I am almost finished with RT school. So, even though I am far from reaching an expert status, I do believe that I have a few pointers to get the new RT student through the tough times to come.
1.) Be organized. This seems trivial but DONT forget your supplies: book, paper, pencils, etc. Always bring your supplies to class. Be prepared to take notes. In fact, even when you are in your final semester of class there will be plenty of times when you wish you had taken better notes in the first sememster because you will continually refer back to past studies, formulas, facts, and figures. Everything is important, if not now, later. I always have my binder with me. My binder is organized with tabs and a calendar section, extras section, and board review section. My teachers give me some extra just FYI sort of things: Job postings, conferences, things like this. I keep these in the "Extra" tab. The most important tab I keep in my binder is "Board Review". Everytime I come across a formula or something I think is important or that might be used in the future, I flip over to this section and I jot the information down. My hope is that when school ends and its time to study and review for the board exam, most of the information I need to study will be compiled into one organized place. Also for this same reason, keep your study guides, and your books! I realize that you will get money for selling your books back, but these books will be used for referrence for a long time. Don't sell them back. Print a calendar and keep it in the front of your binder. Use this calendar to write down important dates, tests, quizzes, conferences, etc.
2.) Your resume. If you dont have a resume, make one now. If you already have a resume, update it. Make your medical/educational resume. During the tenure of your RT school, you will be exposed to TONS of things you will be able to add to your resume. This includes conferences, training affiliations, lab certifications, presentations given, etc. Have your resume updated and ready at all times. Have a hard copy and a printed copy handy. Most applications are online and will require you to submit a hard copy, however, several smaller hospitals do not and will require you to mail or fax your application and resume. Compile a list of referrences. This includes people you have worked with, your instructors, your clinical director, respiratory therapists you have trained with in clinicals, respiratory directors, etc. Ask them for permission to use them as a referrence and add them to your resume.
3.) Record your experiences. Whatever method you prefer, use it. Blog, journal, write a book. Your two years of RT school only happen once. Write about your clinicals. Write about what you learn, what you dont understand, what you love, what you hate. It will be fun to look back on this later. What you do is important and consuming. Be proud of it. Let others know what you do and why you love it!
4.) Make time for fun. Never use every minute you have for studying. Dont lose sight of who you are and what you love to do. So do your homeowork, go to class, love the medical field. But keep up with your friends and extra activites that you love to do.
5.) Get a student job. You can get a student job after one year of studies. That means that for the last year of school, you can also be working in your field and getting paid for doing it. Granted, you will not get as much money as a certified or registered therapist, but that is only fair. Working as a student will give you more hands on experience than school work and even clinicals. Many hospitals will even refund your tuition for working for them. To get a student job, you will need to print of the student application for your state. You can find this online and your teachers should be able to help you with the resources on this. When you get the application, a portion is yours to fill out, and also your instructors need to complete a portion. And the preceptor where you plan to work will have to complete a section. The application will need to be notorized is several different places and you will need to attach a recent picture of yourself. Print the application because it is sometimes time consuming to complete. The exact process as well as the cost of the application is different for each state. So get it printed and get it ready before you need it. When you get an interview, be professional. Dress professionally. Act respectful. You are a respiratory therapist. Respect your profession and others will follow.
The decision I made to go to RT school is one of the best things Ive done. I really feel fullfilled with what I do and the profession I've chosen. If you have already made that decision and you are in Respiratory school, I don't think that "surviving" it will be a complication that comes up. If you do what you love, then you will love what you do, and that will show in all aspects of your life.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Last Night's Dream...
Everyone that knows me knows I have some STRANGE dreams. Last night wasn't in the top 10 strange but anyway here it is...
I had a dream I was delivering someone's baby.
Why did I dream this? Well I did watch the Andy Griffith episode recently where Andy delivered a baby in the thunderstorm.
So in my dream I had to explain to myself where the head was and where the butt was in the Mom's belly. This was the criteria to determine if I had the skills to deliver the baby.
Then I got the baby out and I immediately suctioned it. (Only an RT would dream of suctioning a patient.) But there was no yankauer in the room. So I had to rig one up Macgyver style with what I had in the room. Anyway, the stuff I was suctioning was really white and thick. (Of course and RT will describe what she suctioned.) And I didn't have to intubate the baby because it was doing well. But it never cried. It was just happy. And the whole time I was doing this procedure in my dream I kept thinking "OH GOD is THIS what I learned in class" I kept saying that to myself over and over. And I thought, I know that the baby needs to take a deep breath and scream and cry to get enough oxygen and for the DA to close, but this baby is not screaming and crying, but the oxygen is fine... "what did I learn about this in class" "Why are they letting me deliver a baby" "Am I doing everything right" "Did I forget something really important"
Then after it was over and I woke up, I was thinking about it. And I thought, you know, what would normal people think or do with a new baby? They would see if it is a boy or a girl, they would count the fingers or toes, they would think how cute it is and they would want to hold it or give it to the mother. But what did I think? I never looked to see if it was a boy or a girl, I don't know if it had all its fingers. I don't know if it was even cute. All I could think of is keeping the baby alive. And I did it and it was over. I guess the whole concept of keeping emotional distance from patients is turning in to a subconscience thing...?
I had a dream I was delivering someone's baby.
Why did I dream this? Well I did watch the Andy Griffith episode recently where Andy delivered a baby in the thunderstorm.
So in my dream I had to explain to myself where the head was and where the butt was in the Mom's belly. This was the criteria to determine if I had the skills to deliver the baby.
Then I got the baby out and I immediately suctioned it. (Only an RT would dream of suctioning a patient.) But there was no yankauer in the room. So I had to rig one up Macgyver style with what I had in the room. Anyway, the stuff I was suctioning was really white and thick. (Of course and RT will describe what she suctioned.) And I didn't have to intubate the baby because it was doing well. But it never cried. It was just happy. And the whole time I was doing this procedure in my dream I kept thinking "OH GOD is THIS what I learned in class" I kept saying that to myself over and over. And I thought, I know that the baby needs to take a deep breath and scream and cry to get enough oxygen and for the DA to close, but this baby is not screaming and crying, but the oxygen is fine... "what did I learn about this in class" "Why are they letting me deliver a baby" "Am I doing everything right" "Did I forget something really important"
Then after it was over and I woke up, I was thinking about it. And I thought, you know, what would normal people think or do with a new baby? They would see if it is a boy or a girl, they would count the fingers or toes, they would think how cute it is and they would want to hold it or give it to the mother. But what did I think? I never looked to see if it was a boy or a girl, I don't know if it had all its fingers. I don't know if it was even cute. All I could think of is keeping the baby alive. And I did it and it was over. I guess the whole concept of keeping emotional distance from patients is turning in to a subconscience thing...?
Thursday, February 12, 2009
How do the lungs of a bird differ from those of a human?
The lungs of birds differ significantly from those of mammal. In addition to the lungs themselves, birds have posterior and anterior air sacs (typically nine) which control air flow through the lungs, but do not play a direct role in gas exchange. They have a flow-through respiration system.
When a bird inhales, air flows in through the trachea to the posterior air sacs, while air currently within the lungs flows into the anterior air sacs. When the bird exhales, the fresh air now contained within the posterior air sacs is driven into the lungs, and the stale air now contained within the anterior air sacs is expelled through the trachea and into the atmosphere. Two complete cycles of inhalation and exhalation are, therefore, required for one breath of air to make its way through the avian respiratory system.
See http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Lung for more information.
When a bird inhales, air flows in through the trachea to the posterior air sacs, while air currently within the lungs flows into the anterior air sacs. When the bird exhales, the fresh air now contained within the posterior air sacs is driven into the lungs, and the stale air now contained within the anterior air sacs is expelled through the trachea and into the atmosphere. Two complete cycles of inhalation and exhalation are, therefore, required for one breath of air to make its way through the avian respiratory system.
See http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Lung for more information.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Call for Papers
Call For Papers
Literature and Medicine: Women in the Medical Profession
(guest editor Prof. Dr. Carmen Birkle, University of Marburg)
This special issue of gender forum focuses on the intersections between medicine, literature, and gender, also taking into account the relevance of ethnicity and class. The interest in the interface of literature and medicine from the specific point of view of gender is triggered by the intriguing similarities between the medical and literary disciplines. The doctor, like the literary scholar, is faced with a text, a narrative voiced by the patient either through language or bodily symptoms. In order to understand this narrative, the doctor, like the scholar, needs to listen closely, to examine the constituents of the narrative carefully, to consider the subjectivity of the narrative, to read between the lines, and to interpret ambiguities coded in metaphorical language. The relationship between reader and text – on both levels – is embedded in the gender matrix of a given context. Furthermore, Sontag’s analysis of the ways in which illnesses are used as metaphors to express social, political, moral, or cultural crises offers fruitful ground for discussion.
We invite papers that discuss both the situation and positions of women in the medical world – for example, as patients, doctors, nurses – and the representation of these situations in literature.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to, discussions of
— patient narratives
— women doctors
— doctor-patient relationships
— nursing the nation
— engendering the hospital
— women and madness
— illness as a metaphor
— the female body as subject to discourses of health, in regard to
pregnancy and birth
(cosmetic) surgery
breast cancer
food and eating habits affecting women (e.g. bulimia, anorexia, weight
reduction)
Contributions by medical practitioners, scholars of medical history as well as by scholars of literature, culture, media, history, and related disciplines are invited.
Submission of 200-word proposal as well as a 200-word CV by March 1, 2009
Submission of finished papers by April 30, 2009.
The issue is scheduled to appear in the summer of 2009.
For more information, click here.
Literature and Medicine: Women in the Medical Profession
(guest editor Prof. Dr. Carmen Birkle, University of Marburg)
This special issue of gender forum focuses on the intersections between medicine, literature, and gender, also taking into account the relevance of ethnicity and class. The interest in the interface of literature and medicine from the specific point of view of gender is triggered by the intriguing similarities between the medical and literary disciplines. The doctor, like the literary scholar, is faced with a text, a narrative voiced by the patient either through language or bodily symptoms. In order to understand this narrative, the doctor, like the scholar, needs to listen closely, to examine the constituents of the narrative carefully, to consider the subjectivity of the narrative, to read between the lines, and to interpret ambiguities coded in metaphorical language. The relationship between reader and text – on both levels – is embedded in the gender matrix of a given context. Furthermore, Sontag’s analysis of the ways in which illnesses are used as metaphors to express social, political, moral, or cultural crises offers fruitful ground for discussion.
We invite papers that discuss both the situation and positions of women in the medical world – for example, as patients, doctors, nurses – and the representation of these situations in literature.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to, discussions of
— patient narratives
— women doctors
— doctor-patient relationships
— nursing the nation
— engendering the hospital
— women and madness
— illness as a metaphor
— the female body as subject to discourses of health, in regard to
pregnancy and birth
(cosmetic) surgery
breast cancer
food and eating habits affecting women (e.g. bulimia, anorexia, weight
reduction)
Contributions by medical practitioners, scholars of medical history as well as by scholars of literature, culture, media, history, and related disciplines are invited.
Submission of 200-word proposal as well as a 200-word CV by March 1, 2009
Submission of finished papers by April 30, 2009.
The issue is scheduled to appear in the summer of 2009.
For more information, click here.
Join my Linkedin Group!!
If you haven't yet heard of linkedin it is a website devoted to online networking. Go sign up, add me as a connection, and join the Respiratory Therapy Group. In the group, you can read and post news, discussions, cool case studies, and also meet other RT's from around the world! See ya there!
Here is the link to the group:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1781173
Here is the link to the group:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1781173
Thursday, February 5, 2009
25 random things about me
1. I love to cook, but I dislike recipes. I usually make up random stuff. So it might be good, it might not. If you like it, don't get use to it, because I have no idea how I made it and thus, might never be able to replicate it.
2. My favorite NFL team is the Colts because I like the color and the horseshoe and because I have read coach Dungy's book.
3. I like the health care field so much that when I retire, I want to be a traveling RT (or PA) so that I can retire, travel, and still do what I love.
4. I read constantly. And usually more than one book at a time because I get bored easily and need a change.
5. I love to get dressed up.
6. I also like to lounge around in my PJ's on the weekend.
7. I actually like school. Especially Chemistry and Biology.
8. I like to sew. Quilts, blankets, pillows, curtains, clothes, I just like to make stuff.
9. I use to run and eat really healthy. I miss it a lot. However, I’m too lazy to get started again.
10. I only have one kidney. So be an organ donor.
11. I am notoriously difficult to figure out and rarely think conventionally.
12. I am a conservative, right-winged, republican, and I'm proud of it.
13. Beth has been my friend since before school. We were best friends in day care.
14. There is nothing I love more than my family.
15. I love going to the movie theater to watch a new movie I've been waiting for.
16. I love music.
17. I don’t like going to bed before midnight.
18. I hate drama, so most of my friends are guys. You can understand why.
19. I love to travel. Geography is not my best subject and the best way for me to learn and enjoy it is to go and see it. The two places I want to see before I die are London and New Zealand. I also want to visit all 50 states and I collect post cards from every place I visit.
20. I hate cold weather because I cant wear my flip flops.
21. I am currently in the middle of writing and publishing my first book.
22. I drink way too much pop but I have no desire or inclination to stop.
23. I am not a morning person, but I wish I was.
24. I love my sense of humor but I know that it does not appeal to everyone.
25. I have given my life to God; I read the bible; I go to church. This is what gives direction to my choices and way of life.
2. My favorite NFL team is the Colts because I like the color and the horseshoe and because I have read coach Dungy's book.
3. I like the health care field so much that when I retire, I want to be a traveling RT (or PA) so that I can retire, travel, and still do what I love.
4. I read constantly. And usually more than one book at a time because I get bored easily and need a change.
5. I love to get dressed up.
6. I also like to lounge around in my PJ's on the weekend.
7. I actually like school. Especially Chemistry and Biology.
8. I like to sew. Quilts, blankets, pillows, curtains, clothes, I just like to make stuff.
9. I use to run and eat really healthy. I miss it a lot. However, I’m too lazy to get started again.
10. I only have one kidney. So be an organ donor.
11. I am notoriously difficult to figure out and rarely think conventionally.
12. I am a conservative, right-winged, republican, and I'm proud of it.
13. Beth has been my friend since before school. We were best friends in day care.
14. There is nothing I love more than my family.
15. I love going to the movie theater to watch a new movie I've been waiting for.
16. I love music.
17. I don’t like going to bed before midnight.
18. I hate drama, so most of my friends are guys. You can understand why.
19. I love to travel. Geography is not my best subject and the best way for me to learn and enjoy it is to go and see it. The two places I want to see before I die are London and New Zealand. I also want to visit all 50 states and I collect post cards from every place I visit.
20. I hate cold weather because I cant wear my flip flops.
21. I am currently in the middle of writing and publishing my first book.
22. I drink way too much pop but I have no desire or inclination to stop.
23. I am not a morning person, but I wish I was.
24. I love my sense of humor but I know that it does not appeal to everyone.
25. I have given my life to God; I read the bible; I go to church. This is what gives direction to my choices and way of life.
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