Missunderstood activity – Scope of practice Respiratory therapists
One of the misconceptions students have is about the breadth of the role and the autonomy respiratory therapists have within their work across all care settings in comparison to other disciplines (i.e., physician or nurses). Students, as well as the healthcare system itself, have difficulty understanding or recognizing that respiratory therapists (RRTs) are leaders in the hospital setting, often as a primary contact or as support as part of the medical team. An analogy to use to help students better understand their role as respiratory therapists in the larger health care system would be drawing similarities to firefighters and their role in supporting emergencies and the public within the community.
Though they are not the only first responder for emergencies, firefighters play a vital role in stepping in to support and or take care of emergency situations using their wide array of fire, safety, health, technical, and rescue knowledge. Similar to respiratory therapists, they help a wide range of the population, have to employ basic understanding of their environments, hazards or potential risks, employ various tools and techniques to manage a wide array of fire and rescue situations, and work collaboratively with other first responders like police or paramedics, as well as crisis teams to ensure the safety and well-being of citizens and the public at large. For respiratory therapists, the people we support and our patients are wide ranging both within hospital, clinics, rehabilitation centers and home care communities with an assortment of healthcare needs. Patients can be found and supported in a number of different situations from regular visits or check-ins with the patient throughout a shift or via clinic appointments, through to being brought in by first responders post an emergency or traumatic event in the community. Like firefighters, respiratory therapist must be able to adopt to the immediate situation or interaction with the patient as well as the changing environments we work in, and employ communication, assessment, and technical skills to be able to assist and manage the patients needs or emergency. Thereafter, as in any first responder position, the worker must be able to document and or provide additional support, resources or guidance through teaching to improve the patient’s health outcomes and also consider changes to processes, procedures, policies to improve patient care overall within the healthcare system.
There are also similarities in how firefighters and respiratory therapists respond to situations with the community and patients respectively. Firefighters must run into a suspected or active situation to employ their knowledge and skills to put out the fire and/or rescue individuals. They work as part of a larger team but will have independent roles and have to make decisions on the spot as per guidelines and procedures or policies and make sure everyone, including the team is safe by communicating with the team to ensure they are tackling the situation appropriately. Respiratory therapists are often called to bedside during challenging medical situations for the patient (e.g. difficulty with airway or ventilation, cardiac arrest, loss of consciousness requiring intubation) and help manage the patient or healthcare situation from a hands-on approach but they also contribute to decision making in relation to the care of the patient in the moment and help make decisions on appropriate care techniques as well as decision making regarding progression of patient care based on existing hospital policies and guidelines as per the college and research on proper Respiratory care. Exterior of direct care, respiratory therapists are also involved in helping educate patients, their families, fellow staff and the public at large as well as helping prepare new students and learners for their future work in the profession which is similar to firefighters and their work to inform the public about fire and general safety.
RRT’s play a vital role in acute respiratory care to patients, given their immediate support of patients who may be in distress or have airway or ventilation emergency. The role and support of patients requires knowledge, technical and analytical skill and understanding, effective communication and collaboration with teams to ensure optimal care from patients. The RRT role, similar to a firefighter’s role, is not without risk given the acute nature of care in most practice settings and our direct support role. As such, RRTs must undertake the role with a strong level of professionalism and awareness that they are leaders in care and have a responsibility to the public and their patients to continually develop and grow acting as an informed, caring and collaborative practitioner.
The photo that I selected to help with this activity was found searching the creative commons search site using openverse and the search keywords: emergency EMS and Firefighters. It is under the public domain
The site is https://www.flickr.com/photos/cityofgreenvillenc/33589987958/in/photostream/
The title and licence is “PGV Emergency Drill, Live disaster” is marked with CC0 1.0 (DEED) licence (To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/?ref=openverse)
. It illustrates the role of the firefighter, used as a metaphor for respiratory therapists (RRTs) and their role in healthcare. As noted in the teacher for learning module, they are a crucial to support of the community helping putting out fires, providing emergency care and stepping into play but also work collaboratively with other first responders noted here in this picture to ensure efficient support is provided as noted by the support by all parties in the photo. As noted in my teacher for learning response:
“RRT’s play a vital role in acute respiratory care to patients, given their immediate support of patients who may be in distress or have airway or ventilation emergency. The role and support of patients requires knowledge, technical and analytical skill and understanding, effective communication and collaboration with teams to ensure optimal care from patients.”
This photo, and the analogy aforementioned, helps illustrate that RRTs, like firefighters in this disaster response drill, are a unique but vital player within the healthcare landscape providing specific care to patients within both the acute, primary and homecare settings and that the are part of a profession that has both autonomous and collaborative elements and given the ever-changing landscape of healthcare, requires a pathway and approach to working that involves continually learning, professionalism and development for students and future practicing respiratory therapists.
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