Finding My Place In The Respiratory World : Personal Life

Plotting a Course for an Evolving Career

Kevin Johnson — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:17:00 GMT

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)

Slow Going

Kevin Johnson — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:55:00 GMT

My wife and I are going to have a baby in late August. My plan is to take a few weeks of PTO and stay home with the kiddo once my wife goes back to work. I figure by that time I should have more than enough PTO in the bank to take a nice little baby vacation...(read more)

Health of a Healthcare Worker

Kevin Johnson — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:26:00 GMT

I was rounding with a doc one time when he was breaking the news to a 96-year-old patient that she had heart failure. "No," the patient informed the doc, "I refuse to have heart failure..." I recently found out that I have type II diabetes. My vision...(read more)

Working for the Weekend

Kevin Johnson — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 00:47:00 GMT

As I sit here relaxing on a Friday night, a full weekend of work looming ahead of me, trying to collect my thoughts while not thinking too hard about how I am not really going to have a weekend to end this week, I am struck by a memory from my days as...(read more)

How To Handle Co-Workers You Dislike

Kevin Johnson — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 15:54:00 GMT

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)

Jinxed? Maybe...

Kevin Johnson — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:01:00 GMT

"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)

New RT Finds Herself with a Strange 'Dilemma'

Veronica Rigler — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:26:00 GMT

For the newly graduated ex-respiratory student "free time" is a bit of a new concept. I don't know about you, but I know I feel guilty every time I find myself sitting in the living room watching TV. I look on the calendar, check my phone's agenda, "Nope,...(read more)

During Respiratory Care Week: Counting the Personal Blessings of Being an RT

Kevin Johnson — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:32:00 GMT

In honor of Respiratory Care Week, I want to take some time and give thought to what being a respiratory therapist means to me. As I mentioned in the very first blog I ever wrote for ADVANCE , before I went to Respiratory school I was a guy with an English...(read more)

Raising a Stink about Perfume for RC Week

Veronica Rigler — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:22:00 GMT

As my first RC week as an RRT approaches, I sit and wonder what it is all about. For Nurses Week the hospital staff does everything they can to swoon over the nurses: They give them gifts, they order lunch out for the week, and there are raffles and balloons....(read more)

Overworked and Underslept

Kevin Johnson — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:41:00 GMT

Technically I was three minutes late ... I clocked in at 0803, but our time clock rounds to the nearest 15 minutes, so as far as the clock and my paycheck were concerned I was right on time. Don't think it was a big deal, I am usually 10 minutes early...(read more)

Volunteering as a Respiratory Therapist

Alissa Green — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:20:00 GMT

It's summer and all I can think about is school: finishing my summer clinicals, registering for fall classes, finding ways to pay for tuition, praying my clinical sites are nearby, figuring out a study schedule that lets me work (and occasionally sleep)....(read more)

Back to School, for a Degree in RT

Brent Holland — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:29:00 GMT

Today is my birthday. At the ripe old age of 37 I still am shocked every time I look upon my freshly framed college degree. (Since I chose the US Navy after graduating from high school, I got a late start in the arena of education.) Over the last year...(read more)

Remembrance of Smoker's Past

Kevin Johnson — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:01:00 GMT

I was a smoker. I took up smoking late, comparatively late that is, at age 21. One Christmas break I went to work with my uncle and one early morning while having a cup of before-the-sunrise coffee with my uncle, I bummed a smoke from him. It's not like...(read more)

Got It! Add RRT, RCP to My Name

Brent Holland — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:13:00 GMT

0600: TODAY, I make my stand and hit the H& R Block full force to retake the Written Registry and Clinical Sims that I failed by one point last month. I tell myself that today will be different. I tell myself that this time, someone WILL be at the...(read more)

An RT with Free Time? What's That?

Kevin Johnson — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:06:00 GMT

Well, all my boards have been passed. I am officially an RRT. Now I while I play the waiting game with the Kansas Board of Healing Arts over my state licensure I find myself with a big hole to fill, a little extra time on my hands that I am having trouble...(read more)