REGISTERED RESPIRATORY THERAPIST II -

Department: Pulmonary Services | FTE: 0.90 Full Time | Shift: Days

About the Role

Provide clinical respiratory care. Access, evaluate and recommend intervention to obtain specific patient outcomes. Assemble, operate and troubleshoot various types of respiratory equipment used in diagnosis and treatment of respiratory disease, disability, impairment and illness. Ensure adherence to Hospital and Departmental Policies, Procedures and guidelines. Patient care assignment may include Neonate, Pediatric, Adolescent, Adult and Geriatric age groups.

Responsibilities

• Provide patient education and consultation on disease management.
• Ensure customer and patient satisfaction using scripting procedure.
• Access patient, administer and evaluate appropriate respiratory therapy, including:
  • Aerosolized medication delivery
  • Chest physiotherapy
  • Intermittent positive pressure breathing
  • Oxygen supplementation
  • Pulmonary hygiene
  • Artificial airway care and tracheostomy care including patient education
  • Incentive spirometry
  • Non-invasive and invasive procedures
• Perform as a resource for certified respiratory therapy technicians and respiratory therapy assistants.
• Assist healthcare team managing patients on mechanical ventilators; monitor patients requiring mechanical life support. Follow weaning guidelines/protocols to ensure appropriate duration of mechanical ventilation.
• Recommend appropriate mode of ventilatory support to physicians. Participate with critical care team on patient rounds and teaching.
• Participate in Hospital’s cardiopulmonary resuscitation team. Provide airway maintenance, manual resuscitation and chest compression during Dr Heart codes. Assist with endotracheal tube insertion, stabilization and continued ventilatory support.
• Participate with Hospital’s trauma team. Respond to trauma pages. Assist with intubation, airway management and ventilator support. Assist with internal transport of ventilator and patient.
• Participate with Hospital’s high-risk labor and delivery team. Respond to high-risk delivery pages and provide airway management, assist with intubation and stabilization of the endotracheal tube, administer surfactant if ordered by physician, provide ventilator support.
• Perform arterial puncture for blood gas analysis. Run blood gas sample for analysis. Interpret arterial blood gas and electrolyte results.
• Provide recommendations for therapy and appropriate ventilation based on lab results.
• Perform simple bedside pulmonary function tests on intubated and non-intubated patients. Make recommendations for therapy and ventilator support.
• Perform oximetry for arterial oxygen saturation evaluation. Setup, evaluate and monitor ETCO2 and sleep study monitoring.
• Receive and initiate physician’s orders for respiratory care, including verbal orders under Hospital’s policy.
• Provide patient clinical assessment; evaluate patient criteria for appropriateness of, and compliance with, therapeutic objectives.
• Administer and monitor medical gases and environmental control systems including oxygen, compressed air, heliox, nitrogen, and nitric oxide; participate in medical gas failure emergencies and planned outages.
• Administer aerosolized pharmacological agents, calculate dosages for continuous aerosolized therapy. Transition patients from aerosol delivery to MDIs according to department guidelines.
• Assist facility maintenance, maintain equipment, label and route malfunctioning equipment to appropriate location.
• Collaborate with healthcare team to implement and document in individual plan of care with age-specific considerations. Include discharge plan and patient/family teaching.
• Follow patient safety-related policies, procedures and protocols.
• Demonstrate proactive approach to patient safety by seeking opportunities to improve patient safety through questioning of current policies and processes.
• Identify and report/correct environmental conditions and/or situations that may put a patient at undue risk.
• Report potential or actual patient safety concerns, medical errors and/or near misses in a timely manner.
• Encourage patients to actively participate in their own care by asking questions and reporting treatment or situations that they don’t understand or may “not seem right.”

Requirements

• Associate Degree in a related discipline
• Comprehensive knowledge of respiratory care therapy, applications, and side effects
• Ability to operate hospital respiratory therapy equipment
• 3 years of directly related experience
• CPR for Healthcare/BLS Providers or Professional Rescuers within 30 days of hire
• Advanced Cardiac Life Support Certification within 1 year of hire
• Respiratory Care Practitioner in New Mexico
• Registered Respiratory Therapist
• Bilingual (English/Spanish/Keres/Tewa/Tiwa/Towa/Zuni/Navajo) is a plus but not required

Physical Conditions

• Heavy Work: Exerting 50 to 100 pounds of force occasionally, and/or 25 to 50 pounds of force frequently, and/or 10 to 20 pounds of force constantly to move objects or people.
• Moderate exposure to chemicals/dangerous equipment/materials
• May perform subordinate tasks in high census/volume situations
• May be required or is required to perform on-call duties
• May work rotating shifts, holidays, and weekends
• Tuberculosis testing is completed upon hire and additionally as required

Pay

Receive 17% Weekday Nights, 26% Weekend Nights, and 15% Weekend Day shift differentials.

Benefits

• Sign-On Bonus Available
• Relocation Assistance Available