How to become Respiratory Therapist in 2024

Respiratory Therapist Assess, treat, and care for patients with breathing disorders. Assume primary responsibility for all respiratory care modalities, including the supervision of respiratory therapy technicians. Initiate and conduct therapeutic procedures; maintain patient records; and select, assemble, check, and operate equipment.

Respiratory Therapist is Also Know as

In different settings, Respiratory Therapist is titled as

  • Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Respiratory Therapist
  • Certified Respiratory Therapist (CRT)
  • Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT)
  • Respiratory Care Practitioner (RCP)
  • Respiratory Therapist (RT)
  • Staff Respiratory Therapist
  • Staff Therapist

Education and Training of Respiratory Therapist

Respiratory Therapist is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Respiratory Therapist

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Respiratory Therapist

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Respiratory Therapist

Training Required for Respiratory Therapist

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Respiratory Therapist in different industries are

What Do Respiratory Therapist do?

  • Set up and operate devices, such as mechanical ventilators, therapeutic gas administration apparatus, environmental control systems, or aerosol generators, following specified parameters of treatment.
  • Provide emergency care, such as artificial respiration, external cardiac massage, or assistance with cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
  • Determine requirements for treatment, such as type, method and duration of therapy, precautions to be taken, or medication and dosages, compatible with physicians' orders.
  • Monitor patient's physiological responses to therapy, such as vital signs, arterial blood gases, or blood chemistry changes, and consult with physician if adverse reactions occur.
  • Read prescription, measure arterial blood gases, and review patient information to assess patient condition.
  • Enforce safety rules and ensure careful adherence to physicians' orders.
  • Maintain charts that contain patients' pertinent identification and therapy information.
  • Inspect, clean, test, and maintain respiratory therapy equipment to ensure equipment is functioning safely and efficiently, ordering repairs when necessary.
  • Educate patients and their families about their conditions and teach appropriate disease management techniques, such as breathing exercises or the use of medications or respiratory equipment.
  • Explain treatment procedures to patients to gain cooperation and allay fears.
  • Relay blood analysis results to a physician.
  • Perform pulmonary function and adjust equipment to obtain optimum results in therapy.
  • Perform bronchopulmonary drainage and assist or instruct patients in performance of breathing exercises.
  • Demonstrate respiratory care procedures to trainees or other healthcare personnel.
  • Teach, train, supervise, or use the assistance of students, respiratory therapy technicians, or assistants.
  • Use a variety of testing techniques to assist doctors in cardiac or pulmonary research or to diagnose disorders.
  • Make emergency visits to resolve equipment problems.
  • Conduct tests, such as electrocardiograms (EKGs), stress testing, or lung capacity tests, to evaluate patients' cardiopulmonary functions.
  • Work as part of a team of physicians, nurses, or other healthcare professionals to manage patient care by assisting with medical procedures or related duties.
  • Transport patients to the hospital or within the hospital.
  • Perform endotracheal intubation to maintain open airways for patients who are unable to breathe on their own.
  • Monitor cardiac patients, using electrocardiography devices, such as a holter monitor.

Qualities of Good Respiratory Therapist

  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.

Tools Used by Respiratory Therapist

  • Aerosol masks
  • Air compressors
  • Ambu bags
  • Apnea monitors
  • Bedside spirometers
  • Bilevel positive airway pressure BiPAP ventilators
  • Blood collection syringes
  • Blood gas kits
  • Blood gas machines
  • Bronchoscopes
  • Cannulas
  • Capillary catheters
  • Cell savers
  • Christmas tree adapters
  • Continuous positive airway pressure CPAP ventilators
  • Electrocardiography EKG units
  • Electronic blood pressure equipment
  • Endotracheal ET tubes
  • Evacuated blood collection tubes
  • Hemodynamic monitors
  • High-frequency ventilators
  • Humidifiers
  • Incentive spirometers
  • Indirect calorimeters
  • Infant incubators
  • Internal positive pressure breathing IPPB machines
  • Intra-aortic balloon pumps IABP
  • Manometers
  • Manual blood pressure equipment
  • Mechanical stethoscopes
  • Medical aerosol tents
  • Medical oxygen masks
  • Medical suction equipment
  • Nasal airways
  • Nebulizers
  • Negative pressure ventilators
  • Notebook computers
  • Oral airways
  • Oxygen concentrators
  • Oxygen flowmeters
  • Oxygen hoods
  • Oxygen masks
  • Oxygen monitors
  • Oxygen regulators
  • Oxygen tanks
  • Oxygen tents
  • Percussors
  • Personal computers
  • Personal digital assistants PDA
  • Portable flat computers
  • Pulmonary function testing PFT equipment
  • Pulse oximeters
  • Saturation of oxygen SaO2 monitors
  • Small particle aerosol generators
  • Sputum traps
  • Surgical suits
  • Therapeutic treadmill exercisers
  • Tourniquets
  • Tracheostomy tubes
  • Tracheotomy masks
  • Volume ventilators
  • Wright's spirometers

Technology Skills required for Respiratory Therapist

  • Calendar and scheduling software
  • Database software
  • eClinicalWorks EHR software
  • Electronic medical record EMR software
  • HMS
  • MEDITECH software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word