What Does a Respiratory Therapist Do?

On this episode of Voices of Vital Care, host Nohelani Graf sits down with April Ramirez, BSHCA, RRT-NPS, director of clinical education at Pima Medical Institute’s Mesa Campus to pull back the curtain on one of health care’s commonly misunderstood roles: the respiratory therapist. Ramirez has spent 20 years in the field, from flying premature newborns across southern Arizona to managing ventilators in hospital ICUs to training the next generation of respiratory therapists in the classroom. This conversation gives a firsthand look at who steps in when someone can’t breathe and what it takes to be that person. Ask Ramirez what a respiratory therapist actually does, and she’ll tell you it starts with the moments that matter most:

“Respiratory therapists come into patients’ lives in their most critical care moments, when they are not at their best. They may have an acute or chronic condition that leaves them unable to breathe.”

-April Ramirez, Director of Clinical Education, Pima Medical Institute

It’s a job that can look completely different from one patient to the next and often from one hour to the next. That range, from a routine breathing treatment on a hospital floor to managing a ventilator in the ICU, is what makes the role so hard to define in a single sentence. 

In this episode, Ramirez also walks through the many settings where respiratory therapists work and what a typical shift can look like. For anyone weighing whether the field could be the right fit for them, she offers advice drawn straight from her years in the classroom.

“My biggest advice is to prioritize your studying time, prioritize your life outside the classroom, and understand the why. If you can speak to something, you’ll understand the deeper meaning behind it and be able to answer any question or patient situation.”

-April Ramirez, Director of Clinical Education, Pima Medical Institute

For Ramirez, the “why” is more than a study tactic. It’s the same instinct that lets a respiratory therapist notice a changing patient before the physician’s order even comes down. That mindset, she says, carries straight from the classroom to the bedside, where the ability to explain a patient’s condition, not just recognize it, can be the difference between reacting to an emergency and preventing one.

In this episode, you will learn:

• What respiratory therapists actually do, from breathing treatments to managing ventilators in the ICU
• Why every shift looks different, covering everything from the ER to the NICU to general floor care
• What it is like to serve as a flight respiratory therapist transporting premature newborns
• The most common conditions respiratory therapists treat, including asthma, COPD and pneumonia
• Why patients do not always see respiratory therapists the way they see nurses
• How the hands-on clinical externships offered at Pima Medical Institute prepare students for real patient care before graduation
• How respiratory therapists balance the emotional weight of patient care with the wins that keep them going
• Why demand for respiratory therapists is expected to keep growing in the years ahead

Who this episode is for: Anyone considering a hands-on health care career, especially those drawn to fast-paced, ever-changing work environments.

The Respiratory Therapy associate degree program is available at eight Pima Medical Institute campuses across Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington.