Registered Respiratory Therapist II Job at UNM Hospitals (Albuquerque)

Job Description

The University of New Mexico Hospital Pulmonary Services Department offers a clinically challenging and professionally rewarding environment where Respiratory Therapists play a vital role in caring for some of the sickest patients in the state. We foster a strong culture of teamwork, collaboration, and mutual respect, with a shared commitment to providing exceptional patient care and creating a positive experience for our patients, families, and interdisciplinary teams. At UNMH, therapists have the unique opportunity to expand their skills across all patient care areas, including the Emergency Department, Adult ICUs, PICU, and NICU, with comprehensive training and support to grow both personally and professionally.

Job Responsibility

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
Provide patients 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, 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 Hospitals 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 Hospitals trauma team
Respond to trauma pages
Assist with intubation, airway management and ventilator support
Assist with internal transport of ventilator and patient
Participate with Hospitals 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 Hospitals 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
Administers 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
Related Discipline
Hospital respiratory therapy equipment - ability to operate Respiratory care therapy, applications and side effects comprehensive knowledge
CPR for Healthcare/BLS Prov or Prof Rescuers w/in 30 days
Advanced Cardiac Life Support Certification w/in 1 year
Respiratory Care Practitioner in NM
Registered Respiratory Therapist
Bilingual English, Spanish, Keres, Tewa, Tiwa, Towa, Zuni, or Navajo
3 years directly related experience

Nice to have

Bilingual English, Spanish, Keres, Tewa, Tiwa, Towa, Zuni, or Navajo
3 years directly related experience

What we offer

Sign-On Bonus Available
Relocation Assistance Available
Receive 17% Weekday Nights, 26% Weekend Nights and 15% Weekend Day shift differentials

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Registered Respiratory Therapist II

Job Description

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