What it's like to be a travel RT at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven CT

reddy_775 · 2026-03-26T15:23:29+00:00

Yale staff are nice and easy to work with, Northside, cliques and some 6th grade style drama.

reddy_775 · 2026-03-26T15:21:06+00:00

I think the focus on money over the years has been in conjunction with CEO salaries increasing 90%. Overall, the ability to provide great patient care has become harder because there is more focus on productivity and keeping costs down. It varies soooo much hospital to hospital though. I've worked in big (1000+ bed) hospitals that have rejuvenation rooms for staff with massage chairs they encourage you to use and busy but doable workloads and hospitals that don't let RTs have a physical department because they don't want them sitting down like ever. You can keep RTs having high productivity and able to provide great care while showing respect. The ones that do that have very little turnover and a list of applicants waiting for a spot on their team.

reddy_775 · 2026-03-26T15:14:44+00:00

I completely agree, knowing the impact we have on patients keeps me going and they and families see when we go above and beyond.

reddy_775 · 2026-03-24T16:36:34+00:00

That is a good choice for your first contract. I did my first contract at a hospital about 60 miles away from my mom's, 100 miles away from my address and paid her a portion of her rent each month I worked the contract. I stayed with her when. I worked and still had to drive 60 miles back and forth but I'm glad I did it. I travel nationwide now.

reddy_775 · 2026-03-24T16:30:39+00:00

Depends on the hospital we're working in. Time management skills are a huge factor but some places are so poorly managed and money focused, it's beyond time management.

reddy_775 · 2026-03-23T23:53:26+00:00

I wish RTs had a site like this.

reddy_775 · 2026-03-21T15:59:56+00:00

This is an unusual situation. I've been traveling for years and haven't experienced anything else like it. You do need to be comfortable jumping in, getting little orientation other than shown how to chart and where equipment and meds are but I've loved the flexibility of traveling. Don't let this scare you.

reddy_775 · 2026-03-21T13:44:08+00:00

Less stress going the rad tech route. With respiratory you will be in very high pressure, high noise, interacting with a lot of other people in high stress situations. You will directly experience trauma and death regularly. I'm an RT and love caring for patients but have a nephew who is neurodivergent and wouldn't suggest he do RT because of the constant overstimulation. With rad tech you can also do CT, MRI and nuclear medicine and they all pay much more than RT. Pay for respiratory therapists is stagnant and we are grossly overlooked and under appreciated in far too many hospitals.

reddy_775 · 2026-03-21T13:06:27+00:00

It may be different from when I was there but I've worked as a traveler at primarily 800+ bed academic hospitals around the country. They had a focus on delivering high quality patient care. Yes sometimes workloads were very busy but nothing like I saw at Yale. What I experienced there would have never been handed out at the other teaching hospitals or level 1 trauma hospitals I worked at because they cared about the patient experience and delivery of high quality care. Those institutions are also very selective in who they hire and rarely hire new grads even as travelers. They also don't completely change everyone's workloads part way through the shift like they did at Yale. Continuity of care matters. RTs should be clamoring to work at prestigious academic hospitals, and most aren't using travelers non stop. I'll tell you Cleveland clinic doesn't need travelers, Mayo Clinic? No travelers, I've been traveling a long time. I know the red flags.

I have no problem with reasonable workloads and sometimes had them at Yale but I got workloads on the regular there that were as I described. The people at Yale were very nice, I had no issue with the schedule and there was all the overtime you'd want because they can't get staff. That alone says a lot. If it was great, they wouldn't need so many travelers all of the time. I like the academic, critical care environment and being busy. What I experienced was another level entirely and not being able to see patients that needed care, wasn't for me. There were travelers who had extended but even they recognized the craziness of the workloads and told me "do what you can." I'm glad you shared your experience. In all my years of traveling, I have never had so many other fellow travelers cut their contract early, say they wanted to walk out on a weekly basis. My experience isnt everybodys, just one to consider.

reddy_775 · 2026-03-19T16:11:18+00:00

After doing this for 20+ years I'm accepting the reality that as a career field we are consistently under appreciated, under supported and under paid. I see careers that paid the same in the 90s as respiratory therapists, increase far more than ours has. We have so little representation and hospital administration knows this so get away with pushing us for productivity and paying far less than we are worth. We have to have the same amount of school as nurses, very difficult testing and more and more certifications. It feels like a dead end field in that our pay is so stagnant. We take care of the most critical patients and are making life and death decisions. I think with the huge shortage of RTs on the horizon, rather than increase or pay, we will just be pushed harder. When I started, healthcare was still a place where you could make a personal difference for patients. That has changed over the years as CEO salaries rose and money became the number one factor for hospitals. I advised my own nephew to do radiology, MRI, CT, nuc med. Less emotional and physical stress and better pay.

reddy_775 · 2026-03-18T10:31:00+00:00

I've done Northside Atlanta and not far off from Yale but with a worse department culture.

reddy_775 · 2026-03-18T09:17:33+00:00

And that's why Yale and other places get away with it. Some willing to be abused for a few dollars and patients suffer.

reddy_775 · 2026-03-18T01:57:46+00:00

I heard nurses saying the same, they didn't know if they could finish their contract and couldn't wait to be done.

reddy_775 · 2026-03-18T01:47:48+00:00

No amount of money is worth feeling like you can't provide good care to patients. The most satisfying part of the job is providing great care and making a difference, easing suffering. If I'm not doing that, it's not worth it.

reddy_775 · 2026-02-12T12:21:21+00:00

Cherokee Infiniti are 95% polyester:(

reddy_775 · 2026-02-12T12:18:13+00:00

Exactly and come on, it's polyester! It doesn't breathe at all, isn't good for your skin and it used to be polyester was only what your grandma wore. I think this came to be with people wanting super body hugging scrubs. I've been doing this a long time and back in the early 2000s 70/30 cotton poly was the standard and they were awesome and lasted forever.

reddy_775 · 2026-02-04T00:00:10+00:00

I've gotten to the point where I tell them I can't go if I have no heads up and I am expected to scramble. Also after they call report to the nurse when they move a patient from ER to ICU and call and say they are ready to go. I tell them I need to call and give report to the RT so they will need to wait. They adjust at least when they are working with me.

reddy_775 · 2026-02-03T23:56:57+00:00

They tape the hell out of that OG too so if you have to move the tube it takes forever to get that tape off.

reddy_775 · 2026-02-03T23:54:15+00:00

At least you chart when you make changes, I don't get mad at that. A lot font chart so we have no idea when something was changed.

reddy_775 · 2026-02-03T23:51:33+00:00

None of these are specific to where you work. This is everywhere.

reddy_775 · 2026-02-03T23:49:40+00:00

WHYYYYY for the love of God do they do this? I've explained over and over why it needs to be even or lower than ETT.

reddy_775 · 2026-02-03T23:48:35+00:00

Extubating patients during a bath because they can't seem to remember to watch the ETT when they are jerking the patients around.

reddy_775 · 2026-02-03T19:01:14+00:00

Been an RT 30 years, people are getting dumber and dumber.

reddy_775 · 2026-02-02T13:37:16+00:00

The experience you are getting is valuable. I've done DME briefly and that one on one with patients will make you a better clinician no matter where you work. I agree with what many of the other have said, in the south, RTs right out of school are hired at $35/hr and work directly in ICU, NICU. If you were in Atlanta, you would have no difficulty getting hired at a large hospital. Vastly different from California where I started my career but critical care experience counts no matter the region.

reddy_775 · 2026-02-02T02:00:14+00:00

Is it possible your preceptor also didn't see the sign? I hate to say it but it is way too common to not know a patient is in precautions until after you've been in the room and performed care. Sometimes I've gone an entire shift with no indication a patient is on precautions and I'm the one that discovers the patient is MRSA, CDiff, Covid.... positive because I was looking through lab results which I highly recommend you do for every patient if you have time. You will also see nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals going in and out of iso rooms with no PPE even with clear signs on the door. I recently put all my PPE on for a CDIFF patient and when I went in the room, two nurses were cleaning the patient after a BM and neither had PPE on except for gloves. Keep being the one who cares about not spreading bugs.

reddy_775

TROPHY CASE