Respiratory Therapist Student Blog

I have been talking to a classmate in one of my non RT class. So she wants to be a RN. I’m taking this class in a University and RT in a Junior College. I’m sure she will make a good nurse but I also talk about my RT work with her. She seems to be really interested and applied for this coming fall. So she said she talked to her parents about ths RT program.

Her parents got mad at her for having a “Plan B” in life. Nursing here is hard to get into and you either need straight A’s or luck (lottery system) Then you consider the waitlist. So I adviced her to apply for RT for a back up plan. But instead she did research and since I have a big mouth I talked about everything I do.  She told me her parents and her friend said the same thing. Why are you going to downgrade from a RN to RT? You are coming from a University to a Junior college. You will be with people who are drop outs and who screwed up.

I felt that same way at first but I quickly realized, it does not make a huge difference from what school you make your career choice (in some cases).  Come to think about what they said about “drop outs” or screwed up, the students in my class graduated from Universities, or has some good paying degree and just wanted a career change.

What do I think about this situation? RT is NOT a bad career choice. Sure Nursing pays more, but it is what you want to do. Where are you going to find a job that pays $30+ STARTING? In today’s world you have to make your way up. RT’s income is not bad at all. It is a good income to make a living out of. I’m not saying anything bad about RNs I’m just saying that there are other good careers out there in the medical field.

I even heard of RTs making well over 100k a year. There are pros/cons in every field and RTs has its Pros and RN has its Pros too.

A few months back I met up with a guy I knew on campus. He was on his way to Nursing. He told me that “why will you be a RT? that is boring?”. I just said..well its a career choice I want and don’t be so ignorant and do research before you judge . HE walked away without saying a word.

Respiratory Therapy is a field that no one really knows but it is out there. EVERY SINGLE CONVERSATION I HAD and I told the person..”yea..im studying RT , Respiratory Therapy” Then I have to go through my whole speech of what it is. 9/10 times from people who does not work in a hospital or has no medical field knowledge always ask me what RT is.  Like they said..RT is a growing field and sooner or later you will see an even higher demand but by that time I’m graduated and you guys are probably retired.

So is it a good career choice? Let me break it down

Job Security : Excellent

Salary : Excellent

Personal Satisfaction (ex: saving someones life from a code) : Excellent

There are probably many more but I have insufficient experience in the field to judge even more things.

This is the reason why I made this blog. Everyone knows what RNs, PTs, LVNS,.etc does at work. Not much people know about respiratory therapy yet. So if I am able to inspire students, future students to come in the field, I done my job with this blog.