PA isn't the only good option in medicine, and I'd rather you hear that from me than figure it out three years in.

Amanda Dexter directs the Master of Respiratory Care program at Jacksonville University, and she came on to explain what respiratory therapy actually is as a career. RTs are in the ER, in critical care, in home care, and increasingly in telehealth. If cardiopulmonary medicine is the part that lights you up, this is a real path.

Right now you can practice with an associate's degree, but the field is pushing toward a bachelor's as the standard, with 2030 as the target people keep pointing to. Jacksonville's master's program is one of only nine in the country.

A lot of pre-PAs use RT as their patient care experience and then apply to PA school. Some of them stay. Both outcomes are fine. What's not fine is picking a career because it's the only one you've heard of.

Check with programs directly for current degree requirements, since those timelines shift.

What we cover:

• What respiratory therapists do and where they work
• Associate's versus bachelor's versus master's, and where the field is headed
• What a master's in respiratory care adds
• Telehealth and expanding roles for RTs
• Using RT as patient care experience for PA school
• How to tell if this fits you better than PA

Resources:

Free PA School Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

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

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

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

Mentioned in this episode:

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Have you ever thought about doing something other than becoming a pa?

I know that's what we talk about a lot here, but there are some really great other options in allied health.

So today we're talking about respiratory care and what it takes to become a respiratory therapist and how you can get a master's in that program to really get to do a lot.

So stay tuned, and I think you're going to learn so much in this episode.

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 today's episode of the Pre PA Club Podcast.

I am so excited to have the program director of the Masters of Respiratory Care program at Jacksonville University joining us.

Her name is Amanda Dexter, and I think you're really going to learn a lot about the profession of respiratory therapy as well as becoming a respiratory therapist.

I will say there are some things that I didn't realize about the profession, especially the direction they're headed, which I think you'll find really interesting because it sounds extremely similar to the PA profession and how we have moved into different specialties and become advanced care providers in all of these different areas.

Respiratory therapists are so necessary in the hospital setting specifically, and that's really where I thought of them.

But again, I learned about some other places where RTs can work all that to say, and I say this in the episode, but my goal has never been to make anyone feel like they have to become a pa, but more to introduce you to the profession and help you if that is your goal.

And sometimes your goals change and your goal may not be to become a pa. And I think if you still want to be in medicine or if you know that you want to be in that pulmonology, cardiology, ICU setting, this is a really great option.

And Amanda goes into this, but you don't have to have.

Well, so some respiratory care programs are associate's degrees or bachelor's degrees, and there are only a few that provide a master's.

But as we've seen in other professions, including the PA profession, it seems that there is this move towards having more specialized education to work in roles that have more responsibility.

So I think this is a really great option if that is an area you want to be in.

And I think you'll learn a lot about RT and respiratory care because you're going to work with respiratory therapists, most likely, whether it's just on rotations or in your clinical setting.

If you do become a PA or you may listen to this and it may be something you want to explore.

So I'll put all the information for Jacksonville's program in the description and you can definitely reach out to them if you have any questions at all.

They are great, super responsive and I think this may be something to explore.

And if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me as well.

On Instagram, I'm HEPAPA platform or if you want to email me, that is totally fine as well.

I hope you enjoy this podcast and then make sure you watch out on social media for all of our upcoming webinars and events.

We have so much coming up as CASPA is about to open.

If you are applying this cycle and if you are in a limbo phase and you're not really sure what you want to do Jacksonville University's application cycle for this Master's program for respiratory care is still open and their first class will be starting very soon.

So I think it's worth checking out and if you need any info, please let me know.

Hi everyone, My name is Amanda Dexter.

I am the Program Director of the new Masters of Respiratory Care program at Jacksonville University.

I have been a registered respiratory therapist for close to 10 years.

I've worked in academia for about eight years now, which is crazy to think about, but prior to coming to ju, I actually worked at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte in their Bachelor's of Respiratory Therapy program.

So I'll talk to you about the education.

So there's many different educational levels for respiratory therapists, and I have had the opportunity to work in many of them.

I also worked as a bedside therapist in Chicago, Illinois at Rush University Medical center for quite a few years, practicing my clinical expertise there.

And I have also had the opportunity to work as a clinical educator for a simulation company.

So I traveled internationally helping educators and clinicians implement stimulation education into their teaching practices.

So everywhere from here in the US to Australia and China and Europe, I had the opportunity to really see how respiratory therapy was practiced in all of those places.

So my career has been vast and I'm very excited to be here with you today.

I want to hear more about a lot of that.

That's what I love.

Just in medicine and healthcare, there are some really unique opportunities out there.

Yes.

Which is really cool.

Especially now with technology and just how things are.

We don't really know what's out there.

And then you hear about all of these new opportunities and it's things you Never really thought possible for yourself and then you're offered those opportunities.

Yes.

It's crazy.

I would not have imagined before I started PA school that my PA career would look like it does right now.

Exactly.

It's fun though.

It's interesting, but challenging.

So I really do enjoy it.

What brought you to respiratory therapy?

What was your path to figuring out that was what you wanted to do?

I have a really unique story about what brought me into respiratory therapy.

I actually went.

I got my undergraduate degree in public health with the concentration in health or health education.

I really, I knew I wanted to take care of patients, I knew I wanted to work in healthcare, but I didn't have a specific passion going through undergraduate school.

I just knew I loved the idea of helping others feel better.

And so I actually joined a student organization in undergraduate called Global Medical Brigades.

And it is a student organization where we are given the opportunity to travel to places in Central America and Africa and really have that first time experience that hands on healthcare with indigenous populations.

It was my first time really experiencing international health.

And I feel like I lived in this bubble in Chicago where I thought everyone got the healthcare that they needed.

And then I traveled to.

I spent most of my time in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

And what I realized was people are not as easily given the opportunity to get simple medications like an inhaler or an antihistamine corticosteroid where I could walk into a Walgreens or a CVS and be handed back very quickly.

So many of the patients coming into our clinics were severely ill because of unmanaged asthma or COPD and something that is so easily treated here in the United States.

So that really hit me hard.

And coming from inner city Chicago, I had this idea of really wanting to go to schools and educate young students on how to recognize signs for an asthma attack.

What could you go home and look at in your own living environment to say, this is really what's causing me to not feel good and maybe missing days of school?

And so I looked up how can I go educate on these lung diseases?

And the program at Rush University popped up.

Hey, we teach about lung health.

We teach about managing lung diseases, both chronic and acute.

And so respiratory therapy really became my passion.

Doing these service projects abroad and then finding this really niche program in inner city Chicago that offered me the opportunity to become a respiratory therapist.

I will tell you, Savannah, that I loved my experience so much in doing these trips as an undergraduate student that I actually now am the advisor of that same organization for students at my university.

So I've gone on now eight trips to Central America and set up these pop up clinics with global medical brain.

So for those students interested in doing international health or getting your hands on patients before you get into graduate school, it's a great organization.

That's just funny that you mentioned that because I got a message this morning from someone looking for medical missions and that's the organization I recommended that they look into because I've heard such great things from so many people that it just.

The trips are very well done and you get a lot of really great exposure.

Yeah, they get that.

They get patient contact hours which I know is super important to a lot of students who are going on to graduate school.

But I think it's again an eye opener.

I have a lot of students who have never traveled internationally, but beyond that they have never seen firsthand how severely under equipped healthcare systems are in third world countries.

And it truly opens their eyes up to how differentiating healthcare systems are around me.

Yeah, I went on submissions in college that were not medical but were still very.

Just kind of give you that perspective that you don't have here as much.

And then now that I have been a pa, I've been able to go on a couple medical missions.

And you're right, it's very interesting seeing different disease states and how they progress in areas that don't have the access that we have makes you very thankful.

Even though we have our issues here too.

But definitely we're thankful for that too.

Yeah, keeps you humble for sure.

And that's where I think a lot of people on those trips and through patient care figure out what they want to do.

And one thing you said was your original sentiment was like I want to help others feel better.

And I think that's where pretty much everyone wanting to be in medicine.

That is the goal.

Like I see health and how our bodies and disease can affect people and I want to try to help that.

That's just a very common sentiment.

But there are so many different health professions now and it's like little niches and different things that it makes it a little overwhelming to try to figure out what to do.

And I've said it many times, but my goal with the PA platform has never been to say everyone needs to be a pa.

It's the best profession there ever was.

Go do this.

That is not my goal.

My goal is to say there is this profession called PA that might be a good option for you.

And if you want to explore it, here's some information because everybody's a little different, has different goals, different things they want to do, different interests.

But in doing that, I've learned about some very interesting other careers that even things I may have heard about but didn't really understand the schooling or understand what that person did.

One of my best friend now is a respiratory therapist.

So I've learned a lot more about that because of her and just share, sharing the areas she's worked in and what she does.

And also my husband, being a hospitalist, relies heavily on the RT team there.

He loves them and I'm very thankful for them in the hospital setting.

Can you tell us what is a registered respiratory therapist?

What are we even talking about?

I think really quick, I think you make a great point.

When we start working clinically, I think it is really amazing how quickly we rely on one another.

It's not just this like autonomous structure of providing care.

We depend so heavily on one another.

And I depend on the nurse and the pa, like the PA depends on me as a physician and it's a unique experience when students get to the bedside.

But a respiratory therapist, So I think simply put, a respiratory therapist.

Let's just talk respiratory therapy.

So respiratory therapy is a allied health discipline that really specializes in the treatment and care of both the heart and lungs because you really can't have one without the other.

So we have this extensive knowledge of the cardiopulmonary system, including the diseases that affect those two organs, as well as an extensive knowledge on the treatments we use to battle those diseases.

I think respiratory therapists are expected to use critical thinking skills, patient assessment expertise and even evidence based clinical practice.

We always talk about evidence based medicine to really develop and implement patient care plans that are specific to the cardiopulmonary system.

We teach patient education on acute and chronic lung diseases and we run disease management programs for those specific diseases.

So I think simply put, respiratory therapists provide a very niche patient care service in a variety of healthcare settings, depending on what's at risk.

And that's one of my questions because when I think about rts, I think about the hospital setting.

What are some of the kind of settings and areas that respiratory therapists tend to end up working in?

Sure.

And I think if say this upfront, I think it's growing still.

So yeah, post Covid, I think we're going to see a lot of new roles popping up, not just for respiratory therapists, but for all LA health professions.

I think we're seeing this concept of telehealth and home care becoming A much more common term used in healthcare.

So I'll just put that out there.

I plan to see RTs in those roles.

But you mentioned the acute care settings of the hospital setting.

Just in the hospital setting, there are multiple roles that respiratory therapists can hold.

We have RTs that work specifically in the emergency room.

So helping patients recover from acute conditions like an asthma attack or maybe they're having a case of pneumonia.

We also have specific RTs that are trained in adult critical care and then separate RTs that are trained in neonatal and pediatric respiratory care.

So being able to specialize with those patient populations, I think another unique group that I like to talk about are transport respiratory therapists.

So I have a lot of friends that provide care to critically ill or injured patients on a helicopter, in an air ambulance, or even on a ground ambulance.

So they're part of that transport team, bringing a patient from one location to another.

A very intense high stress adrenaline position.

But a lot of our T's are very interested.

I mentioned home care.

I think home care is going to boom in the coming years because of post Covid syndrome.

People maybe not wanting to come into the hospital.

So we have in home respiratory therapists who are providing care and treatment to patients in their home.

We're making sure they're using their medication and the devices.

We send them home with property.

So checking in on a weekly basis with a set of patients.

And then from like an outpatient setting standpoint, we have respiratory therapists working in pulmonary function labs.

So they're monitoring the cardiopulmonary functions of patients and performing tests on those patients lungs.

I also think about some RTs that I know who conduct sleep study.

So they're using equipment to monitor sleep function, eye movement, breathing while that patient is sleeping, to determine if they need to go on a machine at night.

And then I think for those of us who do go on and get an advanced degree, so a bachelor's or a master's degree, we're given opportunities as department managers, as educators, as researchers.

We're seeing the RT research field really boom, especially with COVID 19 and the involvement we have had in the care of those patients.

And then I have had friends who have even transitioned into pharmaceutical or medical equipment sales.

So again, a wide range of opportunities for respiratory therapists.

If you want to specialize with a certain patient population, work outside the hospital, or even maybe go non clinical.

There are a lot of opportunities opening up for our teams.

And that's good to hear because I think of the stress situations I'm like, oh, man, these people, they have to be really great in these high intensity, stressful situations where they're intimating patients really quickly.

But it sounds like you don't have to have that adrenaline rush side.

So that's.

It is exciting.

You graduate from school, you want to jump in, you want to get your hands dirty.

So those first few years, I think it's an amazing opportunity to get that experience and have those experiences at the bedside.

But then as you progress in your career, you might not want to work that 7pm to 7am shifts anymore.

There are other opportunities and other career opportunities out there to start stepping into and really get away from that adrenaline rush and that night shift.

I think one thing that would also appeal to a lot of people who may also be interested in the PA profession is, and it sounds like for a lot of respiratory therapy jobs, it's very procedure heavy.

And that's one thing I've heard from colleagues who work in the hospitals.

They're like, I was thinking I'd be intubating and do all these procedures, but we don't.

We call the RT team and they come in and do that.

And so it sounds like if you want to be that person who is, like you said, getting your hands dirty, like in their doing the job, like this is a good role to be in.

Leah, I think it's not replacing anyone's job.

I think us PAs and physicians, you're pulled very thin.

You have so many patients you have to see.

There's only one of you.

You're running wild all over the hospital.

So to be able to really delegate those procedures and some of that care plan off to other specialists, like a respiratory therapist who has extensive knowledge on mechanical ventilation, on the cardiopulmonary, on intubation, you can trust in us to care for the patient while you go see your 20 plus other patients who may not have a cardiopulmonary disease situation that we could deal with.

So, yeah, it's that handing off of and sharing and really being that interdisciplinary team that I love about RTs, PMAs and nurses.

Yeah, always goes back to teamwork, which is, I think, the most important part of patient care.

Okay, can we talk a little bit about the educational process to become a respiratory therapist and what that looks like and we can compare to pa because I think there are some similarities there in, like, the classes and everything, because it is still, like you said, an allied health profession.

So a lot of crossover.

But I'm sure y' all cardio pulmonary section was a little longer than ours.

It's funny because I honestly didn't know.

A side note, I didn't know that you all and physicians didn't get as much mechanical ventilation education as we all do.

So when I started working clinically, I was like, I was teaching physicians and PAs at the bedside, the settings on the mechanical ventilator.

And it was eye opening.

Again, the differences in our education and in the curriculums we both have getting us prepared to go out and work professionally.

But in terms of the educational process, I will tell you, I think the respiratory therapy field is unique in that I will say technically you only need an associate's degree to practice as a bedside respiratory therapist right now.

However, I will say that the field of RT has really evolved over the past 10 to 15 years in terms of the responsibilities and role being asked of us in those last 10 to 15 years.

I think current practice is really requiring us as RTs to have that extensive assessment ability and practice competency at the bedside.

And so the adequacy of that associate's degree for RT has really been questioned in the past few years.

There have been many calls for needed changes to meet the goals of what we're calling the future respiratory therapist.

This ability to have a little bit more autonomy and be given more responsibility and Rolex.

Eventually.

Our national professional organization actually recently put out a position statement proposing that we change the minimum educational level to enter into practice as a respiratory therapist to a bachelor's degree.

Now, I'll talk a little bit about what I think the benefits of a master's degree are, But I think in terms of prerequisites and requirements to become a respiratory therapist or to get into a respiratory therapy program for our specifically, you have to have successful completion of a bachelor's degree.

We are a master's level graduate program, so that general education coursework is going to be required.

Additionally, at ju, and I know at many of the other programs, I will also say we're unique in that we are one of only nine master's programs for respiratory care in the country.

So we all tend to have very similar requirements and prerequisites to get into the program.

But additionally, on top of that bachelor's degree, we do have a lot of prerequisites we want the students to have coming in.

So that baseline science knowledge, similar to what I think is expected in nursing and CA is required for respiratory therapists.

So A and P chemistry, Weber Fire physics and microbiology, a statistics course.

A lot of those similar prerequisite courses to other allied health professions are required for that master's of respiratory care.

And then what's in the program?

It's a pretty gruesome.

I'm not going to lie, it's a pretty gruesome curriculum.

So we require 90 credit hours to get to graduation.

Now that is both didactic work and then over 100 hours of clinical practice, whether it be in the lab, in the simulation center, or actually at the bedside doing a clinical rotation.

So I will say I think there are a lot of similarities and then a lot of focal points that again, we focus in on that maybe the PA profession really doesn't.

In terms of educational requirement to sit for those four days.

Yeah.

We did not get into any mechanical ventilation.

Like maybe it was mentioned during the lectures.

Yeah.

How long is the master's program?

Sure.

The master's program at ju, as many of the master's programs across the country, it's a two year completion time.

So a two year program completion.

And typically these master's programs are taking roughly 20 to 24 students to allow for that intimate coursework, to allow us to maintain that acceptable faculty to student ratio because we do want to be a.

To provide that individualized education that I think the students deserve so that they feel comfortable and confident going out to.

It's interesting hearing how the education is set up now and how it's progressing, because it actually sounds very similar to how PA education has gone.

So when the PA profession was started in the 70s, it was the same thing.

It was like an associate's degree and then it became a bachelor's degree and it was a bachelor's degree for a very long time.

There are still PAs practicing who have.

Yeah.

So there are still PAs practicing who only have a bachelor's.

Wow.

Like their Bachelor's of physician assistant.

Yeah.

And then it became master's and there.

And so now when that transition has happened is there are some states that require you to have a master's to practice as a PA. And so some of those PAs who just had associates or bachelor's, they got.

They.

They had to figure it out.

And so there are some PA programs now that offer like a bachelor's to master's bridge for those PAs.

But it just sounds so similar that, like you said, like, over these next few years, it looks like the profession will go that direction, too.

It's just as these newer, quote, newer, we're both newer professions get established because nurses and doctors have been around forever.

It's like we find our place and then it just gets so much more specialized and they figure out what you can do.

And so, yeah, so that's just very interesting.

And I think by having a master's program or a master's in respiratory therapy, you're ahead of the game and wouldn't have to worry about that later on and would probably be more likely to get some of those leadership, more intense, more responsibility positions.

What we're noticing now is that, like you said, a lot of people are realizing I'm not going to be able to maybe get that job promotion or apply for that job.

They're hitting that glass ceiling because they're requiring these advanced education.

So I'm always telling my students, don't be one of those individuals who hits the glass ceiling.

Be ahead of the game.

Be proactive.

Get the educational level you need so that you are never limited to the job that you can apply to.

And I'll tell you, Savannah, there's been a huge talk about this concept of what we're calling the advanced practice respiratory therapy.

And basically it's going to be this new credential that is already being passed in many states.

It's going to allow us to really train and practice to a similar level of a PA or an NP in multiple settings across the healthcare spectrum.

Really expanding our scope of practice at the bedside as respiratory therapists, allowing us to prescribe medications, do certain procedures at the bedside again, so we don't have to pull you all away for these nuisance calls when you're taking care of another patient.

That at credential will require at minimum, a master's degree, if not a doctorate degree.

And so I tell my students, well, it's not here in Florida yet.

It's in multiple other states across the country.

It's going to come to Florida.

Be prepared to be able to get that credential now so you don't have to go back to school in the next three to five years to do that.

And so where I'm trying to get them to recognize that if you're prepared now, there's no job that you can.

And there's so many, I feel like people going into medicine who know, like, I want to be doing cardiology, pulmonology, icu, I want to be in that hospital medicine setting and I Think it's important for them to realize that PA is not the only option for that.

There's things like, I've never heard of an aprt, but that completely makes sense because you are the ones doing a lot of that airway management and stuff that we aren't doing.

And PEAS are in that same field.

And even for PAs, those have become harder areas to get into because of the requirement of wanting more advanced training and experience.

And that's where we've had these residency postgraduate training programs come out that probably train us to do what you guys were already trained to do in school.

Again, it's a very new concept.

I think there's only about two or three programs in the country right now who are offering this credential.

But again, as more states hear about it and as more medical boards really understand the significance behind what that could mean for their practice, I think it's going to become more popular and I think it makes sense.

Again, I'll keep bringing up this idea of the post Covid syndrome that we're going to be seeing.

People are going to go home with chronic lung disease.

We're seeing it already.

We're seeing individuals who unfortunately are going home on mechanical ventilators.

You can't be expected to take care of all of that.

So letting advanced practice respiratory therapist who is trained in mechanical ventilation, who again is trained in the cardiopulmonary system, care for those patients and know that they have the extensive knowledge and training to do that.

Yeah.

What does Yalls application cycle look like?

Sure.

So we're so again, we're very new.

Okay.

The application cycle is open now.

So for VVR accepting applications right now, a few of the requirements for the application.

Again, I mentioned the completion of your bachelor's degree with all of your training, you will have a personal interview with the respiratory therapy faculty.

Now, we are doing those virtually as well.

Given the times we can't expect people to be traveling or be able to come in for an interview.

A letter of recommendation from a faculty member or a past clinical job would be really nice.

Where we're going to be asking for at least one letter of recommendation.

It's a personal statement, so we'll supply a few questions.

Why are you interested in respiratory therapy?

What are your goals with obtaining an advanced degree in respiratory care?

We're going to ask for a nice personal statement.

And then as I mentioned, the completion of those prerequisite courses.

So not to, I think again Very handler.

I know that you all have clinical hour experience as part of the requirement.

I would say that would be very helpful.

But again, with the seeing and entry to practice program, a lot of those clinical hours will be obtained during those advanced rotations.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, it looks very similar.

Do people have to have these things completed at the time of application submission or by the time they start the program?

By the time they start the program.

So we will be accepting individuals who are about to graduate or who are completing coursework.

We'll put them in as a provisional acceptance until those requirements are submitted.

Okay, cool.

That's, I think a great option for people to know about and I appreciate you sharing with us so that we can help people figure out where they want to go and what they want to do.

And also I should mention that I love Jacksonville, Florida.

There's so much to do and you're like close to the beach.

You have a great airport.

Like there's.

I am a Jacksonville fan.

I will say I moved here from Charlotte and it was hard to leave.

But like you said, being 15 minutes from the beach is awesome.

I go run there on most weekends and then I live right on the Saint John's River.

The university is actually right on the Saint John's River.

It's absolutely beautiful.

So a lot of positives to living in Jacksonville, Florida and the weather.

You really can't beat the weather down here.

It's not too hot?

Yeah.

Not cold like it is.

It's from.

So I get the best of both worlds.

That's awesome.

We'll put all the information for everybody in the description.

What is the best way or person to contact?

Is all of that information on the website?

It is on the website.

If people have follow up questions about the profession or maybe about some of the unique aspects of the program, please feel free to let them reach out to me.

I can provide my email address to you.

In terms of application questions, there is a contact person on the website who will probably have better knowledge of those answers than I will.

But when it comes to the profession or what's going to be discussed in our coursework or in our curriculum, I would be happy to answer those questions.

Cool.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

Yes, thank you.

This was wonderful.

And again, I know that there's are a lot of options out there for LA health physicians.

I just want.

I just wanted to raise the awareness of another one.

I feel fit in there and works very closely with the pa.

So for students who are aspiring to again care for patients and treat illnesses, I think this is a great career option.

I agree, and I learned a lot.

So welcome.

Thanks again.

All right, so I hope that was helpful to you, and maybe this will help you or help you help a friend who is trying to figure out what they want to do.

If there are any other professions you'd like for us to explore on the podcast, please let me know.

I think we talked about it, but.

Going back to this as a whole team approach and understanding and knowing what other people do is important, too.

We've talked to a physical therapist in the past, a nurse practitioner.

We've had doctors on.

But there are some really cool professions out there.

So if there is someone you want to hear from, let me know.

And check out the Jacksonville University Respiratory Care Program at the links in the description.

Thanks for listening, guys.

See you next week.