Not every episode has to end with someone getting into PA school.

Michelle from Lifting and Little Ones is a registered respiratory therapist. She seriously considered PA school and decided against it - and she's happy with that call. I wanted her on because pre-PA spaces almost never talk about the option of choosing something else.

She walks through what respiratory therapy training looks like, the board exams and licensing, and how much hands-on patient assessment the job involves. Then she gets into how she weighed the time and the cost of PA school against the career she already had.

If you're doing this because it's the next thing everyone expects, this is a good episode to sit with.

What we talk about:

• What respiratory therapists actually do
• The education and credentialing path for RTs
• Board exams and state licensure
• Why she decided not to apply to PA school
• Weighing cost and time against what you want
• Being honest with yourself about your reasons

Resources:

Pre-PA counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Free application timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Free resume download: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-resume-download

Mentioned in this episode:

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Hey guys, today I'm talking to Michelle from Lifting and Little Ones.

She is a fellow blogger in Georgia and she did work as a respiratory therapist.

So we're going to talk about how she became an rt, what schooling looked like, and then why she decided ultimately not to go to PA school.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Hey guys, welcome to the podcast.

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I also wanted to talk about our Black Friday sales that will be going on next week.

Now, I'm not going to tell you what they are, but they are very good.

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Now I'm actually here in person with my friend Michelle and we are going to talk about respiratory therapy.

I never had a respiratory therapist on the show, I don't think.

Or actually I did one.

So I did an interview with a mock interview kind of example with Samantha.

She's on Instagram and she does respiratory therapy.

But we didn't really talk too much about what that means or get into details because we were talking more about interviews.

So I'll let you introduce yourself.

Hey, thank you so much for having me here.

I'm so excited.

This is my first podcast, so bear with me.

My name is Michelle and I am a registered respiratory therapist.

I have been working as a respiratory therapist for the past seven years.

I'm currently a stay at home mama.

So I went into respiratory because I actually had career ambitions to become a PA student.

So for me, when I went into respiratory therapy, it was supposed to be a stepping stone into the PA program.

Yeah.

And so we randomly kind of connected with a blogging group in our area and most, I guess just because we were both moms, really not anything to do with medicine.

But then once we kind of started talking and looking at each other's blogs and social media and all that, I found out Michelle is a respiratory therapist, which I thought was really, really cool.

And then I found out that she had wanted to go to PA school at one point.

But can you go back and just tell us guess the process of becoming a respiratory therapist?

Like what that looked like with schooling and timing, I honestly don't know.

Yeah.

So as a respiratory therapist, it's an accredited program where you get your associate's degree from your associate's degree.

You also take some board exams.

There's the crt, which is the certified respiratory therapist exam, and the rrt, which is a registered respiratory therapist exam.

Now I know they've merged boards and it's the lrt, which is one exam, which makes it nice.

It used to be three different board certifications.

Redundant, certified and registered.

Right, Exactly.

So now they've kind of streamlined it into one, which makes it a lot easier.

Is that something you take once or did you ever have to research?

So I passed the first time right away, thank God.

You can take it as many times.

As you need to.

You just have to pay every time you take it.

But when I took the board exams, it was three different exams.

So each exam I think was $200 at that time.

So.

Yeah.

And is the associate's two years.

The associates is a two year traditionally I guess.

Okay.

And then.

So you take the boards and then are you licensed by the state?

Yes.

So you become licensed by the state and you become credentialed by the nbrc, which is the National National Board of Respiratory Therapy.

Okay.

And then so is there.

I'm just comparing it to the PA profession because that's what I know.

Are there CME requirements or things you have to do regularly to like.

Yeah, every five years you have to have at least 30 continuing education credits or units, whatever your profession calls them, or you have to recertify for the board exam.

So you can take the board exam again and then you're automatically good for the next five years.

Five years.

Okay.

And depending on the state that you work in, some states licensures have regulations as far as continuing education credits and how many you need per year to keep your license.

Okay.

So all of that's pretty much the same as being a pa.

I know when I was a cna, I think my license expired.

Oh, gosh, I almost want to say it was four or five years and you just had to retake a test, but we didn't have any continuing education, really.

It was just retaking a test.

I think I was in PA school when mine expired and I was like, well, I probably won't need this again, so I'm not going to retake it.

That wasn't too big of a deal.

So knowing that you were kind of wanting to maybe go from respiratory therapy into PA school, what made you choose respiratory therapy as your kind of either experience or education?

What kind of pushed you in that direction?

So respiratory therapy for me was a great way to get hands on clinical experience that you need for the PA program.

The.

So you're able to actually develop your patient assessment skills.

You're actually able to get hands on with the patients.

You get to know the disease, the pathology, and you also get to know how to treat, manage and work within a team and also help come up with a plan of care for the patient, which I think is essential in becoming a pa.

So it was a great stepping stone in that you had all of those skill traits that you learned and you were able to take and apply those.

To pa. That's basically like a perfect interview answer if you were going to go to PA school.

So.

And I mean, you do, I think with respiratory therapy.

I did this blog post one time and I can link to it and it was called, I think the six, like six Ways to Get Patient Care Experience for PA School.

And I kind of got blasted because like, respiratory therapy wasn't on there.

There was a few things that weren't on there, but it wasn't an all inclusive list.

It was just, you know, these are some ideas.

But the respiratory therapy people kind of came at me were like, no, this is great experience.

And I was like, you, you are right.

I didn't mean like, I didn't mean anything by it.

So like, because, I mean, you, you're like really involved in patient care as a respiratory therapist.

You're 100% involved.

I mean, and you're using, you're using knowledge to take care of that patient and to manage them versus helping the patient take a bath, you know?

Exactly.

So you have to understand what school going on, both anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology.

You have to understand how the disease process progresses in order to management, in order to manage it.

So you're really going in there and developing clinical assessment skills as well as how to communicate with the patient, how to understand how they're feeling and what they really need, how to talk to a patient's family member and explain a situation.

On top of that, you're also learning skills that can be applied to other fields, you know, whether within the medical field or just communications.

And with respiratory, you have so many different pathways.

I did emergency medicine, I did intensive care unit, surgical intensive care unit, neurological intensive care unit, neonatal intensive care unit.

I was gonna ask if you did like the babies.

I've seen those, those tubes, the airway tubes that are, you know, a pencil or smaller is crazy.

Oh yeah.

And you learn about different management strategies.

So non invasive respiratory therapy, ventilation, icu, critical care, extended care facility, how to manage a trach and an airway at home, how to rehabilitate someone.

All of these things you're learning which can be applied to the PA program.

Also, what I find is a lot of people are not familiar with respiratory therapy, even med school, they touch on it.

But unless you're an intensivist or a pulmonary intensivist, you kind of quickly gloss over it.

So to have that real knowledge base of pulmonary disease and how to treat it, I feel like it's just essential.

Essential to have in your back pocket.

Yeah, that's great.

My husband, when he did his ICU rotations and he thought about, you know, going into ICU medicine, he would always talk about how, you know, at their hospital they had a respiratory team and if they came in, like they, they knew their stuff, it was like a bunch of respiratory therapists.

And they, I mean, he was like, they know how to, you know, change all the settings and the ventilator and, like, make sure that everything is good to go with that patient.

Like, we don't even as doctors, like, we're not the ones doing that.

We are deferring to them to kind of manage.

And I don't know how many times I had physicians tell me, like, look, you know what you're doing.

Go ahead, set it.

I'll write the order.

I trust you.

I know you know what you're doing, so go ahead and just take it from here.

Oh, my gosh, that sounds terrifying.

But it's true.

I mean, you're confident and you're exactly, you know what you're doing.

You've established a rapport with physicians.

You're part of an integrated team, and you really are taking over the management of this patient.

So you become very strong in your skillset and you take that skill set with you.

It only adds to your value when you have that.

Yeah, no, I think that's extremely valuable for PA school.

So you worked in respiratory therapy for, you said about 10 years.

10.

So 7.

7 Years.

It was actually at St. John Hospital in Detroit, and I worked there for five years.

It was a level two trauma hospital at the time.

Now it's a level one.

And then from there I worked in New Orleans.

So I worked at two different hospitals in New Orleans.

Kind of moved around.

Was it hard to find a job or were you in demand having that background and degree?

So I feel like as a respiratory therapist, it all depends on where you're at in the market for it.

So when I worked in Detroit and when I worked in New Orleans, they were two bigger cities where there was a lot of demand for respiratory therapy.

And now that I'm here in Augusta, it's a little bit smaller.

And when I came down here, I had a hard time finding a position, which is kind of why I didn't get a job.

Right.

Well.

And now I'm a stay at home, so I'm enjoying that.

And I mean, that's why, I mean, I worked and then I still work, but I went part time because I.

Wanted to be home more and more.

I feel like that's a good decision all around.

But do you miss clinical work?

Yeah, absolutely.

So, I mean, even when I had my son and I was in the hospital, I was constantly looking around the room to see if there was an ambu bag set up and if There was an O2 outlet and a suction outlet, and if the suction equipment was in the room.

So totally still a respiratory therapist at heart.

That's awesome.

Yeah, I did the.

I mean, it's hard being in medicine, but then also being the patient because you feel like, you know, too much.

So when I had Sam, I was doing the same kind of stuff, like making sure everything was okay.

And.

Right.

If the isolette was equipped with everything that my son needed, just in case.

Just in case we wanted to make sure everything was good.

And, of course, my husband was like, olive in there, too, so we were covered, but probably really, really annoying.

That's fine.

Totally fine.

You said you were kind of, you know, when you started on the respiratory therapy track, thinking PA school in the future.

What.

What changed that path?

I mean, or kind of?

I started working.

Okay.

No, so.

So when I started bringing an income in and then I started looking at my student debt to my income, I kind of started evaluating, like, oh, is this something practical or something that I want to continue?

Also, at that point, I finished my bachelor's in community development.

So because there wasn't a certain bachelor requirement for the PA program.

So if I'm being completely honest, I did the quantum quickest, get it done bachelor program.

I could do that, accepted a majority of my credits, and I could get done, like, as soon as possible.

So you, like, took the prereqs, like,.

Well, so I started taking some of the prereqs.

Okay.

And then I realized that a lot of my prereqs had expired.

So I got into the point where I was looking at taking almost all of my prereqs again, including anatomy and physiology, including microbiology and a lot of, like, bio classes that I had taken in my first semester of college.

And it was looking at, like, putting an extra two years on my path, just retaking some of my prereqs.

So that's when I kind of decided I was like, you know, is it going to be financially advantageous for me at this point point to take out, you know, X amount of debt when I'm already making X amount of money?

So that's kind of where I weighed things.

Okay.

And, I mean, it sounds like you felt fulfilled at your job, too.

Like, you felt valued and enjoyed what you were doing, too.

So if someone is trying to decide if they are kind of, you know, at a point where, you know, maybe they are pretty happy in their career, but they were thinking about going to PA school, but now they're kind of like, is it worth it?

And now that you are kind of can.

What's the word?

Look back in hindsight or retrospect or whatever, what would.

What would your advice be to, I guess, them or yourself or just somebody in that same situation?

I think it's a personal choice, and I think that everybody has to.

To kind of go on their own path and do what's right for them at the time.

I don't regret not going to PA school because it was the right choice for me and it's the right choice for my life.

I mean, I think about how different things would have been if I did go down that path.

But I do think that having a degree in respiratory therapy made it easy because I already had a career.

I already had a fulfilling career where I was able to serve others, I was able to treat others, make a difference in people's lives without going to the PA program, without presenting more financial hardship on myself, and I still had this really, really rewarding career.

Yeah, I think it's a great choice if someone has.

If they're on the right path to, you know, get that degree and set things up and then if you can, you know, so you gain experience while you're finishing your bachelor's.

Like, you were working as a respiratory therapist.

Oh, yeah.

So I was work.

I was working throughout.

Yeah.

So I started working as a respiratory therapist or a student respiratory therapist in the respiratory program, and I started.

And I continued to work throughout.

Yeah.

So, I mean, as long as your prereqs don't expire, it's a good path, but it may take some planning to.

Right.

And, you know, at that point, we were moving to New Orleans, so I was looking at transferring credits, and I was looking at different schools and different locations.

So for me, it wasn't the right choice at the time.

But if you do have it planned out and mapped out and you are working, it is totally possible and totally doable.

And, you know, the PA profession is amazing.

And the autonomy that you get with being a PA and, you know, everything with it is an amazing profession.

So, I mean, if you have the will and the desire, I recommend going all the way, why not?

Me too.

But I think it's okay for people to also realize that if things change or their desires change or.

I don't know.

I always thought I'd be the person who wanted to go back to work the week after having a baby, and turns out that's not who I am.

So, yeah, if things change, that's okay.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I think.

I hope this episode gives people a little bit of freedom to evaluate where they're at and kind of look at those things.

But thank you so much for coming on the episode.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you for having me.