“There was this time, one of the first times I had ever talked to a real patient.  All I had to do was go in, administer a nebulizer treatment, listen to their lung sounds, and then go on my merry way.  I was nervous, but I was also something else! I mean,  I was entering the world of the medical professional.  I was important; hear me roar! 

“After verifying my order, I marched into the room with gusto, and said, “Hi, Mr. Michaels, I am here to give you a treatment”.  The bald, frail person sitting on the side of their bed glanced up at me, shook their head, and said, “Mr.  Michaels isn’t here.  But I’m Ms. Michaels.”  Gulp.  In my moment of triumph, I had called a woman a man!  This simply couldn’t be happening to me.”

The student, at this point was sufficiently attentive to what I was saying.  I could see his current smile was at my expense.

Sufficiently red-faced, I obediently squirted some antibacterial gel into my hands, took a deep breath (what else is an aspiring Respiratory Therapist supposed to do!), and continued. I listened to breath sounds and administered the medication without further incident.   I walked behind Ms. Michaels, and proceeded to prepare to listen to breath sounds before leaving, stating, “Okay, Ms. Michaels, I just need to listen to your breath sounds, and then I’ll get out of your hair.”  Without a pause, she stated, “I don’t have any hair.” 

“I believe at that moment I invented a new, very dark shade of red.  I was horrified.  She laughed and continued laughing for what seemed like an eternity.  She then thanked me, telling me that she needed a good laugh.  My watchful instructor at the time exited the room quickly, barely containing bouts of laughter. 

“I learned a valuable lesson that day.  Not about administering medication.  Or even verifying gender in a chart.  But about laughter . . . about people who are gracious, even in sickness.  I also discovered that day that there are multiple shades of red, and I’ve seen each of them on my own face.” 

Can you imagine gutting fish in a market every day, from the wee hours of the morning?  Close your eyes and smell the fishy aroma, hear the constant roar of demanding customers, and feel the lack of pay.  Now imagine going home and saying that today you had the time of your life.  This is a real story, started in a fish market in Seattle.  It is also now a best-selling, intriguing training video.  

(You can watch the preview version here - it is worth a few minutes to do it.)

•  
  • Could we do this in our workplace?  
  • Do you already?  
  • Do you work hard to have fun, despite the serious nature of what we do?  
  • Can we have fun in the midst of sickness and death?  

Let's look for a second at the key principles of this philosophy:

1. Be There.  We all have days when we have to work despite what's going on in our real lives.  You know what I'm talking about! I don't have enough money to make my bills this month . . . I can't believe so-and-so said such-and-such about me . . . I'd rathere be anywhere than at work today.  Being there is about checking all your baggage at the hospital door.  Once you are at work, you are there.  Nothing else matters for the time you are at work.
2. Play.  This is a little tricky.  In the fish market, they throw fish around, and they have customers throw fish around.  They yell and have fun.  I choose my words carefully here, because I suspect throwing Mr. Smith down the hall because he's always so demanding won't be accepted very well.  We should, however, take time to enjoy those we are working with - have a brief conversation with someone about something not work-related.  
3. Make Their Day.  How often I have failed at this one!  I can get so caught up in the demands of the job, that I forget my profession.  I can make a difference . . . we can make a difference by sitting and listening to someone who feels that they haven't been listened to.  We can take the time to explain what we are doing to family members, so that they feel like they are informed.  We are educators, experts, on the frontline of providing patient care.  Administrators spend time calculating results, and planning for the future, but it is between us and the patient that the true magic comes.
4. Choose Your Attitude.  Sounds so simple.  Are you the person in the department that refuses to talk badly about your co-worker, despite what you really think about them?  We can, despite the circumstances, choose to be a great Health Professional even on a bad day.  One of my goals is to make sure others never know I am having a bad day.  I don't always succeed, but I work towards this goal daily.  Oh, and guess what?  The happier you act, the happier you end up feeling!

Okay, enough for now.  Four basic principles.  Principles that will transform how you provide patient care.  Principles that will help transform your job into a career.  Pick one, try it out, and see if it changes anything.

Now, go make a difference :). 

One of the residents yelled to me from down the hall.  I didn't even know this newly minted physician knew me by name, "I need you down here for a second."  I headed down the hall, white coat flapping in my wake. 

"Dr. Smith, what can I do for you," I asked, already planning where I had to be next.

"This patient is breathing fast," he said, pointing his dog-eared ICU pocket guide haphazardly at a patient on a ventilator.  "I think we need to fix him," the resident declared, "but I'm not sure what's wrong."

One look at the patient on minimal pressure support, a stethoscope to the chest, an increase in pressure support, and the patient not only was breathing at a normal rate, but looked immeasurably more comfortable. 

With nothing more said, I was off to my next patient.  As I was walking by, the resident turned to the nurse and said, "that's what I like about Respiratory Therapists here: they just know how to fix the patients." 

How many times do we hear, "just fix them" from a nurse, resident, or doctor?  What better role could we have than to be the "fixers"?

What does that mean? It means, first and foremost, that we are trusted as a profession to manage patients on ventilators.  It is often the case that the sicker the patient, the more we're leaned upon.  How many healthcare professionals (including physicians) that you work with are nervous around oscillators, modes of ventilation, dyssynchrony?  They lean on us to do what is right, to indirectly make them look good! 

This has taken painstaking devotion by a tremendous number of Respiratory Therapists to get us there! I take that honor seriously in a neverending thirst for more knowledge, in a quest for perfection in clinical practice.  It's exactly what I would want from the Respiratory Therapist managing my care.

I mean, I can tell you that this particular morning I wasn't remotely excited about going there.  It was a typical morning for me: my cell phone blared off at about 530 am to the tune of "Give me back that Filet of Fish" (don't ask); I hit the illuminated snooze button; dozed back off; woke again to the same jarring tune; reluctantly climbed out of bed; showered (I think); dressed (I know); then drove to work with bottled Frappuccino in hand.   

Enter now a wandering mind on auto-pilot while driving to work.  It's not exactly texting while driving, but I'm not sure I recall much about the drive there.  I was feeling whiney.  I didn't want to be out of bed.  It's not that I was dreading being at the hospital -- it's that I dreaded being out of bed.  Whine, whine, whine. 

I am not a morning person.  If you are, I despise you, because you are cheery in the morning.  That hurts my head before I've pumped up with caffeine.  Okay, maybe I don't despise you; I envy you.  But either way!

Ultimately, I ended up getting to where I was going.  I parked, realizing I hadn't come up with an answer to my own question.  Shrugging, I strolled towards the hospital, lost instead in the beautiful Carolina morning.  A few hours later, I was shuffling around the Intensive Care Unit, participating in rounds with the physicians, providing feedback on weaning strategies to residents, describing modes of ventilation to a nursing student, and the answer finally surfaced. 

I absolutely, positively, love what I do.  I don't enjoy every task I am required to perform (something about nasotracheal suctioning patients has never met my fancy) nor every experience I have (I absolutely can't stand vomit -- the sound, smell, or taste -- long story).  I don't even enjoy getting out of bed early in the morning. 

But ultimately it is all worth it, it isn't just what I do for a living: It is who I have become.  I don't "do" Respiratory Therapy; I "AM" a Respiratory Therapist.  Is it the same for you? Do you declare with pride that you are a Respiratory Therapist, or are you dreaming of what you'll do in a few years when you move along?  Do what your heart loves . . . don't waste your life.  Reignite your passion.  You ARE a Respiratory Therapist!

So here in grand fashion are our tips for how you can stay connected:

1. Set oakesacademy.com as a bookmark wherever you use it.  That way it will be right in front of you.  If you are like I am, I sometimes forget that I have exceptional tools at my fingertip because they are out of sight.  Some people even place an icon on their desktop.  Not a bad idea.  As for me, I've even tattoed it onto my hand, but that might be a bit extreme for some of you. P.S. - for every 10 times you log in a month, you receive an entry into one of our raffles. 
2. Make sure you are part of the e-mailing list.  We'll be sending various types of emails, including these blogs, educational newsletters, and other interesting tidbits like active forum topics. 
3. Speaking of Forums, help take part in them!  This is a great way to continue to learn (ask questions!), as well as mentor others.  Our experts are standing by to help you.  Hehe.  I've always wanted to say something like that.  But seriously, we have people ready to jump in!
4. Facebook! If you are on Facebook, you should look up RespiratoryUpdate.  We will be using this as another, informal way to communicate and seek feedback.  I think at the moment we have a grand total of 11 people following us on our new Facebook page, which is a fraction of the people we currently have subscribed. 
5. Spread the word! The larger the community is, the more resources we will have in each other.  As you do spread the word, we strongly encourage you to tell your friends to put your name down as the referral as you will earn 1 month free membership (added to the end of your current membership) for each person referred. 12 referrals and you've struck gold - a whole year's membership without cost. 

Either way, take advantage of what's here.  This site is not a fancy dust-collector - it is meant to support you in your quest to be a well-equipped, superp respiratory therapist.  If we can help shape it to be more helpful, just send us a quick e-mail! 

If we view what we do as more than a just job, but as a career . . . perhaps even as a (insert superhero music here) Calling, it can change our whole perspective. Yup, the whole enchilada. We are no longer "just respiratory", but a viable part of the medical team.

Don't laugh. Please. But think about showing a person how to use an inhaler. Yes, it can feel mundane. It is yet another thing to do in a long line of things to do. Oh, and we're never, ever appreciated for it. But what if! What if we use that opportunity to not only ensure a patient knows (for the first time in their life) how to get that aerosol deep into their airways, but talk about lifestyle choices and disease processes? What if we create an "ahah!" moment for that patient that leaves them pondering their choices long after we've clocked out and gone home?

I'm not saying every moment will be filled with splendor, but that every moment we give should be given fully. We're professionals. We're Respiratory Therapists. We are passionate about what we do.