Respiratory Apathy

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New Year's Non-Resolutions What are our typical resolutions, and how do they go awry? Well, perhaps we are too specific, too harsh, too literal. Also, our resolutions really should be what we want them to be. In any other month, they would be called goals. Goals don't have that same finality,...

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Ode to Winter There is nothing quite like the dead of winter. Not only is the landscape bleak and void of color, so it seems it is the day to day rush in the hospital. Patients are sicker, we are short-staffed, and workloads are up. Winter is a long dark day to day grey blur as we rush from home...

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A Night in the NICU On a hot summer night, the hours are endless as the NICU grows quieter with every pass of the minute hand as parents leave and babies sleep. It is so hot this endless night with the air conditioner glitch. Not helped by the heat of the oscillator and the radiant warmer. I...

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Evoking Epiphany When we give a nebulizer treatment to a patient, what exactly are we giving that patient? The obvious answer is that we are giving a bronchodilator treatment. But what else? The not so obvious answer is that we are giving oxygen therapy if nebulization is occurring with oxygen....

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Respiratory Therapists Friends or Foes? Why are we always comparing and blaming each other? It is a tradition as old as time in hospitals everywhere — day shift complaints about the night shift. The ICU RT's complain about the floor RT's, they both complain about the NICU. Why are we always at...

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Have you ever wondered why no one knows what a Respiratory therapist does? We have little in common with the other healthcare workers but so much in common with each other. Even those that work side by side us in the ED, PICU, CVICU, or rapid response team don’t understand us. We are a different...

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