SHAWNEE STATE UNIVERSITY :: Health Sciences

Respiratory Therapy

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Respiratory Therapy
Graduates of the Respiratory Therapy Program at Shawnee State University earn an Associate of Applied Sciences degree. The program is five semesters in length and combines classroom, laboratory, and clinical educational experiences.

All classroom and laboratory instruction is provided at the University. Clinical education is provided at a variety of hospital, extended care facilities, and homecare sites located throughout southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, and western West Virginia.

This program is fully accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), through the Committee on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC). Graduates are eligible to take both the Entry-Level (Certification) and Advanced-Practitioner (Registry) Examinations of the National Board for Respiratory Care (NBRC).

Respiratory therapy is an allied health specialty whose practitioners are employed, under medical direction, to provide treatment, management, diagnostic evaluation, and care to patients with deficiencies or abnormalities associated with the process of breathing.

Respiratory therapists work side-by-side with physicians, nurses, and other health care team members to treat patients ranging in age from premature infants to the elderly. Their duties vary from the administration of oxygen, humidity, aerosols, and the drainage of lung secretions, to the use of technologically sophisticated monitoring devices and treatment techniques in order to assure the survival of patients with life threatening conditions such as head or chest trauma.

Some practitioners choose to spend the majority of their time working in diagnostic laboratories, where they assist in the evaluation of the type and extent of a patient’s pulmonary dysfunction and evaluate the effectiveness of the patient's current therapy. Other practitioners may choose to work in specialized areas of respiratory care, including education, management, home care, sales, research, and specialized areas of diagnostic testing or patient care such as cardiovascular diagnostics or care of infants and children.

Certification
The graduate of the respiratory therapy program is awarded the associate of applied science degree and is eligible to sit for the examinations of the National Board for Respiratory Care. Successful completion of the ‘‘entry-level’’ examination of the NBRC results in the student being awarded the CRT (Certified Respiratory Therapist) credential. Successful completion also results in graduates being eligible for a license to practice in any state currently having a licensure law. Finally, graduates who successfully complete the entry-level examination are also eligible to take the advanced practitioner examination of the NBRC. Successful completion of that examination results in the student being awarded the RRT (Registered Respiratory Therapist) credential by the NBRC.

Accreditation
In 1980 the Ohio Board of Regents approved the creation of this program of study, leading to the associate of applied science degree at Shawnee State University. The respiratory therapy program at Shawnee State is fully accredited by the Committee on Accreditation for Respiratory Care and the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs.

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