Hot weather and peak flow meters?  It must be another summer at asthma camp! Congrats to Kristi Hack, a recent respiratory graduate, for organizing this camp in Wyoming. ''It's really important they learn a little bit more about it so they can get out there, have fun and not feel different,'' Hack said. ''They may feel like they have to sit ...

I've been fortunate enough in my personal life to have never experienced a close relative or friend pass away, something which I thank God for. However, in this career, it's something that we unfortunately deal with all too often. Such is the case with the 97-year-old lady who came into the ER last night. She was feeling general weakness, and ...

Ok, you've REALLY had it with respiratory therapy?  Fine.  But before you give your entire family and your wallet a stroke, why not consider taking a hiatus from the field rather than give it up like it was a case of the measles? ''Hiatal Halftime'' needs to be carefully planned so you have somewhere to work once you resign.  You ...

Yes, May has come and gone and so is our first run (for those of you who are on a fiscal year of October to September).  Don't let the stress kill you as remember that the budget is a guide and you can survive the process IF you plan your strategy!  Just follow the rules: Don't paint your self into a corner.  The finance ...

The other day I received an urgent phone call that my father was undergoing emergency surgery.  At 80 years old and in very poor health, he suffers from dementia and is very hard of hearing. I took the next flight out and spent the next 72 hours camped out at his bedside and was a ''family'' member.  Actually, as the only son, I ...

 You may find that you're not making enough money as a ''therapist'' in your particular job setting.  If you've checked the median pay scale at similar settings in your area, a setting change might be in order.  I've written a number of times about this topic for Advance, and it bears repeating again and again.  It also beats ...

In all my years of interviewing this has been my favorite question, ''why did you go into respiratory care?''  The answers have been quite interesting too say the least.  They also tell a lot about the person.  Kind of reminds me of Forrest Gump's momma talking about the shoes people wear, tells them were they have been and what ...

Throughout your practice in respiratory care, you meet many different people. It's inevitable, for better or worse, it's something we all realize from our very first patient if not sooner. As I'm sure some more experienced therapists can attest to, eventually there will be a patient that affects the way you work; someone that weighs heavy on the ...

President John F. Kennedy's statement ''Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country'' still resonates today.  It asked US citizens to look outside of themselves to fulfill your needs and help others.  There's something to that when it comes to hunting down a raise. Raise ...

Becoming the therapist I want to be often seems like a long impossible road. So I try not to focus on the road or the finish per se; I focus on the small baby steps that are taken that are so important in making me more independent and separating me from that ''new grad student'' mentality. Baby steps, like the first successful unsupervised blood ...