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Respiratory care: a rising medical career
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Living without food and water for a few days is feasible, but being deprived of air for more than a few minutes is not.
Respiratory care is an allied health specialty concerned with the treatment, management, control and care of a patient’s breathing.
A respiratory care practitioner is a specialist who uses therapeutic and evaluation techniques in respiratory care.
National Respiratory Care Week is an annual event in which RCPs are recognized for their role in lung health.
While this profession is expanding, it is not as well known as other health care professions.
Jeff Anderson, director of Clinical Education at Boise State University, believes National Respiratory Care Week had a good turnout this year, considering how low-profile the profession is on campus.
It might be a shock to know BSU has one of the highest ranked respiratory care programs in the nation. In 2005, six BSU students were recognized with the Respironics Award for research in mechanical ventilation. Normally this award is given to experienced researchers with years of RC background. The Department of Respiratory Care is gaining international acclaim though Chairman Lonny Ashworth’s work on the International Respiratory Care Committee of the American Association for Respiratory Care. The department also boasts having a history of international students from countries such as Japan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The department’s mission is to provide excellent Respiratory Care education though a combination of classroom and lab instruction and instruction in the local hospitals in order to provide students with a well-rounded knowledge of respiratory therapy.
According to BSU junior Tate Hansen, the Respiratory Care Department does an excellent job of fulfilling the
mission.
“You get clinical experience right off the bat,” Hansen said. “To me what makes the program so great is the instructors. We have tremendous instructors and they are fully committed. They are 110 percent dedicated in making us successful and making sure that we can do our job when it comes to it.”
The department is comprised of five full-time and five part-time faculty members. Each has a different area of expertise, including neonatal/pediatrics, sleep medicine, trauma/adult critical care and pulmonary diagnostics.
Boise Valley is also privileged to have outstanding physicians who are generous in sharing their knowledge of pulmonary disease and treatment.
“It’s a really great program and people just don’t know about it,” Anderson said.
Respiratory care provides an area of expertise instead of a wide range of
information.
Given the small size of the program, it gives students great opportunities to work closely with professors and receive a substantial amount of attention and
instruction.
Anderson pointed out that respiratory care can be an option for those seeking to take care of people that don’t make it into the nursing program.
Respiratory care is a profession in high demand anywhere in the nation as well as in foreign countries.
The respiratory care program has limited enrolment and usually gets approximately 50 applicants.
The department is currently accepting 24 students. During Hansen’s short time in the program he has had some heart-warming experiences helping patients get well.
He always looks forward to returning to the hospital for clinical on Thursdays to see how his patients from Tuesday are doing.
He understands that the rewards of working in health care aren’t all found in a person’s
pocketbook.
SONIA TREVIZO
News Writer
