Comments for Rhonchi

Comment on Are you a Respiratory Therapist? Do you blog? by Dottie

Dottie — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:02:46 +0000

I’ve worked as an RRT from 1982 through 2004, plus I worked alot of overtime (50 to 60 hours per week for most of the time). I worked in many different hospitals, depending on what was going on in my life. Anyway, I noticed that the hardest time was when you change facilities. When you first start a position, regardless of you past experience, alot of co-workers don’t trust you. It takes awhile for alot of so-workers to develop that trust & to get to know you as a person. Also, department managers are notorious for hiring an RT at the lowest salary they can, so if you did not negotiate your salary at hiring, you’ll probably be under paid. Also, when you change facilities, you are now the new comer & will probably get the worst schedule they can give you, & will be scheduled for many holidays (even though you’ve worked them at you previous place). Given all that, I did my job to my standards & satisfaction, rather than look for recognition from co-workers. If you stay in one place long enough, co-workers will get to know you as a person & the job will get less stressful.

Comment on Are you a Respiratory Therapist? Do you blog? by Kevin Johnson

Kevin Johnson — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 23:01:17 +0000

I write a blog cantspellpartywithoutrt.tumblr.com as well as contribute to Advance for Respiratory Care and Sleep Medicine as a "Finding my place in the Respiratory World" new/student voices. My twitter handle is @RRTKevinJohnson, which is connected to my blog. Follow me...very interested in communicating and connecting with fellow RTs!

Comment on Are you a Respiratory Therapist? Do you blog? by Samuel Garcia RTS

Samuel Garcia RTS — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:32:18 +0000

I am a student who is currently attending Pima Medical Institute. I am in my 2nd clinical rotation (of 3) and have to say i love the career already. I decided to fall into the profession because my son and wife have asthma and whenever i was in the ED the RT was always there and comforting. Thats what i want to do for others. My only concern is the hiring situation here in San Diego. There is a shortage of jobs and I am told I will have to move for work. I am currently doing my clinical rotation at Scripps La Jolla and have to say i would love to work there.

Comment on Are you a Respiratory Therapist? Do you blog? by Louis Jimenez RRT

Louis Jimenez RRT — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:56:38 +0000

I am not sure what is going on these days. It seems that in the medical profession overall there is a lot of discontent. I was teaching right up until November 2011, they wanted me to teach full time and I decided that I don’t want to work full time anymore, I was happy doing 1 day a week. So the teaching job came to an end 2 months ago. I am currently running my business, however I do miss working in the hospital and teaching.

I would work a perdiem shift here and there, but in all honesty, I don’t work Fridays, I don’t work weekends, and I don’t work any more holidays, so my prospects are non-existent, and that’s fine. Having my own schedule, and calling the shots is where I always wanted to be, and I am here now.

I still love my profession. My experience in RT was always positive overall. Sure there was the occasional discontent, but these had nothing to do with Respiratory, these were more about scheduling, and being tied down. I have always managed to separate the content of respiratory care and scheduling. I had fun working, learned a lot, and was able to do a lot of good things for people. Respiratory is a fascinating field, you just have to get into it. If the interest level is not there, then it won’t work out for you, however this is true for all professions.

Comment on Are you a Respiratory Therapist? Do you blog? by Lewis

Lewis — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:55:05 +0000

If you are new to the Field, lack of respect is just around the corner, thats reality. I have been in Respiratory for 20 years, my Hospital Heroes are Respiratory Therapist, the good ones, not the lazy ones that will do any and everything to get out of doing treatments, but rather the ones that will do any and everything to get the treatments done. There are a lot of Respiratory Therapist in the field, but I only have meet a few that really stand out as true Professionals in the sense that they really care what happens to their Patients and care what impression that they are leaving the Nurses and Doctors about Respiratory Therapist. If you have been a Respiratory Therapist, i’m sure that you know some bums, the warm bodies that always have a reasons for not doing their treatments, when you have more patients than they have, but somehow you managed to give every treatment that was ordered for your Patients. Why are they still around? They are Friends with the Supervisor or Director. This is one reason that they don’t respect us, they don’t know what brand of Respiratory Therapist you are, the warm body or the Professional. Respiratory Therapist are spread out, and for the most part, unsupervised. Some people, no matter the age, need someone to watch them, to make sure that they are going to do those treatments. Get rid of the Warm Bodies, replace them with comitted Professional Respiratory Therapist, watch the level of respect rise and rise. A Respiratory Therapist thats only assigned to the ICU, Nicu or Picu are well recieved, because they have formed Prosessional relationships with the Doctors, Nurses, Neonatal Nurse Practitioners, and only leave the unit to go home, not to goof off. Respect, for Respiratory Therapy is in our hands, because we know our profession better than the Nurses, but we have to be there to prove it, by doing the treatments when they are due, not hiding in the Respiratory Department complaining. If we all can work together as a team, things will change.

No, i’m not a Nurse, I know all to well about the lack of respect, I have worked with the same Respiratory Therapist that consistently goofs off and always get away with it, even the big Respiratory sin, PENCIL THERAPY.
PENCIL THEREPY gives us all a black eye.

Comment on Are you a Respiratory Therapist? Do you blog? by joe

joe — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:35:34 +0000

@Jill – I think the thing to do is to reach out to facilities in your area that do pulmonary rehab and tell them your background and ask what kind of things you’d need to do to take on a role like that.

Hopefully other folks will have ideas too! Thanks for posting.

Comment on Are you a Respiratory Therapist? Do you blog? by Jill

Jill — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:18:48 +0000

Would like to know how to get into pulmonary rehab.

I am a CRTT who has been in the field for a long time but not actually worked for 10 years due to burn out!! I stayed in the medical field in various capacities. I am thinking on becoming a personal trainer and working with COPDers to continue their pulmonary exercises. Any ideas please help.

Thanks, Jill

Comment on Are you a Respiratory Therapist? Do you blog? by chris

chris — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:02:00 +0000

Just a thought and this comes from someone who graduated with their degree 2 years ago. Please stop complaining about how the job is shit. I have been out of school for 2 years now in Alabama and have yet to even find a job in respiratory. Be proud you at least have a way to pay your bills. If I didn’t have an extremely understanding wife I’d be up creek. Yea I can agree the field is shit. The reason for it is because none of you veterans have advocated in the past 40 years or so to have nurses to STOP DOING OUR JOBS!! In 2 years I can’t even get a job doing labor work because as soon as they see my degree they think I’m only looking for temporary work. The only job I’ve been able to find is in a nursing home watching ignorant nurses give 30 min. single dose breathing treatments because they’re so stupid they don’t even know that their so called “neb machines” don’t put out the proper flow. So for those of you who are employed be proud you have income, for those who left the field and went onto something else successfully AMEN TO YOU!!

Comment on Are you a Respiratory Therapist? Do you blog? by Jason

Jason — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 07:08:17 +0000

Robert,

Please come back to the blog. I miss reading your “truths” and also your putting these sunshine and daisy folks in their place. You have a following here….

Comment on Are you a Respiratory Therapist? Do you blog? by kart

kart — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 03:15:57 +0000

Hey all. I love the back and forth between the burnt out and the still burning strong. I am one of the lucky ones who can honestly say that I enjoy coming to work.

Unlike a post I read wayyyy up top, I didn’t go the mail in degree and got my BS in Respiratory Care. While specific, it opened the door to management and within 3 years I was a coordinator. Now, working on my masters I am set up to be the next director. And while some may try to poo poo on the RT directors, our direct has some pretty nice sway in the organization.

Being the most fiscally productive in the ministry, we are the poster-boys of success. We went from being the worst productive to number 1; untouchable. As a result of that, we now have multiple departments under us (yes under us) including: sleep lab, cardiac imaging, neurodiagnostic services(TCD, and more.

Any job is what you make of it. If you want to be a neb monkey, be prepared to be phased out in the next 4-5 years. If you want to be a specialist, do it. Step up and take the next position, take the test, do the extra work and study for advancement. Don’t go online and complain about how the job is thankless when the job you do is pointless.

The way I see it is if your job can be replicated by simple machines, be prepared to be replaced soon by those machine. Bring the “Therapist” back to “Respiratory Therapist”.

/off soapbox.