Respiratory Therapy

Respiratory Therapists

Significant Points

• Job opportunities should be very good.
• An associate degree is the minimum educational requirement, but a bachelor’s or master’s degree may be important for advancement.
• All States, except Alaska and Hawaii, require respiratory therapists to be licensed.
• Hospitals will account for the vast majority of job openings, but a growing number of openings will arise in other settings.

Respiratory therapists and respiratory therapy technicians—also known as respiratory care practitioners—evaluate, treat, and care for patients with breathing or other cardiopulmonary disorders. Practicing under the direction of a physician, respiratory therapists assume primary responsibility for all respiratory care therapeutic treatments and diagnostic procedures, including the supervision of respiratory therapy technicians. Respiratory therapy technicians follow specific, well-defined respiratory care procedures under the direction of respiratory therapists and physicians.

In clinical practice, many of the daily duties of therapists and technicians overlap. However, therapists generally have greater responsibility than technicians. For example, respiratory therapists consult with physicians and other health care staff to help develop and modify patient care plans. Respiratory therapists also are more likely to provide complex therapy requiring considerable independent judgment, such as caring for patients on life support in intensive-care units of hospitals.

www.bls.gov