Respiratory therapists integral to health teams
From our earliest moments, the gentle and rhythmic exercise of breathing in — and out — fuels our bodies and calms our minds, allowing us to recover from exertion, lower our stress levels, and relieve or reduce pain.
Most of the time, and for most people, the simple act of taking a breath occurs without thought or effort. But for anyone who has experienced a health condition or event that makes breathing difficult, or impossible, the act of taking a breath is anything but simple.
“If you can’t breathe, you need help,” says Sheila Cabungcal, a respiratory therapist (RT) and member of the team supporting specialized care within the Child and Women’s Health Programs at Health Sciences Centre Winnipeg (HSC). “I’ve had asthma since I was a kid and I find that my experiences, including my own visits to the emergency department, allow me to really empathize with our patients.”
Cabungcal is an RT, a highly-trained allied health clinician who spends each working day helping Manitoba children and babies breathe. RTs, like Sheila, work in a variety of care settings ranging from critical care units and labour and delivery to patient transport. They support diagnosis, intervention and therapy for individuals experiencing breathing challenges, including those who are entirely dependent on mechanical ventilation.
“I quickly learned how vital our role is within the health-care team and how the decisions we make as RTs can dramatically improve the status of a patient,” Cabungcal says. “There’s no such thing as a typical day. Depending on where we are assigned, we could be running to a Code Blue, supporting care in a unit of intubated and ventilated patients, or attending a high-risk birth.”
RTs participate in regular training and education to keep up to date on the latest clinical practices and to maintain the life-saving skills they use to support patients of every age and condition, from the smallest babies in neonatal intensive care to children with asthma, older adults with chronic respiratory diseases, and everything in between.
RTs are also key members of teams managing the safe transport of patients between care environments whether for a diagnostic test, organ transplant or, for the most critically ill, to an intensive care unit (ICU).
“We’re bringing an ICU environment to rural and remote areas of the province, supporting the transport of critically ill children and newborns without the backup of an entire hospital or other specialty disciplines,” says Todd Mortimer, an advanced practice RT (APRT) and member of the Shared Health Child Health Transport Team. “It’s just us out there, so training together, planning together and building a level of trust and synergy allows us to stabilize and bring that patient back safely.”
The Child Health Transport Team supports neonatal, pediatric and adolescent transports of critically ill patients from across Manitoba. In this model, an APRT works alongside a transport nurse clinician during transports that could involve an ambulance, an airplane or a helicopter. Both roles have expanded scopes of practice, allowing them to safely support critically ill patients during transports without a physician on board.
RTs are at the centre of adult transports as well, with a small, cohesive team of APRTs who make up the province’s Inter-Facility Transport Team. The importance of planning, good communication and trust is not lost on the team’s members, who rely on their training and skills to prepare them for almost any situation during a transport.
“As APRTs, we can manage everything from IV drug infusions, chest tubes, various types of catheters, managing the ventilator and monitoring patient vitals. Our scope of knowledge and training equip us to manage nearly anything,” says Vlad Snovida, member of the Shared Health Inter-Facility Transport Team.
“We are active throughout each transport, trouble-shooting issues and providing care to keep our patient alive,” Snovida adds. “It can be a high-stress environment, especially because we provide this care in a tight space, surrounded by a lot of equipment and with the challenges posed by travel, like bumpy roads. It’s very unique and dynamic work, and I feel very privileged to be a part of this team.”
Allied health providers, like RTs and APRTs, work in every community, across the full continuum of care needs and across the entire lifespan of the patients they serve.
“I enjoy the continuity of care,” says Reyhan Ozkahriman, who graduated just one year ago and now works as a vital member of the interprofessional team at HSC Winnipeg. “How integrated RTs are to the team makes this such an enjoyable role. Our advice and recommendations are really valued here.” “But the best part of our work as RTs has to be the success stories and our ability to witness the resiliency (in my work) of kids,” Ozkahriman adds. “We may see a patient who has been admitted to the ICU very sick and on a high amount of respiratory support and we get to be an important part of their recovery process, which is incredible.”
From Nov. 6 to 12, Manitoba’s health service delivery organizations are celebrating the diverse and highly specialized skills of our province’s allied health professionals. Representing nearly 200 disciplines working in every sector and area of our health system, allied health professionals are vital members of our health-care teams.
It starts with a breath - Shared Health
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