Respiratory Career Blog

Respiratory Therapist

A respiratory therapist (RT) is a healthcare worker who treats people with breathing or cardiopulmonary problems. Among their patients are premature infants whose lungs are underdeveloped and children and adults who have lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis, asthma and COPD. After interviewing and examining a patient, and upon consultation with a physician, he or she will develop a treatment plan.

This plan may include removing mucus from a patient's lungs or inserting a ventilation tube into the patient's windpipe and connecting it to a machine that delivers oxygen. A respiratory therapist also delivers emergency care to heart attack and drowning victims or to people in shock. Some RTs work in home care.

In this capacity, one sets up ventilators and other life support equipment and instructs caretakers in their use.

Employment Facts

Respiratory therapists held about 113,000 jobs in 2010. Most work in respiratory care, anesthesiology or pulmonary medicine departments of hospitals. Others work in nursing care facilities. Some are employed by home health care agencies.

Educational Requirements

One must have, at least, an associate degree to work as a respiratory therapist. Most programs that train people to work in this field offer bachelor's degrees as well and often employers favor job candidates who have graduated from those programs. Respiratory therapy programs can be found at colleges, medical schools, vocational schools, and in the Armed Forces.

Respiratory Disease Blog

Respiratory disease is a medical term that encompasses pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange possible in higher organisms, and includes conditions of the upper respiratory tract,trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, alveoli, pleura and pleural cavity, and the nerves and muscles of breathing. Respiratory diseases range from mild and self-limiting, such as the common cold, to life-threatening entities like bacterial pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, and lung cancer.The study of respiratory disease is known as pulmonology. A doctor who specializes in respiratory disease is known as a pulmonologist, a chest medicine specialist, a respiratory medicine specialist, a respirologist or a thoracic medicine specialist.
Inflammatory lung disease are characterized by a high neutrophil count, for example, asthma, cystic fibrosis, emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder or acute respiratory distress syndrome. Asthma is one of the deadly lung diseases. Asthma is a disease that infects the airways leading to the loss of the control over the smooth muscles that line the bronchi and bronchioles. When exposed to an irritant such as dust or smoke, the smooth muscles that line airways of the asthmatic patient start to contract faster and stronger leading to difficulty breathing.
Restrictive lung diseases are a category of respiratory disease characterized by a loss of lung compliance, causing incomplete lung expansion and increased lung stiffness, such as infants with respiratory distress syndrome.
Respiratory tract infections can affect any part of the respiratory system. They are traditionally divided into upper respiratory tract infections and lower respiratory tract infections.
Upper Respiratory tract infection is the most common upper respiratory tract infection is pneumonia, an infection of the lungs which is usually caused by bacteria, particularly "Streptococcus pneumoniae" in Western countries. Worldwide, tuberculosis is an important cause of pneumonia. Other pathogens such as viruses and fungi can cause pneumonia for example severe acute respiratory syndrome and pneumocystis pneumonia. A pneumonia may develop complications such as a lung abscess, a round cavity in the lung caused by the infection, or may spread to the pleural cavity.

Poor oral care may be a contributing factor to lower respiratory disease. New research suggests bacteria from gum disease travel through airways and into the lungs.