“I go to sleep envisioning her face,” said one student. That student–who is working toward her bachelor’s degree in Respiratory Therapy at NSU–works at an emergency room in New York City. She told her classmates about her experience comforting a patient who was dying alone because her family could not come into the hospital. Giving students time to share their experiences is one adaptation NSU’s Respiratory Therapy Program has made in recent months.

“We try to communicate with them so they have somebody to talk to and share their experiences,” said Dr. Lisa Farach, Chair for the Department of Cardiopulmonary Sciences and Program Director for the Respiratory Therapy Programs in the NSU Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences. “You can hear their stress and how overwhelming it is.”

Because of the nature of COVID-19, many patients have needed to be put on ventilators. Respiratory therapists have been instrumental in handling COVID patients.

“Although it may seem that operating a ventilator is easy, it’s not,” said Farach. “It takes a lot of training. It’s essential to have someone who is trained to operate ventilators. Since many of these patients ended up going on ventilators or needing more complicated respiratory assistance, respiratory therapists really were front line in managing these patients.“

NSU’s Department of Cardiopulmonary Sciences, located at NSU’s Palm Beach regional campus, offers two tracks for the Bachelor of Science in Respiratory Therapy program: the First-Profession (entry-level) is for the student beginning their respiratory therapy education, and the Post-Professional online program is for the practicing Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT). For students who are enrolled in NSU’s online post-professional respiratory therapy program, and are working on the front lines of the COVID crisis, instructors have created safe spaces for conversations and more flexible timelines for coursework.

The process of moving to a virtual platform has been a bit more challenging for bachelor’s degree candidates who are in the entry-level program. They have not been able to participate in clinical rotations, and do not have access to simulation labs and ventilators at NSU.

“We’ve gotten a little more creative doing labs and clinicals virtually,” said Farach. “We have students perform activities at home. For example, a specific procedure that they would do in a hospital, we have them videotape themselves doing it – maybe putting on a piece of equipment, instructing the person they are putting it on like a patient.” Students are able to evaluate themselves and see where they could make improvements in how they explained a situation or communicated with patients.

Faculty members have also been able to use virtual scenarios where students can manipulate things on screen as if they were working directly with the ventilator. Students are given a scenario, a patient, and lab values, and are asked what they would do in that situation. Farach stated that both the virtual scenarios and videotaping have produced good learning opportunities for students and will likely continue even when onsite classes resume.

A positive outcome from virtual learning

When hospitals began to get busier with more COVID-19 patients, Farach reached out to clinical partners to see if there was anything NSU could do to help. Two of the South Florida medical centers who take NSU students—Wellington Regional Medical Center and Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center–mentioned they needed ventilators. Normally if the hospitals experience a need for additional equipment, they would turn to a rental company. In general, it is more cost effective for the hospital to rent than to purchase equipment that will not be used on a regular basis. But at the time, there was no place to rent a ventilator. Fortunately, NSU was able to help. Since students were no longer on campus utilizing the labs, NSU offered to lend seven of its ventilators to the two facilities. The only stipulation was that they be returned when the campus is reopened for students.

The impact of COVID-19 on respiratory therapy

“I think this crisis really brought to the forefront how important RTs are in the health care field and also what they do. Even in the news you were able to hear about people thanking respiratory therapists,” said Farach.

There’s a need for respiratory therapists in the field, and the job market is growing. NSU students are definitely ready to help fill the void.

Said Farach, “They are just waiting for that opportunity until they can be frontline workers.”

For more information about how you or your organization can help support PPCHCS and the respiratory therapy program, please contact Nathalie Sloane, Director of Development, Health Professions Division, nsloane@nova.edu or 954-262-7123