Respiratory therapist
A clinician auscultating the chest of a pediatric patient.
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Nursing, Medicine, Allied Health |
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A respiratory therapist is a specialized healthcare practitioner trained in pulmonary medicine in order to work therapeutically with people suffering from pulmonary disease, who has graduated from a university and passed a national board certifying examination. Respiratory therapists work most often in intensive care and operating rooms, but are also found in outpatient clinics and home-health environments.
Respiratory therapists are specialists and educators in cardiology and pulmonology. Respiratory therapists are clinicians trained in advanced airway management; establishing and maintaining the airway during management of trauma, intensive care, and may administer anaesthesia for surgery or conscious sedation.
Respiratory therapists initiate and manage life support for people in intensive care units and emergency departments, stabilizing, treating and managing pre-hospital and hospital-to-hospital patient transport by air or ground ambulance.
In the outpatient setting Respiratory Therapists work as educators in asthma clinics, ancillary clinical staff in pediatric clinics, and sleep-disorder diagnosticians in sleep-clinics. They also serve as clinical providers in cardiology clinics and cath-labs.
Respiratory therapists educate, diagnose, and treat people who are suffering from heart and lung problems. Specialized in both cardiac and pulmonary care, Respiratory Therapists often collaborate with specialists in pulmonology and anaesthesia in various aspects of clinical care of patients. Respiratory therapists provide a vital role in both medicine and nursing. A vital role in ICU is the initiation and maintenance of mechanical ventilation and the care of artificial airways.
Respiratory therapists are also primary clinicians in conducting tests to measure lung function and teaching people to manage asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder among other cardiac and lung functions.
Internationally, Respiratory Therapists that provide lung function testing are termed respiratory scientists, but in North America, they may be a Respiratory Therapist or may also be a certified pulmonary function technician in the United States.
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Wikipedia