This month's poll concerned sexual allegations against health care workers. I asked ''What do you tell your therapists to consider when alone with a patient in a room, the ED, or elsewhere in the hospital, if they must do a procedure or test that could implicate them in a sexual harassment or sexual crime''? I had quite a few responses! It ...

The goal of a blog is to open lines of communication. Each month, I send an email to each state society president, as listed by the AARC. I keep the questions simple and promise to keep the responses anonymous.  I may identify a state, but that doesn't automatically mean that it was the state president who answered. Trust me, I get ...

Consider this: In 1929, U.S. health care costs were about $4 billion. By 2007, those costs were more than $2 trillion. Increased technologies, procedures, and specialized medicine led health care costs to skyrocket to the anticipated 20 percent of our GDP by 2015, compared to 5 percent earlier in the century. People pay to stay healthy. It's basic ...

We've all had them. Those patients or customers we would just as soon not have. I have always enjoyed taking care of my patients. Even on bad days, something good usually happens to make it worthwhile. Still, some people can really test us. A recent blog stated that there are basically four types: the bully, the tightwad, chicken little, and ...

With the new year in its infancy, it's time to think about what we do and how we do it. We have all worked for the supervisor content to sit in an office and watch everyone else work. I'm fortunate. I don't have one of those. My supervisor is out there on the floors with us, doing his share and sometimes more. We've also all worked with the ...

Respiratory therapists are some of the brightest, talented, selfless and caring people I know. They work long hours, receive less pay than others with our workload and education, and are grossly underappreciated. Although we are needed for so many things, we usually end up in a broom closet-sized office somewhere at the end of a hallway located ...

I don't like this time of year. I should, but I don't. The leaves are turning and falling, the night sky is brighter than in summer months, the air smells and feels cleaner and there's no reason to run that expensive air conditioner. Still, it's also the time of year that is hard on the majority of my friends, who happen to be my patients. The ...

Well, it's that time of year. It's time to look at inventory. Time to see what works and what doesn't; what's outdated and what's still OK. It's time to wonder why we ordered some things during the year, laugh at how our expectations were way too high on others, and make our wish lists for the next year. It's time to rearrange departments to the ...

We recently hired a new therapist. Nice lady, smart and will fit in well to her new surroundings. Coming at this time of year, we're aggressively training her to help us start a night shift. The problem is that we don't actually seem to have a plan to train her. She's young, with very little experience. She needs help, and learning how three of ...

National Respiratory Care Week is upon us. Does your department have a plan? Are you wearing T-shirts? Buttons? Having games for the other staff to play that might familiarize them with respiratory care? We need to be very visible. No one is going to celebrate us except us. If you're a director, maybe you should buy lunch for your staff or hold ...