Career profile Respiratory Therapist

Table of Contents

• What does a Respiratory Therapist do?
• What is a typical salary for a Respiratory Therapist?
• What personality traits are common among Respiratory Therapists?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Respiratory Therapists need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does a Respiratory Therapist do?

Respiratory Therapists assess, treat, and care for patients with breathing disorders.

In addition, Respiratory Therapists

• assume primary responsibility for all respiratory care modalities, including the supervision of respiratory therapy technicians,
• initiate and conduct therapeutic procedures; maintain patient records; and select, assemble, check, and operate equipment.

What kind of tasks does a Respiratory Therapist perform regularly?

Respiratory Therapists are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

• Provide emergency care, such as artificial respiration, external cardiac massage, or assistance with cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
• Monitor patient's physiological responses to therapy, such as vital signs, arterial blood gases, or blood chemistry changes, and consult with physician if adverse reactions occur.
• Work as part of a team of demonstrators to accommodate large crowds.
• Maintain charts that contain patients' pertinent identification and therapy information.
• Set up and operate devices, such as mechanical ventilators, therapeutic gas administration apparatus, environmental control systems, or aerosol generators, following specified parameters of treatment.
• Read prescription, measure arterial blood gases, and review patient information to assess patient condition.
• Relay blood analysis results to a physician.
• Inspect, clean, test, and maintain respiratory therapy equipment to ensure equipment is functioning safely and efficiently, ordering repairs when necessary.
• Explain treatment procedures to patients to gain cooperation and allay fears.
• Make emergency visits to resolve equipment problems.
• Determine requirements for treatment, such as type, method and duration of therapy, precautions to be taken, or medication and dosages, compatible with physicians' orders.
• Enforce safety rules and ensure careful adherence to physicians' orders.
• Educate patients and their families about their conditions and teach appropriate disease management techniques, such as breathing exercises or the use of medications or respiratory equipment.
• Perform bronchopulmonary drainage and assist or instruct patients in performance of breathing exercises.
• Conduct tests, such as electrocardiograms (EKGs), stress testing, or lung capacity tests, to evaluate patients' cardiopulmonary functions.
• Perform pulmonary function and adjust equipment to obtain optimum results in therapy.
• Use a variety of testing techniques to assist doctors in cardiac or pulmonary research or to diagnose disorders.
• Demonstrate respiratory care procedures to trainees or other healthcare personnel.
• Transport patients to the hospital or within the hospital.
• Teach, train, supervise, or use the assistance of students, respiratory therapy technicians, or assistants.

The above responsibilities are specific to Respiratory Therapists. More generally, Respiratory Therapists are involved in several broader types of activities:

What is a Respiratory Therapist salary?

What personality traits are common among Respiratory Therapists?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as a Respiratory Therapist are usually higher in their Social, Investigative, and Realistic interests.

Respiratory Therapists typically have very strong Social interests. Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Also, Respiratory Therapists typically have strong Investigative interests. Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

Lastly, Respiratory Therapists typically have moderate Realistic interests. Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as a Respiratory Therapist tend to value Relationships, Support, and Recognition.

Most importantly, Respiratory Therapists very strongly value Relationships. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment.

Second, Respiratory Therapists strongly value Support. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer supportive management that stands behind employees.

Lastly, Respiratory Therapists moderately value Recognition. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer advancement, potential for leadership, and are often considered prestigious.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Respiratory Therapists must consistently demonstrate qualities such as cooperation, concern for others, and dependability.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Respiratory Therapists, ranked by importance:

What education and training do Respiratory Therapists need?

Respiratory Therapists often have training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Respiratory Therapists usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with this occupation.

Educational degrees among Respiratory Therapists

• 0.8% did not complete high school or secondary school
• 2.7% completed high school or secondary school
• 10.5% completed some college coursework
• 54.9% earned a Associate's degree
• 25.6% earned a Bachelor's degree
• 4.4% earned a Master's degree
• 1.2% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Respiratory Therapists

Important Abilities needed by Respiratory Therapists

Respiratory Therapists must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Respiratory Therapists need abilities such as oral expression, problem sensitivity, and inductive reasoning in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Respiratory Therapists, ranked by their relative importance.

Critical Skills needed by Respiratory Therapists

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Respiratory Therapists frequently use skills like active listening, critical thinking, and monitoring to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Respiratory Therapists, ranked by their relative importance.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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