Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant
What Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant Majors Need to Know
O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to respiratory therapy technician/assistant and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.
Knowledge Areas for Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant Majors
Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
- Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Skills for Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant Majors
When studying respiratory therapy technician/assistant, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
Abilities for Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant Majors
Some of the most crucial abilities to master while a respiratory therapy technician/assistant student include the following:
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Find Respiratory Therapy Technician Programs
Take your associate degree in an allied health field to the next level with this specialized transfer friendly online bachelor of science from Southern New Hampshire University.
Related Programs
Learn about other programs related to Respiratory Therapy Technician that might interest you.
Take your associate degree in an allied health field to the next level with this specialized transfer friendly online bachelor of science from Southern New Hampshire University.
Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant
Some degrees associated with respiratory therapy technician/assistant may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.
How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to respiratory therapy technician/assistant have obtained the following education levels.
Education Level | Percentage of Workers |
---|---|
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production) | 0.4% |
Some College Courses | 0.2% |
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 65.0% |
Bachelor’s Degree | 29.8% |
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master. | 7.1% |
Online Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant Programs
The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.
Degree Level | Colleges Offering Programs | Colleges Offering Online Classes |
---|---|---|
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year) | 0 | 0 |
Certificate (1-2 years) | 5 | 0 |
Certificate (2-4 Years) | 1 | 0 |
Associate’s Degree | 23 | 0 |
Bachelor’s Degree | 0 | 0 |
Post-Baccalaureate | 0 | 0 |
Master’s Degree | 0 | 0 |
Post-Master’s | 0 | 0 |
Doctor’s Degree (Research) | 0 | 0 |
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice) | 0 | 0 |
Doctor’s Degree (Other) | 0 | 0 |
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Majors Related to Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant
You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to respiratory therapy technician/assistant.
Major | Number of Grads |
---|---|
Medical/Clinical Assistant | 52,088 |
Pharmacy Technician/Assistant | 6,707 |
Physical Therapy Assistant | 5,993 |
Other Allied Health and Medical Assisting Services | 4,121 |
Occupational Therapist Assistant | 3,647 |
Emergency Care Attendant (EMT Ambulance) | 3,195 |
Radiologist Assistant | 1,446 |
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Assistant | 616 |
Anesthesiologist Assistant | 382 |
Speech-Language Pathology Assistant | 295 |
Pathology/Pathologist Assistant | 187 |
Lactation Consultant | 58 |
References
*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.
- College Factual
- College Scorecard
- National Center for Education Statistics
- O*NET Online
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
More about our data sources and methodologies.