Respiratory Therapy grad never ‘prouder of my profession’
Never before have respiratory therapists been as needed or as appreciated as they have been during the COVID-19 pandemic. A fact that has not been lost on the faculty, students and alumni of Macomb’s Respiratory Therapy program.
“I used to tell my students that respiratory therapy was health care’s best kept secret. However, if you walk into any ICU now, you will find three people: a doctor, a nurse, and a respiratory therapist,” said Richard Zahodnic, lead faculty in Macomb’s Respiratory Therapy program. “With COVID-19 and the havoc it has on the cardiopulmonary system, respiratory therapists are finally a household term, and the recognition provided them is overdue.”
Respiratory therapists are the only member of a health care team trained in the use of a ventilator machine, which sustains patients who cannot breathe on their own. Respiratory therapists are also responsible for measuring a patient’s lung capacity, analyzing oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood, administering breathing treatments, performing chest physiotherapy to alleviate lung congestion and educate patients in self-care and prevention.
In Macomb’s program, which leads to an associate of applied science degree and qualifies graduates to take certification and registry exams for a state license, students spend their first year in classrooms and labs on Macomb’s Center Campus. Their second year includes 900 hours of clinical training at local hospitals and rehabilitation facilities, as well as additional classroom lectures and labs. And because of its graduates’ average pass rate of 100 percent (over three years) on the Certified Respiratory Therapy Exam and a commitment to ongoing improvement, the program recently received its 10-year reaccreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care.
“Macomb’s program has been in existence for more than 50 years,” noted Zahodnic, “making it the longest running program like it in Michigan.”
Elizabeth Prybys, an alum of the program, credits it with instilling “the utmost confidence” when she took her board exams, which she passed on the first try, and made for an “easy” transition to a hospital setting. In fact, she was offered and accepted a full-time position with Ascension Macomb-Oakland when she graduated from Macomb in 2015, and she has continued to work there ever since.
“The program had such a positive impact on me that I even furthered my education and came back to teach,” said Prybys, who earned a bachelor of science degree in respiratory therapy after graduating from Macomb. “It pushed me out of my comfort zone of being just a student, and prepared me to be an expert in my field.”
As Zahodnic pointed out, the respiratory therapy profession has been a visible force in the fight against COVID-19. That fact, along with the critical role that respiratory therapists have always had on a health care team, provides Prybys with continuing inspiration in her daily work with physicians and nurses to develop the best plan of care for each patient.
“It’s more than just administering oxygen or breathing treatments, we’re there from the first breath of life to the very last,” she said. “Being a specialist in the cardiopulmonary system and ventilator management has truly made our role and importance shine in this pandemic. I could not be prouder of my profession.”