Allied Health Training: Resp Therapy

[kpasa]

I moved to Florida from Missouri with my Resp. Ther. credentials and while attending many seminars, the job market outside of Orlando is very good for RT. I highly recommend that you get your education from a comm. college. The level of training, clinicals and cost are superior than votech businesses that educate. HCC would be a good bet. I thoroughly enjoy my job as an RT. I have never dreaded going to work on any given day.
My experience in finding the right hospital was to walk the floors and units and when I met RTs, I would tell them I was an RN considering working there, and they would be more honest about their workloads, staff issues or their beefs with management. As much I love being an RT, I would never work at some hospitals for different reasons.

Good Luck BucFan.

[BucFan]

I currently work in the outpatient setting as a supervisor/provider - want to get away from supervising. Also, although I have training in psychiatric nursing, never has been interesting. I find substance abuse in the same category - but thanks for the recommendation. After I leave the military nursing, will consider all my options. Will want a job that I look forward to going to every day - income isn't really a factor, thankfully.

[BucFan]

Originally Posted by kpasa

I moved to Florida from Missouri with my Resp. Ther. credentials and while attending many seminars, the job market outside of Orlando is very good for RT. I highly recommend that you get your education from a comm. college. The level of training, clinicals and cost are superior than votech businesses that educate. HCC would be a good bet. I thoroughly enjoy my job as an RT. I have never dreaded going to work on any given day.
My experience in finding the right hospital was to walk the floors and units and when I met RTs, I would tell them I was an RN considering working there, and they would be more honest about their workloads, staff issues or their beefs with management. As much I love being an RT, I would never work at some hospitals for different reasons.

Good Luck BucFan.

Outstanding advice. Thanks.

[Tito Vaginelli]

I'm a therapist at the biggest hospital in Tampa. Florida is one of the worst paying states in the country for RT. The programs around here are not that good, I graduated from one of them and the people who run them are horrible. We had some good clinical instructors that made the biggest difference for my class. You will constantly work short staffed, having to cover not only the ICU but a floor or two as well. If there are a lot of vents(6 or more) in the unit maybe you get lucky and only have to cover one floor along with it. Starting pay is around $17.50-$19.00/hr. If you want to make any money in this area you have to be a nurse, i'm assuming you are not going to med school. I personally know an ICU nurse who makes almost $29 an hour and has only had her license 3 years. Only half of that time she has been an ICU nurse. She had to take her boards 4 times before she passed and still makes that much. There are people in my department who are supervisors and have been at that hospital for 20 years that make less than that. Go out in the community and tell people you are respiratory therapist and I promise you they will say "Whats that?". Everyone knows what a nurse is. Hospitals cant run without a minimum number of nurses, they could care less about us. I have no desire to be a nurse but have thought about doing it just for the money. My satisfaction of my job would be way higher if we were payed closer to nursing like we should be. But that willl never happen, at least not in this area. 3 people in my department are in nursing school if that tells you anything. There are nurses in my hospital who used to be RT but became nurses because of the respect level they get for having RN behind their name and because of the money. I'm not saying ICU nures dont deserved what they get paid because they do, im saying we should get it to. RT is in every unit on every floor but it doesn't mean anything come payday. One of the hospitals in town was offering to pay for nursing school if any RT's at that hospital agreed to stay on as a nurse for 2 years after graduating. Believe me, in a hospital it's a nurses world, the rest of us just work in it.