Does Respiratory Care have a place in the Mid-Level Provider Arena?

[mrRRTtoPA]

I've heard this discussed a while ago....on RT is working on developing it's own Advanced Practice credential that will function as an extender to a Pulmonologist similar to a PA or an NP.

Of course working on it, and actually doing it are two different things, but I know this idea has been discussed.

I know the profession is striving to make it bachelor's entry someday in the next 10 years or so, we'll see on that one.

As a former RT myself and now DPT student, Just curious to find out if anyone thought this is actually going to be needed someday and if this could work? Or is this a case of, too many cooks in the kitchen are not needed, we can fill any "needs" we have sufficiently with NP's and PA's.

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[SouthSideSteve]

No.

 

[Zenman1]

No cause I've already seen NPs and PA practicing in pulmonary.

 

[Mad Jack]

Too many cooks in the kitchen. As a RRT myself, I read the draft proposals and wasn't impressed. It's extra training so we could what, change our own vent settings, insert A lines, central lines, and chest tubes, and perform bronchs? That just doesn't make sense versus using two years to train a RRT as a generalist PA, which offers more career options, a more broad knowledge base, and less practice limitations for the hospitals utilizing their services.

What it boils down to is there are a ton of things a RRT/PA could do that a hypothetical RRT midlevel could not with the same time investment, while there would be nothing a RRT midlevel could do that a RRT/PA could not, so why bother.

 

[SouthSideSteve]

I read the draft proposals and wasn't impressed. It's extra training so we could what, change our own vent settings, insert A lines, central lines, and chest tubes, and perform bronchs?

I havent heard anything about this, but they want to add how much training? And to do a bunch of procedures and nothing else?

If you want to be a RRT midlevel, just go to PA school and work for a pulmonologist or get a gig where you manage unit patients. Absolutely no reason to create a superfluous midlevel position.


This degree creep is getting out of hand.

 

[JoBreeze]

Midlevels always tryin' to keep the low levels in their place.

 

[BreathDeep]

No.

I am an RCP myself, I work for a large university medical center where the respiratory department rotates through all the units (so no "I'm a MICU/SICU/ER/Whatever therapist only"), so I have a decent amount of exposure to various patients all with different respiratory needs.

I say respiratory needs no "Advanced Practice" because we can already do all those things.

RT's can intubate/extubate, insert a-lines/PICC's/Swan's, do bronchs (therapeutic not diagnostic), conscious sedate, independently manage ventilators, order and change therapy/medication with proper protocols and all sorts of other stuff. Now granted, many don't, but our scope of practice covers all these things and there are RT's all over the country doing any combination of these things too.

So why is a midlevel needed exactly? What would a midlevel, or APRT as CoARC has called it, really gain for the profession?

No, what needs to happen is education and lobbying.

Hospitals need to realize that therapist driven protocols which enhance RT autonomy have been proven to work (and yes, there are studies to prove it!). MD's need to learn that RT's can do more than mindlessly turn knobs and push albuterol. Nurses need to learn that we're highly trained specialists and not their personal neb givers (In most cases we go to school longer than them anyway. Out here in NorCal RN school is 4 semesters, RT is 5 and we have to take physics prereq's too). And the government needs to allow RT to be reimbursed by Medicare and operate outside the hospital setting.

Do all these things and Viola! We're in basically the same place as this midlevel nonsense, without thickening the sticky morass of practitioners already out there by simply allowing us to do what were already trained and covered to do.

That said, no one cares. And a self-congratulatory Masters in MidLevelry will mean nothing to anybody.

 

[absolutdokta]

this **** is really getting old. why the hell does everyone want to be perceived as equal when they very much so are not? pick a ****ing domain and work there!! want to be a doc? go to med school. want to be a midlevel? go to whatever school makes you so. after you're done be satisfied with where you are and stop trying to move up within your field for the purpose of being equal to another health care provider that has different letters behind their name. ofcourse, there's nothing wrong with wanting to move up to better your ability to care for a patient, but when your goal is moving up for equality with a doc/pa/np/nurse/whatever it's ****ing stupid and annoying

 

[jwk]

RT's can intubate/extubate, insert a-lines/PICC's/Swan's, do bronchs (therapeutic not diagnostic), conscious sedate, independently manage ventilators, order and change therapy/medication with proper protocols and all sorts of other stuff. Now granted, many don't, but our scope of practice covers all these things and there are RT's all over the country doing any combination of these things too.
.

RT's can place Swan Ganz catheters and do conscious sedation? What state allows this?

 

[joeDO2]

None that I know of. Heck, half the physicians I've seen aren't even credentialed to do it.