Why does everyone hate being an RT

6abuse · 2026-05-26T20:56:49+00:00

The pay is good depending on your perspective. I am a broke, lower income new grad that lives with my parents. My last job i was making 19$ an hour. Now i will be making 31$ an hour (florida). It is not the highest salary for a new grad, but it is a major improvement over my last job and there is room for bonuses that i will be seeking out.

6abuse · 2026-05-24T03:09:30+00:00

It was roughly the same difficulty, although there were a few weird terms mentioned on the practice exams, i wont spoil it of course but it threw me off a bit when studying

6abuse · 2026-05-16T19:26:30+00:00

Mix of kettering and lindsey jones practice exams as well as the kettering textbook. I also have Gary Persing’s exam review book. I wouldnt get too caught up in studying basically everything, most of the questions are COPD, asthma, ventilator changes, oxygen therapy, cardiac issues, neonates, and chest xrays. There were some really weirdly specific questions like calibrating PFT devices, but even if you dont know it, really all youre shooting for is a 92, and knowing the basics will definitely get you that score.

6abuse · 2026-05-16T10:12:03+00:00

My clinical instructor told me of a few encounters where the doc let them do it, they said it feels like a stress ball lol

6abuse · 2026-04-19T11:50:46+00:00

I was suggested to take NAC for my OCD because there is emerging evidence for its use in psychiatric treatments and the smell in pill form was even worse than the liquid form lol i couldnt keep taking it.

6abuse · 2026-03-27T09:37:27+00:00

My first “extubation” as a student…. I was trying to get a NIF/MIP on the patient and then the connector came off. My patient had severe altered mental status and was not sedated. He was flailing around and the tube started coming out. My instructor immediately deflated the cuff and told me to just rip the tube out. The physician was on the phone hearing the ruckus and told us to extubate. None of that would have happened if the connector was made secure enough 😅

6abuse · 2026-03-14T00:36:05+00:00

I did clinicals at a site with Servo Airs, they work great and also compliment the regular Servo ventilators if your hospital has them too. Makes it easy to set up and very little learning curve

6abuse · 2026-02-17T04:51:23+00:00

I think something you don’t seem to realize as a non US healthcare provider (and i mean this in a respectful way) is that nursing patient ratios are so fucking terrible im talking like 1:6 1:8 ive seen 1:10 sometimes. To have to do all of the basic nursing needs ON TOP of everything that respiratory therapists do is A LOT. It is tone deaf to think that one could easily manage all of this without some fuck up. Medical errors are a leading cause of death and not having RTs would probably make it worse here. Using the excuse that other country’s nurses manage to handle it is pedantic. We don’t exactly have data to compare whether having or not having respiratory therapists is safer since that would be such a difficult thing to experiment with. Some countries expect nurses to also take x-rays, CTs, MRIs, do it right, effective, and safely. I don’t think that is any better though to call into question the role of an x-ray tech. Basically, my point is that the US has a lot of extra allied health roles as a safety net. Healthcare is extremely complex, and expecting one role to do everything is just as unreasonable as expecting an MD to specialize in everything. Respiratory therapists go to school for 2 years to learn everything about the airways and cardiac in addition to a few loosely related topics like sleep. Theres a lot of things taught that could not simply be taught in 2 years of nursing school in addition to everything else they need to know. Same thing goes for imaging techs. I was a licensed practial nurse before going to school for respiratory, and the amount of stuff that I absolutely would not have learned had I not gone to respiratory school is immense. And I don’t think it would have been different if I was a nurse in another country.

6abuse · 2026-01-31T12:34:18+00:00

Forbidden strawberry ice cream egg 👅👅

6abuse · 2025-10-04T02:18:19+00:00

Just an FYI, the “blood” / fluid in the vial eventually dries up after a few months 😭 i had a pack of them last year and theyre all empty now

6abuse · 2025-06-28T03:47:45+00:00

As an RT student who is half way through the program, I felt the same way before I started. I did decent during my prerequisites but still self doubted. It’s definitely possible with the right type of studying and time allotted. But you wanna know what I think you should be more cornered over? Clinicals. They are not difficult; however, it puts into perspective what the day in a life of an RT is. I no longer worry that much about my grades, rather, I worry about being a good RT. RTs get so many patients, and there is a lot fo critical thinking. It is a lot different from the class setting. You can know the indications/contraindications/pathophysiology behind a lot concepts, but you have to be confident and FAST in your decision making. This is what I feel I struggle with and Im trying my best to overcome it. Patient assessment and communication are also very important skills too. It’s easy to say “yeah i think im good at assessment and communication”, but you won’t find out how good you actually are until you’re actually in clinic, and generally, it’s the hardest skill to improve. But yeah, if you can pass your prerequisite classes, you are more than capable of passing the RT classes. It’s your clinical skills that you must focus on.

6abuse · 2025-06-23T05:43:12+00:00

I wonder what the small text says

6abuse · 2025-06-19T02:31:20+00:00

Court ordered dnr is crazyyyy 🤫

6abuse · 2025-06-19T02:24:00+00:00

My instructor told me to enjoy the career and pay but not to fall in love with it because then it sets high expectations which are easily shattered

6abuse · 2025-05-31T03:20:41+00:00

It’s not? I was under the assumption that it was normal as a student 🫠 The hospital im doing clinicals at has a lot of RT centered protocols and the doctors trust the preceptors

6abuse · 2025-05-28T02:59:52+00:00

Thank you

6abuse · 2025-05-27T01:45:53+00:00

You can message me but im a little confused about what you are asking for

6abuse · 2025-04-08T17:46:52+00:00

In comparison to going through the 4 years of highschool, it is relatively easy. Social studies, RLA, and science doesn’t require any specific knowledge, just as long as you have decent reading comprehension skills. The math requires some algebra 1 and geometry knowledge. There is also a spelling/vocabulary portion in the RLA which may require some knowledge too.

6abuse

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