A day as a Respiratory Therapist
You're the person the room turns to when someone can't breathe. Respiratory therapists run the ventilators, draw the blood gases and show up to every code, and on a busy floor you'll cover patients from the ICU to the ER in the same shift. Here's what that shift actually looks like in a mid-sized hospital, and how people end up doing it.
One day shift on the respiratory team
Handoff at the department office
The night therapist walks you through the board. You'll hear which ventilator patients had a rough night, who's on high-flow oxygen and looks tired, and which kid in the pediatric unit keeps dropping their sats. You take your assignment, grab a pager and a stack of treatment cards, and head up.
Vent checks and ICU rounds
You check every ventilator on your list: settings, alarms, circuit, cuff pressure, how the patient's actually tolerating it. Then you join ICU rounds with the intensivist, the nurses and the pharmacist. When the doctor asks whether the patient in the corner room is ready for a breathing trial, they want your read, not a guess from the chart.
A rapid response on the medical floor
Your pager goes off mid-treatment. A patient with pneumonia is working hard to breathe and the nurse is worried. You're at the bedside in minutes, pulling an arterial blood gas, switching them to BiPAP, and talking the team through whether they need to go to the ICU. Your planned nebulizer round waits, and you'll spend the next hour catching up on it.
Weaning trial and an extubation
The patient from rounds passes their spontaneous breathing trial. You pull the breathing tube with the nurse and physician in the room, set them up on oxygen, and watch closely for the next stretch. This is the part of the job most therapists like best. It's also the part where a missed sign sends someone right back on the vent.
Charting, restocking and report
You finish documentation in Epic or whatever charting system your hospital runs, restock your cart, and clean or swap equipment. Then you give report to the night therapist the same way you got it this morning: who's fragile, who's improving, and what you'd watch overnight.
Where the work gets heavy
The hard part isn't the science. It's the pace of the pager and the emotional weight of the cases. You'll be at codes that don't end well, and you'll help families through decisions about stopping life support. Some therapists find the night shift or rotating weekends wear them down more than any single patient. Staffing matters a lot here. On a well-staffed team you get time to do a proper assessment. On a thin one, you're giving treatments back to back and charting at the end of the shift, and that's the version of the job that burns people out. Ask about the ratio of therapists to patients in every interview, because it tells you more than the job description will.
How therapists get to the bedside
An associate degree in respiratory care
This is the most common route. You finish an accredited program with clinical rotations in real hospitals, then sit the NBRC exams to earn your CRT and, after the clinical simulation exam, your RRT. Most states then require a license from their board, and the rules differ by state, so check yours before you enroll.
A bachelor's in respiratory therapy
You'll cover the same clinical ground plus more on research, leadership and critical care. Some hospitals prefer it for ICU, neonatal or transport roles, and it's the cleaner path if you think you'll want to lead a department or teach later.
A move from another clinical job
EMTs, paramedics, patient care techs and military medics often switch in because they've already worked alongside therapists at codes. You still need the accredited program and the credential, but your comfort in emergencies shows fast during clinicals, and managers notice.
What Respiratory Therapist postings ask for
Hiring the most
- Trinity Health103
- Corewell Health49
- Ochsner Health (Ochsner)44
- Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN)31
- Sentara Health28
Remote
1% of openings are fully remote.
Questions people ask
Do respiratory therapists need a license?
In nearly every state, yes. You'll usually need to pass the NBRC credentialing exams and then apply to your state's licensing board. Requirements aren't identical everywhere, so check the board in the state where you plan to work. Most hospitals expect the RRT credential, and some will hire you with the CRT if you earn the RRT within a set window.
Is it mostly hospitals, or are there other places to work?
Hospitals hire the most therapists, and that's where you'll build your skills fastest. Once you've got some experience, you'll also see openings in sleep labs, pulmonary function labs, long-term acute care, home medical equipment companies and pulmonary rehab. Those jobs are usually steadier hours and less chaos, which is exactly why some people move there after a few years in the ICU.
What should I specialize in?
Pick what you liked most in clinicals. Neonatal and pediatric work is its own world, and the NPS credential helps there. Adult critical care is the backbone of most departments, and the ACCS credential signals you know it well. If you like testing and precise measurement more than bedside emergencies, pulmonary function work is a good fit.
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