Nurses Vs Respiratory Therapist
Essay Preview: Nurses Vs Respiratory Therapist
Report this essay
Nurses Vs Respiratory Therapist
Hospitals are the same as any other fields full of competition and oppositions between the health care givers. One of the many clashes is between Respiratory Therapists (RT) and Registered Nurses (RN). I know there are nurses who appreciate us RTs and on the other hand, I know there are RNs who think of us as a highly paid nurses aides or trained monkeys. So what are the differences between us? Who really works harder? So here I go with list of the differences and similarity between RTs and RNs.
Everyone knows what an RN is, but not everyone knows what a RT is. RTs are small stealth units like Special Forces. RNs have been around since practice of Medicine start centuries ago. On the other hand Respiratory Therapist did not exist 50 years ago, which makes it a major advantage toward the Nursing.
You can become an RN in either 2 or 4 years of college as well as the RTs do. However, RTs spends most of their education studying the Respiratory, Cardiac, and Renal system. On the other hand, RN studies a little about many different system. Which make the RTs more specialized on those systems. RTs have to specialize at least in one of major aria for example, Neonate, critical Care, Pulmonary Function Lab, and Sleep Lab. Conversely, RN dont have to specialize unless they want too.
RNs make more money, and more opportunities of different places to work like hospitals, clinics, doctors offices, jails, factories, home health, and of course as a school nurse. Nonetheless RTs are under paid and they dont have the same opportunities as RNs have. Yet, RTs mainly work just in hospitals and home health. RNs have a powerful Union that fights for their rights where RTs have nothing to cover their back.
Because the majority of the health care providers are RNs, they reach to very high position within the health care system. That makes it tough to any other Health care provider to have a chance to compete for a bigger chair.
Although, RNs have a bunch of patients on a floor; RTs have a bunch of patients on many floors. So we walk further. As a result, RNs are stuck on a floor so many times they dont really know many people in the rest of the hospital. But, RTs get all over the place, so they know people all over the hospital.
Nobody could argue that RN have a lot or more things to do, and they have to deal with all kind of nasty stuff, for example, cleaning the patients, stabilize the patients, calculate and give the medication, notify the physicians. However the first thing that RN will do when the patient goes downhill is to call the RT.
When things come down to resuscitation RT is one of the first to be called among a team of ICU