Respiratory Therapist Job Description

Owing to the increase in number of health problems, health care units in the United States are always in demand of medical professionals who can provide assistance to the senior doctors and also ensure proper patient care. Respiratory therapy is a growing field and medical jobs in this field are sure to offer bright career prospects for the young aspirants.

Job Description
A respiratory therapist is responsible for the care, evaluation and tests of the patients suffering from complications related to the breathing system. He practices under the able guidance of expert physicians and ensures that all respiratory care, starting from diagnosis to therapeutic treatment is properly carried out. He may often consult the physicians and related doctors about the holistic health of the patient and modify the patient care plans as per the needs. He also treats patients of all ages, from infants to old aged people. Premature infants, whose lungs are not properly developed, and older people with diseased hearts, require special consideration from the respiratory therapists. He further provides temporary relief to patients of asthma and also helps patients of heart attack, heart stroke and heart failure.

A research therapist is expected to conduct a variety of tests to determine the complications of the patients. For instance, he checks the patient's breathing capacity and the concentration of oxygen gas in the blood. The pH level of the blood is also measured to check its alkalinity or acidity. His job also includes testing the lung capacity of the patient. The patients are provided with instruments and they are asked to breathe into those instruments. He also records the volume levels of oxygen inhaled and exhaled by the patients. After taking the readings, he compares them by considering the age, sex, height and weight of the patients. This helps him to understand the problems of lung deficiency in the patients.

Moreover, he also analyzes the blood samples of the patients in the blood gas analyzer and checks the concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood. These medical records so obtained, are submitted as reports to the senior physicians who prescribe the treatments. The technical aspects of this job include removal of mucus from the lungs of the patients, by performing chest physiotherapy. In chest physiotherapy, he has to place the patient in a position that ensures the easier draining of the mucus from the lungs. Then, he vibrates the rib cage of the patient and taps the chest to remove the mucus from the lungs. Once the mucus is decreased or removed completely from the lungs, the patient finds it easier to breathe. Besides all these duties, he is also supposed to spread awareness of ventilator usage, among the families of the patients. If need be, he can visit patient's home to check the cleanliness of the home environment and instruct the families to adopt various measures of hygiene.

Educational Requirements and Salary Range
The first step to become a respiratory therapist is to get a high school degree in subjects related to science and mathematics. Further, a two year's associate degree course or a 4 years graduation degree in respiratory therapy governed by National Board for Respiratory Care (NBRC) is essential to become research therapist. After passing the primary and written examination one can move on to become Certified Research Therapist and Registered Research Therapist respectively. The research therapist salary ranges between USD 40,000 - USD 43,000.

Research therapist jobs are excellent hospital jobs that can open up great career opportunities for young students. Seeing the prospects of growth in this field, one can surely opt for the career of research therapist. This job is sure to offer you job satisfaction and inner happiness, by helping others to recover from diseases.