Respiratory therapists are generally hard at work in the trenches when it comes time to assess the condition of asthmatics in the ER. But there may be more to the task of treating the patient than simply listening to chest sounds and heart rate, evaluating the patient's color, and administering MDIs or nebulizer treatments. In the future, ...

Respiratory Care Week is the time of year when we get honored for all we contribute to the world of health care. In our pediatric hospital, we tend to have a fun week. From a brownie sundae night, to a smoothie pitch-in, and a Hawaiian themed luau, we celebrated the week in style last year. On Monday, we had a chili cook-off that rivals those in ...

Health care is expected to remain a bright spot in the current recessionary job market, according to several key indicators. This does not seem to mean, however, everything is rosy in health care overall today. Recession has done some serious damage to the industry, causing patients to put off  treatments leading to layoffs of staff in some ...

We all know that our profession can and is very stressful at times.  This Respiratory Care Week, you might want to give your staff the Respiratory Care Survival Kit: RESPIRATORY CARE SURVIVAL KIT 1 Lifesaver - to thank you for the lives you save every day 1 Paper clip - to help you hold things together 1 Tootsie roll - to remind you of ...

What will the Respiratory Therapy profession be like in 2025?  My crystal ball is broken, so your guess is as good as mine.  A colleague of mine made these predictions: In the year 2025: Small volume nebs will no longer be given due to increased risk of infection from air-born diseases. DPI takes the lead with MDI ...

As the leaves turn and the weather gets chilly, in Peds we're usually gearing up for RSV season. This year, RSV is sitting on the back burner as we instead gear up for flu season, which promises to be much worse than RSV. There's also a new threat, H1N1, which has people in a tizzy. Here in Indianapolis, our health department has placed strict ...

 Respiratory therapists have their work cut out for them trying to convince their young asthma patients to take their prescribed asthma medications as ordered by the doctor. Compliance rates are dismal at less than a third of the patients overall. If ethnic factors are considered, white children have the best showing, with a third using ...

Have you ever been asked, ''What is a Respiratory Care Practitioner?''  Here is a little ditty I put together a decade or two ago based on some old, very old advertisements.  You might like to share it with your staff during your week of celebration. Respiratory Care Practitioners are like Ford - they have better ideas. Respiratory ...

The first edition of ''The Respiratory Resolution'' comes from a recently accepted RT student named Keshia. She asked: I was recently accepted into the RT program and very excited, however, I am very nervous about the math portion.  Do you have any suggestion about studying, time management, anything that would be helpful? Congrats ...

Therapists looking for discussion topics for young asthma patients and their parents might look at the results of a study published in the September edition of Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Could atmospheric conditions play a part? That actually may be the case, according to Alan Baptist, MD, director of the University of Michigan ...