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• Respiratory Care
• respiratory therapy licensure
• Safety

Why Can't We Be Friends?
May 17, 2013 8:09 AM by Kevin Johnson

I suppose it was bound to happen. You can't go through your life being beloved by everyone you meet. Sometimes, for reasons difficult to understand, or for no particular reason at all, people just don't like you. I decided to pick up the weekend shift Read More...

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Plotting a Course for an Evolving Career
May 10, 2013 9:17 AM by Kevin Johnson

It has been almost two years now since I graduated school and became a respiratory therapist. Which means it has been almost two years since I have studied something with the goal of testing towards an advancement in my education/career/life. It seems Read More...

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How to Handle a Smoker
May 3, 2013 9:05 AM by Kevin Johnson

You know sometimes I feel sorry for smokers. I had this guy come in the other day to see the pulmonologist and before I did his PFT I asked him if he smokes. He hung his head in shame and muttered a bit while shaking his head, "Yeah ... dang it ... I've Read More...

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The Shakes
April 5, 2013 7:46 AM by Kevin Johnson

When I am nervous my hands shake. I try to hide it, and have learned to steady myself down to a light tremor, but I just can't shake the shakes. I pride myself on remaining calm in a high-pressure situation: a code, a bad baby, etc., but my hands indicate Read More...

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A Quality Stethoscope
March 21, 2013 7:43 AM by Kevin Johnson

A doc told me once, "Every good RT always has a stethoscope, a pulse ox and a Christmas tree on them at all times." Now I don't subscribe to the Christmas tree theory; there are Christmas trees on nearly every flow meter in our hospital and I prefer to Read More...

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Respiratory Career Takes Flight, Literally
March 15, 2013 8:40 AM by Kevin Johnson

So there I was finishing up the last few treatments of an otherwise un-notable Friday shift when I get a stat call to a patient room where a flight crew is trying to set up their bipap on a patient who is to be transferred to another facility for respiratory Read More...

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Rural Respiratory Therapy
February 8, 2013 9:06 AM by Kevin Johnson

I work in a rural setting: a 25-bed, critical care access hospital that serves a population of between 5,000-6,000 people. We don't have an ICU, we have a SCU -- Special Care Unit -- where we would put a patient who is considered ICU status. We can't Read More...

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Bad Mood on the Job
December 26, 2012 4:07 PM by Kevin Johnson

On Monday I had just returned back to work from a three-day weekend that was much needed. The prior Thursday was the end of a run of eight days in a row, a schedule that was partly my fault and partly the fault of holiday circumstances that left me the Read More...

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Dumb Questions
November 21, 2012 2:30 PM by Kevin Johnson

I know they say there is no such thing as a dumb question, but people can ask the dumbest questions when it comes to their health. It isn't uncommon for me to visit with a patient or a patient's family concerning their illness and come away shaking my Read More...

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How To Handle Co-Workers You Dislike
July 26, 2012 11:54 AM by Kevin Johnson

I would say I am a pretty easy-going guy who gets along with pretty much everyone I work with, but it is nearly impossible to like everyone on a personal level all the time. As a medical professional I sometimes find myself working side by side on a patient Read More...

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The Things We Do For Jobs
June 1, 2012 6:03 PM by Kevin Johnson

I left work a bit early the other day for a haircut. Back when I was in college/single/didn't give a crap, I'd let my hair grow really long and shaggy with little to no attempt made at style and when it got down past my eyes I would shave it. This cycle Read More...

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Jinxed? Maybe...
December 30, 2011 8:01 AM by Kevin Johnson

"I'm pretty sure I'll be off early tonight," I said to my wife, "not a whole lot on the floor ... should be home by six." In fact, I didn't get home until two in the morning ... one code and one stat C-section after uttering those 20 words sealed my fate. Read More...

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RT Evaluates the Known, the Unknown, and Beyond
December 23, 2011 7:41 AM by Brent Holland

I am now a year into my career and I sit and reflect upon my progress. When it comes to evaluating what I know at this point, I can't help but to hear the voice of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld... "There are known knowns; there are things Read More...

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Friendliness to Staff and Patients Has Big Payoff
December 16, 2011 9:19 AM by Veronica Rigler

As I began respiratory school with general medicine, I lost interest way faster than I expected. The whole time I kept thinking, when will I get to do the cool stuff? Then I had to move on to my clinicals in the ER and then the ICU, it was nothing but Read More...

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It's Time: One Credential for the Sake of Respiratory Care
November 25, 2011 8:09 AM by Brent Holland

I have heard a lot of "internet chatter" this week on the policies of the NBRC when it comes to the issue of credential renewal. I have followed the debate with great interest and have, on a couple of the forums, weighed in on the issue. At the heart Read More...

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