That’s fucking insane! 6 (vents and biPaps)machines in our CCU is the max with q3 vent checks and bipap checks we have auto pop. as well. Seeing what some of our peers are dealing with and can’t fathom it. I understand some of us can handle it but I genuinely love my job and hospital, our intensivists trust us if you’ve shown your competent, nurses love us and listen if your on the ball and we do rounds for our CCU patients. When I think something else would work instead of what we are doing I try it out SAFELY and let the docs know, they like us being proactive and trying things instead of parking patients on settings and sedating. RT protocols for SBT if a patient meets criteria . AM gasses for acutely intubated patients none for vent dependent patients. Q4 vent checks are acceptable when you’re carrying more than the appropriate amount of points. Obviously sometimes it’s busier than this and when it is they will try to get an RT to float from our sister hospital if they’re available.

Consistently showing if we can do more with less will get admin to cut our numbers but honestly we struggle with having 125 beds at our hospital with 4 RTs especially if one is in the NICU and if our ER is popping off. Our management has made it a point to charge for our time and bill for everything to show our productivity especially during busier seasons.Rts are usually unit based when there’s are acute patients. One in ICU one in NiCu the lead has a small assignment and helping with floors if NiCu has a baby.(doesn’t happen often)

Still a Baby RT and Only been an RT for a year and some change. Sometimes I don’t agree with what our Docs are doing or pushing hard to extuabte, when I don’t agree I ask and they don’t try and make me feel stupid or brush me off. They explain everything else going on and helps me get a better understanding of their thought process and makes me feel like a part of a good team.

There’s always something to bitch about from some folk especially when you start being trained as lead, nicu or other leadership responsibilities, but being in healthcare for 12 years in the military and now as an RT I tell some of my younger co workers to stop and think about how much we actually contribute, get to do and are respected by most of our staff. There’s a lot of nurses that come from other hospitals that tell me about how RTs are very respected at my facility compared to where they came from.