About a month ago, I got an e-mail from a student who was doing some research on different healthcare-related careers. Originally she had wanted to do nursing, but for a variety of reasons she opted to do some research on other opportunities. As part of that she e-mailed me some questions. They were thoughtful and they seemed to cover the bases pretty well, so I asked her if I could turn them into content here and she said sure. So, time now for…
Q&A With A Real Respiratory Therapist!
Q: How do you like your job as a respiratory therapist?
A: Overall, I like my job. Of course there are ups and downs like anything else. Some things I do like about the job: it’s challenging and I get to see a lot of interesting things. I like the science of breathing and the way that it impacts the body so immediately and so importantly. On those occasions when I do feel like I helped someone, it feels really good. Helping with breathing is a very gratifying thing to do.
On the other side of the coin, a lot of what we do seems to me to be futile. In many cases we’re simply buying time and wasting money to treat someone who is never, ever going to get better. Much of the time decisions are being made by people who are for one reason or another ignorant of what they are asking us to do and the end result is that we spend a huge amount of time and energy doing things that simply prolong the inevitable by a few hours or days. Also a lot of physicians order a lot of useless breathing treatments simply because they’re out of other ideas. But all in all I do like my job a lot.
Q: Is your job physically and emotionally stressful?
A: Yes. Some days the job can be physically exhausting. I work as a Critical Care therapist, and so I spend my days in one of our ICUs or in the ER. Some days I spend 12 hours on my feet running from place to place and doing things; other days I get to spend more time relaxing.
There is also a lot of emotional stress in the job. We deal with people who are critically ill and who are toeing the line between life and death. Much to my surprise I often find it more emotionally stressful to keep people alive than to let them die, simply because we often wind up prolonging death rather than saving lives. Mostly it’s not too bad to deal with but you’ll need an outlet, like exercise or some sort of hobby.
Q: Do you feel satisfied/happy with your profession that you will eventually continue your career until the day you turn 62 and retire as a respiratory therapist?
A: I don’t know if I will do this forever, although it’s not a bad job to make a career of and many RTs are successful and deeply involved in the science and practice of RT for their entire working lives. Personally? I may someday drift to an administrative position or to some other field, but for the forseeable future this is what I’ll be doing.
Q: Do you have any tips or suggestions that will help me become successful in the profession?
A: First and foremost, learn the science behind the practice! A lot of people dislike the learning about the physics and physiology behind what we do, but a firm knowledge of it is really important in applying your knowledge and understanding why you do the things you do.
Also: know when to admit that you don’t know what you’re doing. Bluffing or pretending or trying to do things you’re uncomfortable with will always make it worse and could end up affecting someone’s life in a negative way.
Q: How is the pay? Is your salary enough for you to live comfortably and take care of bills?
A: The pay varies widely between places and positions. I was a “travel RT” for some time and made excellent money with great benefits. Working as a “staff” RT I’ve found the pay to be decent but behind that of nursing. When I worked in the northeast, the pay was much better than where I’m working now by an enormous factor. Right now it’s a living, but the pay does depend on the region you’re in and the hospital you’re at. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you really want, but don’t be surprised or let down when HR and the RT manager laugh in your face and hand you the bag of peanuts that is your first week’s pay. That’s almost exactly what happened with my current position, but geographical necessity dictates that I stay here until an opportunity arises to return to the higher-paying lands of the northeast.
This concludes our first Q&A With A Real Respiratory Therapist session. If you have a question you’d like to ask me, feel free to fire an e-mail to anonymoustherapist at gmail dot com and I’ll try and get back to you. Thanks to KV for the questions in this session.
Awesome! Thanks for the great info!
Also, I changed my URL.
[...] nurses, and other healthcare professionals are always going to be needed. In the article “Career Advice: Q&A with a Real Respiratory Therapist,” a professional Respiratory Therapist posts answers to a series of questions asked by someone [...]