To be quite honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I headed into this program and now that I have completed 2/3 of the program I have a much better understanding. Before going to RT school, I completed a science degree and obtained employment right out of university; however I soon found out that I wasn’t cut out for working in an office and the monotony of a 9-5 to job plus the work wasn’t that stimulating. After a year of working in a major company I decided to head back to school. I was always interested in sciences, so the medical field seemed like a logical choice. I considered nursing, but wasn’t a fan of all the personal care involved, then I considered becoming a lab tech, but I thought it might get boring performing all the same tests over and over again. Finally ,as I was searching through job ads, I found a considerable amount of job ads for Respiratory Therapists. After reading through the job ads, I thought maybe I could do that. I had no idea what they really did other than intubate people and provide oxygen. At the time that was my understanding of the profession.
I applied to several schools and found out that despite holding a degree, being a mature student, and having decent grades from high school that I would have to take high school physics, grade 11 to be exact. Not the best news to find out, but I figured hey I can’t handle having this job any longer. I completed my high school physics through distance ed and drove the 500km up to school. I was in for the surprise of my life, I came in with the attitude “this is college, I’ve been to university, this is going to be a piece of cake." That was the worst attitude to come in with. I learned very quickly that it was going to be a lot more work then I had bargained for. I learned that not only were going to be experts in the respiratory system, but as well as the cardiovascular, and renal systems. There is a lot more math involved and it’s funny because I hated math in high school and now I love it. I discovered there are a lot of normal values to remember, a lot of drug doses, and a ton of diseases to understand. Labs are a key part to learning especially since there is no clinical placement until the end of the 2 years. I also quickly discovered that no one quite understands what a RT does, not even the nurses at our school or the dean.
I am glad that I picked the program I did despite all the work. I am also glad I understand that RT’s are more than just oxygen and intubating and how important they are to the medical field.
To be quite honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I headed into this program and now that I have completed 2/3 of the program I have a much better understanding. Before going to RT school, I completed a science degree and obtained employment right out of university; however I soon found out that I wasn’t cut out for working in an office and the monotony of a 9-5 to job plus the work wasn’t that stimulating. After a year of working in a major company I decided to head back to school. I was always interested in sciences, so the medical field seemed like a logical choice. I considered nursing, but wasn’t a fan of all the personal care involved, then I considered becoming a lab tech, but I thought it might get boring performing all the same tests over and over again. Finally ,as I was searching through job ads, I found a considerable amount of job ads for Respiratory Therapists. After reading through the job ads, I thought maybe I could do that. I had no idea what they really did other than intubate people and provide oxygen. At the time that was my understanding of the profession.
I applied to several schools and found out that despite holding a degree, being a mature student, and having decent grades from high school that I would have to take high school physics, grade 11 to be exact. Not the best news to find out, but I figured hey I can’t handle having this job any longer. I completed my high school physics through distance ed and drove the 500km up to school. I was in for the surprise of my life, I came in with the attitude “this is college, I’ve been to university, this is going to be a piece of cake." That was the worst attitude to come in with. I learned very quickly that it was going to be a lot more work then I had bargained for. I learned that not only were going to be experts in the respiratory system, but as well as the cardiovascular, and renal systems. There is a lot more math involved and it’s funny because I hated math in high school and now I love it. I discovered there are a lot of normal values to remember, a lot of drug doses, and a ton of diseases to understand. Labs are a key part to learning especially since there is no clinical placement until the end of the 2 years. I also quickly discovered that no one quite understands what a RT does, not even the nurses at our school or the dean.
I am glad that I picked the program I did despite all the work. I am also glad I understand that RT’s are more than just oxygen and intubating and how important they are to the medical field.