To become a respiratory therapist you need at least an associate degree from an accredited college but in order to progress in your career a bachelor’s or master’s degree will make a huge difference. This is especially true if you are wanting to get into a management position in a hospital or clinic.
You can get your respiratory therapy education from not only a college or university but a vocational-technical institute and even the Armed Forces can provide the required training you need to become certified.
Respiratory Therapy Education – What You Will Learn
To prepare for your career in respiratory therapy you will take a wide range of general medical courses focusing on areas such as human physiology and anatomy, microbiology, chemistry, pathophysiology, pharmacology and even some math and physics classes.
After taking the introductory classes you will take more specific courses that deal with patient assessment, cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, diagnostic and therapeutic tests and procedures, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, patient care outside of a hospital environment, equipment training, disease prevention and respiratory health promotion and how to properly maintain a patient’s medical records.
If you are still in high school and are thinking of becoming a therapist you can get a jump start on your respiratory therapy education by taking classes in biology, health, chemistry, physics and math.
Why mathematics? As a respiratory therapist you need to be able to calculate proper dosages of medicine and compute gas concentrations that will be administered to a patient.
A license is required to practice respiratory therapy in all but two states, Hawaii and Alaska and since you will be working in a medical setting you will most likely have to have CPR certification.
After completing your respiratory therapy education you must meet the certification requirements of the National Board for Respiratory Care (NBRC) in order to be granted a license.
The NBRC awards two types of certification upon passing the requisite exams. The first is the Certified Respiratory Therapist (CRT) designation and is granted to those who graduate from entry-level programs that have been accredited by the Committee on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC).
The Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) is awarded to those who have completed advanced degree programs and have passed two separate exams. It should be noted that in order to work in a supervisory role or in intensive-care settings the RRT designation is usually required.
Besides obtaining the necessary respiratory therapy education as required by the certification board you also need to have other “soft” skills like the ability to be sensitive to the needs of a patient.
Attention to details and the ability to work as part of an overall team while following instructions is also important. You will also need to be able to operate advanced medical machinery and be somewhat proficient with a computer.
In order to advance in your career as a respiratory therapist you will need to move from providing general therapeutic treatments to patients to more complex cases involving patients that are critically ill and have significant health problems.
As stated earlier, those therapists with advanced degrees will be candidates for managerial or supervisory positions in the respiratory therapy department of a hospital or clinic while others eventually move into teaching positions to train the next generation of therapists.
The job outlook after completing your respiratory therapy education is very bright with a projected increase in job growth of slightly over 20% for the next decade due to the ever-increasing population of the elderly as the Baby Boomer generation reaches retirement age.
Salary levels will continue to advance as well and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the average pay of a certified respiratory therapist was $54,000 making a respiratory therapy education a wise choice for anyone wanting a career in the medical field.