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Illness, injury, premature birth, and chronic respiratory conditions can rob people of their ability to breathe. A respiratory therapist is the person on the healthcare team who is involved with evaluating, diagnosing, and treating breathing disorders. You’ll work closely with a physician to develop treatment plans to improve respiratory function, and will be responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of the treatment. Treatment could include delivery of inhaled medications, use of therapeutic or life support equipment, or a combination of therapies. Your role will also include patient and family education. Instruction takes place in a traditional classroom format, alternating with a total of five clinical rotations in a hospital setting. General education courses are taught in traditional, online, and blended formats. After graduation, students are required to pass an exam issued by the National Board for Respiratory Care in order to earn the designation of Certified Respiratory Therapist (CRT). After earning the CRT credential, graduates are eligible to apply for a license to practice respiratory care anywhere in the United States. They are also eligible to take the Clinical Simulation Examination to be designated a Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT).
To view the Respiratory Therapy program’s required disclosure on professional licensure, please click here.
Accreditation
After graduation, the student is qualified to take the Respiratory Therapist Multiple Choice Examination issued by the National Board for Respiratory Care (NBRC). Successful completion of this exam earns the graduate the entry level designation of Certified Respiratory Therapist (CRT) which is required for licensure in all states except Alaska and Hawaii. After earning the CRT credential students can go on to take the Clinical Simulation Examination which will earn them the title of Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT).
The Respiratory Therapy program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (www.coarc.com), 264 Precision Blvd, Telford, TN 37690, phone 817-283-2835.
Success rates for both exams, as well as data on job placement are reported annually by the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC).
Program Number: 200365
CoARC accredits respiratory therapy education programs in the United States. To achieve this end, it utilizes an ‘outcomes based’ process. Programmatic outcomes are performance indicators that reflect the extent to which the educational goals of the program are achieved and by which program effectiveness is documented. To compare Western Technical College to other colleges in the country, follow this link to the CoARC website: https://coarc.com/students/programmatic-outcomes-data/.