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Contact Information Joette F. Stokes Office Manager School of Allied Health Dept of Respiratory Therapy Medical College of Georgia Augusta, Georgia 30912-0850 706-721-3554 e-mail: jstokes@mcg.edu |
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The Role of The Respiratory Care Practitioner
There are more than 100,000 respiratory care practitioners in the United States. They are members of the health care team that provide respiratory care for patients with heart and lung disorders. Typically, respiratory care practitioners are a vital part of the hospital's lifesaving response team that answers patient emergencies.
While most respiratory care practitioners work in hospitals, an increasing number of them have branched out into alternate care settings, such as nursing homes, physicians' offices, home health agencies, specialized care hospitals, medical equipment supply companies, and patients' homes.
Respiratory care practitioners perform procedures that are both diagnostic and
therapeutic.
Some of these activities include:
Diagnosis
- Obtaining and analyzing sputum and breath specimens. They also take blood specimens and analyze them to determine levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and other gases.
- Interpreting the data obtained from these specimens.
- Measuring the capacity of a patient's lungs to determine if there is impaired function.
- Performing stress tests and other studies of the cardiopulmonary system.
- Studying disorders of people with disruptive sleep patterns.
Treatment
- Operating and maintaining various types of highly sophisticated equipment to administer oxygen or to assist with breathing.
- Employing mechanical ventilation for treating patients who cannot breathe adequately on their own.
- Monitoring and managing therapy that will help a patient recover lung function.
- Administering medications in aerosol form to help alleviate breathing problems and to help prevent respiratory infections.
- Monitoring equipment and patient responses to therapy.
- Conducting rehabilitation activities, such as low-impact aerobic exercise classes, to help patients who suffer from chronic lung problems.
- Maintaining a patient's artificial airway, one that may be in place to help the patient who can't breathe through normal means.
- Conducting smoking cessation programs for both hospital patients and others in the community who want to kick the tobacco habit.
Education and Training
Students must take courses in physics, mathematics, microbiology, anatomy and physiology, chemistry, and biology.
The Professional Association
A number of respiratory care practitioners are members of their national organization, the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC). The AARC has more than 37,000 members in 50 state chapters and three international ones.
The Association is primarily responsible for developing educational opportunities for its members and ensuring that the standards of care and practice in the profession are developed and maintained. One ongoing project of the Association is to develop and upgrade written clinical practice guidelines, or standards, for the respiratory care profession as well as for use by government agencies and other health groups. In addition, the AARC develops materials that members can use in their community health promotion and disease prevention activities.
The AARC is involved in monitoring legislation in Washington that has an impact on health care in this nation, such as issues related to Medicare, smoking, or hiring practices of health care workers.
The Outlook
The need for respiratory care professionals is expected to grow in the coming years due to the large increase in the elderly population; the impact of environmental problems that have already contributed to the yearly rise in number of reported asthma cases, and technological advances in the treatment of heart attack, cancer, and accident victims, as well as premature babies.
