MOHAVE COUNTY – Mohave Community College has a brand-new Respiratory Care Practitioner program that gives students a pathway to numerous, rewarding and in-demand career options.
Director of Respiratory Care Programs Veolada Lemus says Respiratory Care Practitioners are integral parts of the patient care team. Their duties include assessing the respiratory status of patients, developing and implementing respiratory care plans, performing diagnostic tests, such as measuring lung capacity and blood oxygen levels, or acid-base balance, via arterial blood collection and analysis; and administering inhaled medication as prescribed by physicians.
Additionally, students will learn to perform respiratory care modality treatments for airway clearance and volume expansion, monitor and adjust ventilator settings, treat chronic respiratory diseases and advise patients on their illness management, perform pulmonary function tests and engage in airway management and protection. The latter is especially relevant to critical life support procedures.
Lemus says becoming a Respiratory Care Practitioner makes for an exciting and fast-paced career. Those in that field are able to work in multiple locations throughout the hospital while also having plenty of opportunities for advancement.
“Respiratory therapy has a wide range of career paths that you can take,” Lemus says. “Those require that you pass the board exam on one level or the other. There are two exam cut scores: the lower-cut scores get you a Certified Respiratory Therapist (CRT) credential and the higher cut scores a Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) credential. Those two credentials may allow you to get jobs in certain places and be able to advance to other pathways.”
Those pathways, just to name a few, include Pulmonary Function Technician, Certified Sleep Disorder Specialist, Adult Critical Care and many more. Lemus also says respiratory can be a stepping stone for those looking to enter the field of anesthesiology. Lemus adds that the profession yields no shortage of variety.
“We get to be everywhere; we’re not stuck to the same group of patients as other medical practitioners are,” Lemus says. “We are all over the place. Whatever assignment I have this week, it will probably be a different assignment the next week.”
Plus, the rewarding career is currently in high demand. Hospital emergency rooms, Intensive Care Units, Neonatal Intensive Care Units, Pediatric Intensive Care Units, medical and surgical units and transport are just some of the locations at which Respiratory Care Practitioners may find rewarding opportunities to help those in need of respiratory care. And the list goes on.
“Respiratory Care Practitioners are in very high demand,” Lemus says. “Just in Mohave County, there are a number of practitioners currently working in their 60s and 70s. Since many are getting ready to retire, those positions will need to be refilled. There are a high number of travel therapists that come to this county from other areas because of our shortages. Then they take the money earned in our county back to their county.”
Students can begin taking their prerequisites during the fall semester. The suggested pathway for the program takes 18 months. For more information, contact Veolada Lemus at vlemus@mohave.eu or 928-440-7873, or go to https://www.mohave.edu/.
Hospital emergency rooms, Intensive Care Units, Neonatal Intensive Care Units, Pediatric Intensive Care Units, medical and surgical units and transport are just some of the locations at which Respiratory Care Practitioners may find rewarding opportunities to help those in need of respiratory care. The program is part of MCC’s Health and Public Services offerings alongside Medical Assisting, Nursing and many more.