Nursing and Allied Health Video Collection

For students interested in combining technical duties with personalized patient care, the job of respiratory therapist stands out. This program focuses on the responsibilities and rewards of the position, the skills and qualities it requires, and the financial and personal advantages a registered respiratory therapist can expect. Presenting interviews with both young and veteran RRTs, the video describes the 2-year and 4-year training programs that lead to the position and the duties an RRT performs, such as evaluating a patient’s breathing capacity, setting up and initializing a ventilator, guiding patients through ventilator or nebulizer treatments—and perhaps even joining a rapid response medical team. The chance to work in a variety of settings and assist many different types of patients is also explored. Recommendations for appropriate high school courses in biology, chemistry, and math are spotlighted.

Defining oxygen and oxygen therapy, this video with respiratory therapist Christi Leichty discusses oxygen and the respiratory system, benefits and risks, and systems and devices used to deliver oxygen.

This video with respiratory therapist Christi Leichty begins by defining "airway clearance" and the types of patients that need airway clearance devices. It then discusses several different devices, how they work, and the types of patients each is best suited for.

This video with respiratory therapist Jay Taylor provides an overview of coordinating a tobacco education program at your hospital. Taylor shares first hand experiences and helpful information, starting with getting in the patient's room and beginning the conversation, to ways in which respiratory therapists can help the patient quit using tobacco.

This video with respiratory therapist Kay Martin begins by giving viewers a brief background on trauma and contrasts the respiratory anatomy of a child to that of an adult. Respiratory therapist Kay Martin also examines a few different types of chest trauma, as well as trauma airway management and intervention.

This video with respiratory therapist Christi Leichty starts with a basic introduction to tracheotomy and trach tube position. It then examines potential complications of tracheostomy and precautions that should be taken, including humidification and other approaches to help prevent complications. Also discussed are different trach tubes and how they vary in certain features for different purposes.

In this video, respiratory therapist Michael Naas addresses the mechanism behind bronchodilators and inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). Armed with knowledge of how they work, respiratory therapists can inform nurses and/or doctors on why a bronchodilator or steroid does not break up mucous. The video also discusses the different types of bronchodilators and inhaled steroids and how they work.

Certain medications are a part of every respiratory therapist's arsenal and this video addresses the question of what to do when the old standbys don’t get the job done. Respiratory therapist Michael W. Hess examines today's less commonly used inhaled medications and agents for use when patients are not responsive to the common medications and a new approach is necessary.

Modern ventilators have a wealth of transducers, meters, and other sensors that provide a detailed look at the current state of a patient's lungs. Traditionally, the information that those sensors provide was given to the practitioner in a set of numbers on a read out, however, while those numbers are still important, they do not tell the whole story. This video with respiratory therapist Michael W. Hess explains why a solid understanding of ventilator graphics, including what to look for, how they all relate to each other, and what they all point out, makes a big different in a respiratory therapists ability to provide mechanical ventilation, while also making patients more comfortable.