Im an RRT at a 600 bed hospital. Just curious what everyone does at their hospital. We are assigned around 45-50 tx per 12 hour shift. We use pyxis to get medications.Still Chart on paper in ICU and ER(which is great). We intubate pts all the time. Our ER docs order tons of tx. ( We have 1 therapist in ER only, No other assignment). We have around 13-15 therapist on per shift. So how about everyone else?

My job is rediculously busy. Same situation as the first poster. Seems as if you can't really provide care because all you seem to do is go from treatment to treatment. I've been doing this for five years and I am a little jaded. Even in ICUs, the number of treatments . . . Respiratory Care is about so much more than nebulizers. . .

Nebpusher,

Contact me, within the next 18 month we will have one of the most progressive RT departments in the country.
You'll need to change from nebpusher to physician extender if you come work with us.

GJ

Excellent. Work exclusively in intensive care units. Very progressive RT department. Just as GJ mentioned, our dept is seen more as a physician extender, rather then a neb pusher.

Nebpusher,
Do not fret, this is some of the growing pains of our profession. Protocols and physician extender programs around the country are changing and redefining our scope and usefulness. I am constantly finding new things for my staff to take over (i.e. IABP, hemodynamics, PICC inserts, APC, etc.)
The skiy's the limit ... if you caqn dream it, you can find a way to master it.

Good luck and don't give up hope.

Bill C,

where is this?

email me if you do not want to disclose location.

ramiro_ac (at) yahoo (dot) com

I need a little help to follow that topic:

Is "physician extender " a official term or type of health care professionnal (in the US). I tried to run it through a automatic translator, and the translation does not make any sense.Is it more like a general term for an advance practice in RT, like the terms "clinician" or "practitionner".

What kind of level of competance are we taking here? Or what kind of acts can that professional do?

Thank you! Merci!

Hi Renton,

I think "Physician Extender" is a kind of inclusive term for

Physician Assistants (PA's)

Advanced Nurse Practitioner

Nurse Anesthesist.

All 3 operate under MD supervision, but act more independently. For instance, where I work we have PA's whom see ER patients, PA's who work in surgery with cardio-vascular patients and then follow them on the floors post-op. They can write med and other orders. I am not at all versed on all the particulars.

When I worked at the VA we had a rehab floor where the Nurse Practitioners ran the show. It was particularly frustrating because when we tried to curtail the onslaught of ridiculous orders (the patients there were supposed to be better and ended up getting a BIG escalation of RT orders upon transfer there) their response was "lab or radiology doesn't argue when we order things, why do you?".

A lot of frustrated RT's end up going into PA programs (or trying to).

My reponse to those NP's would have been that radiology and lab are not liscensed proffessionals.

But I agree that is one of the main reasons RT's look to other proffesions.

radiology technologists and MTs are licensed in many states.