LEAD, RESPIRATORY THERAPIST

Provide care for the Adult or Geriatric patient, ages 18 years and over.

Demonstrates and understands the importance of and respect for the rights, dignity and individuality of each patient in all interactions.

Provides consultation to other Respiratory Therapists within the unit and provides assistance when needed and report any performance issues to the manager.

Assist the Manager in providing unit specific needs, mentoring and training to the unit staff and new employees as assigned within the unit.

Assists Manager in all monitoring daily responsibilities of the other therapist and complete all lead therapist duties outlined by the Manager.

Explain purpose and procedure of treatments, tests and equipment to the patient and properly document all education given to patient(s) and their caregivers on the patient education form in the patient's chart.

Conduct physician prescribed treatments : including but not limited to, Hand Held Nebulizer Therapy and various nasal oxygen devices in order to administer prescribed medicinal vapors and gasses, humidity, various oxygen concentrations to the respiratory system of the patient, and chest physical therapy treatments.

Set up, operate and monitor ventilators when patient's respiratory system is incapable of adequate spontaneous ventilation.

Participate in ventilator weaning process, utilizing protocols and physician direction.

Set up ventilator using the ventilator graphics to ensure the patient is comfortable and getting enough flow to meet his / her respiratory demand.

Ensure the adequate maintenance of ventilation during cardio-pulmonary resuscitation; intubate as necessary.

Attends monthly Respiratory Care departmental meetings and in-services.

Record all pertinent information of treatments, and patient response to treatments, on respiratory care records and patient chart; place MAR's on patient's chart in proper order.

Perform trach care per hospital policy and procedure including dating and discarding sterile water within 24 hours of opening the bottle.

Change out trach tubes as necessary and per hospital policy and procedure; and properly document changes on the respiratory progress notes.

Change out tubing and inline suction devices, including suction canister per hospital policy and procedure.

Report treatments to be conducted and condition of patients to relief personnel.

Give complete report of any changes made and new orders written and keep patient's primary care nurse informed of such changes.

Process respiratory therapy equipment including ENT / Bronchoscope; cleaning, sterilizing and packaging as required.

Uses the clean and dirty scope boxes and properly prepares the scope for transport to and from the cleaning area.

Checks to make sure that that Cidex OPA is in date and a test strip has been run within the last 24 hours.

Perform preventative maintenance and repair of equipment including EST and SST pre-use checks on ventilator before each use or as needed and properly documents in the cleaning log.

Make regular rounds.

check patient's ventilator at least every 4 hours, and oxygen equipment at least once per shift, fill room humidifiers, change suction canisters daily, as well as spot-checking other respiratory therapy equipment per hospital policy and procedure.

Assist in preparing respiratory care / ventilator patients for physical therapy, ambulation, transport, etc.

Properly stores oxygen tanks per OSHA and hospital guidelines.

Participate in the Hazardous Material Program.

Hazards include exposure to blood and body fluids, possible communicable diseases, sharp objects and instruments, assorted chemicals and gasses as listed in the Hazardous Materials Program Manual.

Complies with established Safety and Patient Safety Program practices.

Develop an understanding of responsibilities for recognizing abuse and follow policy for making appropriate referrals / interventions.

Develop an understanding of responsibilities for participation and participate in Performance Improvement activities.

Limit access to protected health information (PHI) to the information reasonably necessary to do the job and share such information only on a need to know basis for work purposes.

Access to verbal, written and electronic PHI for this job has been determined based on job level and job responsibility within the organization.

Computerized access to PHI for this job has been determined as described above and is controlled via user ID and password.

Qualifications : To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily.

The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and / or ability required.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education / Experience : Current RT license to practice as a RRT in state of employment with the National Board of Respiratory Care.