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Bachelor of Science in Respiratory Care
Degree Program at Upstate
for students who want to become respiratory therapists.
The program accepts 30 students each year.
Graduates are eligible to take the National Board for Respiratory Care examination, passage of which meets the requirements for a New York state license.
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Bachelor of Science in Cardiorespiratory Sciences
Degree Program at Upstate
gives respiratory therapists advanced training in respiratory care and the sciences, and prepares them to become leaders, teachers, managers and/or researchers in the field of respiratory care.
The program accepts 10 students each year.
Job opportunities for these students include:
- inservice educational coordinators
- staff supervisors
- directors of hospital service departments
- instructors in respiratory care programs.
- This program also prepares students for graduate study in related areas.
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About this Career
Respiratory therapists help people who have difficulty breathing because of illness or injury including heart failure, chest trauma, asthma, emphysema, cystic fibrosis, bronchitis, SIDS, near drowning, excessive bleeding and shock.
 Respiratory therapists treat patients by using: ventilators, medical gas, humidity, aerosols, intermittent positive pressure breathing (IPPB), bronchopulmonary drainage and exercises and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Respiratory therapists must also be able to administer:
- mechanical ventilation
- airway management
- pulmonary-function studies
- blood-gas analysis
- cardiopulmonary monitoring
- exercise testing and physiological monitoring.
Since any one of these can alter a patient's physiological state, respiratory therapists must be highly skilled in physiology and pathophysiology.
The patients of respiratory therapists are found in newborn nurseries, surgical and medical units, emergency rooms, outpatient departments, intensive care units, extended-care facilities, and homes.
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