On The Horizon: New Technology, Education & Pharmacology for Respiratory Therapy
Where will our profession of respiratory therapy be in 5 to 10 years? What will the educational requirements be at that time? I've been reading and attending meetings last winter and again this summer where the subject has been the future of respiratory therapy.
There seems to be many more questions than answers available at this time. However, there seems to be a general agreement that new therapies, new and more sophisticated equipment and new advances in pharmacology will require respiratory care practitioners to have no less then a bachelor's degree with master's and doctorate degrees on the horizon.
I find this very exciting and look forward to seeing what will transpire and develop in the next decade within our profession. Each day is a new adventure for me and I have the same feeling of excitement that I had as a young teenager. Each day becomes more exciting than the last.
Now is the time that we need to begin to prepare the next generation of respiratory care professionals by providing them with the education and tools they will need to provide the most appropriate and the best possible care for our patients.
Every day seems to bring forth new knowledge, new technology, new ways of caring for our patients, new therapies, new medications, new equipment, and new ways to help us do our job more efficiently and more effectively.
As a teenager, I never imagined that many of the things that I've witnessed would ever happen in my lifetime. I am doing things today that were unheard of just a decade or two ago. In fact, we are using equipment today that didn't exist 5 years ago as well as medications and procedures that have all been created within the last several years.
What will the next decade bring to our grasp? I don't know, but I sure hope I'm around to see what it is and to do things I haven't even imagined yet. Can you imagine what our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will witness and what an adventure they will experience? I hope I'm around to enjoy it with them.