What is the best part about being a respiratory therapist?
I would say that my favorite thing about it is just the fact of just helping people. People that come in and they have, difficulty breathing and, just not really having a good day. I like meeting new people. I like to be able to help them. In all different facets, from the old to the young, it gives me a sense of fulfillment to be able to help people. I love that.
What is your favorite part about being on the RMC team?
I have a special place for RMC. I was born in this hospital, way back when. This community, I look at it like it’s my mother, my grandmother, that comes through those doors. The people in this community, deserve, quality health care
What is involved in being a respiratory therapist? What does a day-to-day look like?
Basically what we do is that we try to include the outcomes of patients that come in that have breathing issues, whether they’re acute issues or more chronic issues.
We have a bunch of tools in our tool belt that we can deploy depending on the disease process or whatever’s going on with the patient. Anything from COPD to asthma to pneumonia any kind of traumas that deal with, heart and lung issues and everything.
It all ties in together, even if somebody has some renal disease or, kidney failure and everything that will affect the respiratory system. It all ties in together. We all have to work together.
We implement plans. We come up with care plans for the patient. The most important thing is just educating the patient, being able to spend the time with them and educate them about what’s going on with them and what they can do and the steps they can take to, help them to progress, to get back to, whatever their standard of living is.
How long have you been a respiratory therapist and how long have you worked at RMC?
I’ve been a respiratory therapist now for about. 15 years and going on 12 years at RMC.
Is there anything else you would like to say?
Just Like I said before, this place holds a really special place in my heart. I was born here. I’ve been a patient here.
So funny story is that Being a little kid got into a lot of stuff and everything, and I had ended up by accident ingesting some gasoline when I was a little kid and they brought me up here to RMC and it was a respiratory therapist that took care of me and everything.
They put me up in this big croup tent. And I was just like, wow, this is cool. And even ever since then, I felt like I was destined to be a respiratory therapist, cause that’s what my mom did whenever she was pregnant with me. She was working in the area, back then, they weren’t called respiratory therapists, they were inhalation therapists.
So they used to haul around the oxygen tanks and all that stuff, and I used to tell her like, so you did this when you were pregnant with me? And she said, yeah. And I said, so I get, it’s been ordained, I’m where I’m supposed to be.