care areas. If you do not care for doing a lot of teaching nursing will be your better option although that profession consists of a tremendous amount of patient/family teaching. With both professions you will have the responsibility of many patients with little down time. RNs in an ICU generally have 2-3 patients and RRTs will have 6 - 10 patients. Med-surg RNs will average 10 patients and the RRTs will have around 20 - 60 patients. The same for the busy EDs with RNs averaging 6 patients at any given time and easily over 20 per shift and the RRT sees around 20 - 50 in a busy ED.

[rescue99]

Originally Posted by JeJmFs

Thinking about going back to school. Had looked at nursing and respiratory therapist. Not sure what one is the best option. Any thoughts or guidance would be appreciated. Thanks

OOOO..why settle? Do both! Which first...hmm?? Which are you most interested in doing soon? I like running around the hospital better than being in one unit for example...RT would be more interesting to me in that context.
Good luck to you no matter what the final decision is.

[VentMedic]

Originally Posted by rescue99

OOOO..why settle? Do both! Which first...hmm?? Which are you most interested in doing soon? I like running around the hospital better than being in one unit for example...RT would be more interesting to me in that context.
Good luck to you no matter what the final decision is.

RTs are generally assigned to an area like the ICU, PFT lab, HBO, ED or a med-surg floor. For therapy, they no longer hang a treatment and then run around looking for coffee but rather they must stay the entire documented time with the patient. They also do not leave the unit except for the one who is assigned the code beeper. There are a few exceptions but generally when you are working in one of those hospitals you are literally RUNNING your entire shift with no breaks and a beeper that will make you crazy with 30 - 60 calls per 8 or 12 hours.

[rescue99]

Originally Posted by VentMedic

RTs are generally assigned to an area like the ICU, PFT lab, HBO, ED or a med-surg floor. For therapy, they no longer hang a treatment and then run around looking for coffee but rather they must stay the entire documented time with the patient. They also do not leave the unit except for the one who is assigned the code beeper. There are a few exceptions but generally when you are working in one of those hospitals you are literally RUNNING your entire shift with no breaks and a beeper that will make you crazy with 30 - 60 calls per 8 or 12 hours.

Sounds like a good day!

[VentMedic]

Originally Posted by rescue99

Sounds like a good day!

Do you as a Paramedic assess 30 - 60 patients in 12 hours every shift?

[rescue99]

Originally Posted by VentMedic

RTs are generally assigned to an area like the ICU, PFT lab, HBO, ED or a med-surg floor. For therapy, they no longer hang a treatment and then run around looking for coffee but rather they must stay the entire documented time with the patient. They also do not leave the unit except for the one who is assigned the code beeper. There are a few exceptions but generally when you are working in one of those hospitals you are literally RUNNING your entire shift with no breaks and a beeper that will make you crazy with 30 - 60 calls per 8 or 12 hours.

My job isn't a 10 minute per task job so of course not...

[VentMedic]

Originally Posted by rescue99

My job isn't a 10 minute per task job so of course not...

Are you trying to be insulting?

If you are you need to understand some regulations then like what Medicare considers as treatments. The shortest being a 15 minute procedure with our longest being up to 6 hours depending on the dive in the HBO chamber.

How is your agency paid for your EMS "tasks"? At what level does Medicare reimburse you for the central line insertion, A-line insertion or intubation? Are you able to charge for 30 minutes of patient education while giving that albuterol treatment on a professional scale? Can you get reimbursed on an independent provider scale for outpatient? Consultant?

Yes, raising the standard for education allowed both nursing and RT to move to a different scale and recognition for procedures done.

However, I do know some EMT(P)s that believe 10 minutes is way to long to spend with a patient which is why they run a speedy taxi service complete with L&S to the ED. Some have their beds, computers or TV shows to get back to.