Essentially, a respiratory care practitioner otherwise called a respiratory therapist helps people to breathe better. They help people of all ages and with all kinds of problems. For instance, they assist premmies who have been born before they were able to finish their lung development, but they also assist elderly people with lung diseases. On one hand, they help children with asthma, but on the other hand, they may also help their parents quit smoking cigarettes. They help people in their homes, and they help people in the Emergency room or the ICU (Intensive Care Unit).
Whether the respiratory care practitioner is at a home or in a hospital, they will often use similar procedures. They must first analyze their patient’s lung capacity. Then, they must determine how much oxygen or other gasses are in that patient’s blood stream. Finally, they have to look at the blood’s level of pH to determine how acidic or alkaline his or her blood is. In order to complete these three tasks, the respiratory therapist must know how to use a few different pieces of medical equipment.
To check a patient’s lung capacity, the respiratory therapist will ask the patient to breathe into a piece of equipment that measures how much oxygen he or she is inhaling and exhaling. To determine the levels of oxygen and the pH balance in the patient’s blood, the therapist must take a blood sample, and then, they must analyze it with a blood gas analyzing machine.
After running these tests, the respiratory care practitioner must analyze the data and determine a course of action for their patient. They will analyze the data by comparing it to tests results from healthy subjects who are the same age, weight, and sex categories as their patient. Then, they will create a wellness plan with the advising physician.
To treat their patients, they might use oxygen or mixtures of oxygen and other gasses. They may also use chest physiotherapy. In some cases, they may turn to medications like aerosol ones. Part of their job is also to train their patients how to use these methods by themselves. In emergency situations, they may even have to perform tracheotomies.
A respiratory care practitioner is responsible for performing many different tasks. They work with a vast variety of people. Most important, however, is the fact that their jobs save lives and help people improve the quality of their lives.
