National Respiratory Care Week is a great time to recognize the accomplishments of RTs, and AARC members all across the nation did just that the last week in October —
Norwalk Community College, Norwalk, CT
Our respiratory students held a Lung Health Day and they also had a bake sale, raising $250 to donate to the American Lung Association to put toward sponsoring a child to attend Asthma Camp. They also had a peak flow contest for the student body and the student who achieved the highest peak flow won a Halloween skeleton bucket full of candy. — Maria Grayson, MS, RRT-NPS, AE-C
Queen’s Medical Center, Honolulu, HI
Our “lungsavers” celebrated RC Week 2015 with International Fellow Peifeng “Peter” Xu from Zhejiang Province, China, who works at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital and Zhejiang University Medical College. The chief editor and operations manager of the Chinese Association of Respiratory Care, Peter was visiting local hospitals, as well as a few respiratory care departments, on the mainland before heading to attend the AARC Congress in Tampa, FL. — Carol Agard, RRT, RPFT, FAARC
Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, Downers Grove, IL
Dr. Andrew Yu was recognized by respiratory care staff as a Physician of the Year. We also recognized Betty Onion, RRT, for her 35 years of service. Betty is retiring in November. — Jeremy Kwon, MA, RRT-NPS
Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare, Tallahassee, FL
Staff recognition awards were given out during our department meeting, including our RT of the Year and ICARE Awards. We also set up a display table with pictures of all our RTs and provided educational material for our patients. — Suhey Tuckler, BA, RRT
Deer Meadow Vent Program, Philadelphia, PA
I made personalized gift bags and brought in homemade heart healthy snacks for all my staff, nursing, and doctors. We celebrated as a team. — Lisa Yoder, CRT
Manchester Community College, Manchester, CT
Our respiratory care students celebrated RC Week by presenting information to other students about the RC profession and common respiratory diseases. They created a poster board and handed out chocolate lungs, chocolate stethoscopes, and chocolate bottles marked “albuterol.” — Kerry McNiven, MS, RRT
East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN
The respiratory therapy students provided material to the campus community regarding asthma awareness that included a simulated asthma attack, MDI/spacer instruction, peak flow meter instruction, and action plan development. They also provided passing students with the opportunity to attempt intubation on a mannequin and promoted the program to get the attention of prospective students. It was a great Respiratory Care Week in East Tennessee! — Kristen McHenry, MS, RRT-ACCS
Laurel Technical Institute, Sharon, PA
The RT students at Laurel Technical Institute celebrated Respiratory Care Week by teaming up with HOSA students and starting a smoking cessation program. The program is scheduled for four dates and hopes to help people stop smoking with their New Year’s resolution, as the last date is schedule the first week in January. — Monica Mike-Simko, BSRC, RRT
Great Falls College MSU, Great Falls, MT
Our students participated in many activities to celebrate and honor RTs this week. Here they are with a display case they decorated on campus. — Brian Cayko, MBA, RRT
Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC
We donated to our local food bank due to significant flooding in our region of late, held a Pie-in-the-Face fundraiser and RCP golf tourney, and took a murder-mystery dinner cruise on the Charleston Harbor. We also hosted a BBQ and Mac N Cheese Cook-off contest, a “Larry the Lung” scavenger hunt (Larry is a stuffed toy set of lungs), and a Halloween party, and had several daily food events for staff: breakfasts, ice cream socials, shrimp and grits, pizza day, and an endless candy bowl in the break room. We set up an RCP montage as well. — Scott Crego, BSHA, RRT
University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
The RT students hosted a booth in the MU Student Center to celebrate RC Week and promote the profession. Patrons were able to attempt an intubation, watch a ventilator “breathing” on real pig lungs, and participate in a “breath holding” contest. The winning time was 2 minutes, 19 seconds. — Monica Schibig, MA, RRT-NPS, CPFT
Alegent Creighton Health at Home, Omaha, NE
Shana Lester, RRT, RT supervisor, shared how they celebrated Respiratory Care Week in Omaha, NE. Check out this lung cake! How cool is that? Shana also personalized a page for each of her therapists so everyone could learn a bit more about one another and what inspired them to get into respiratory — very creative! — Christine Cunningham, RRT
CornerStone Medical Services, Akron, OH
Jennifer Mull, RRT, RT supervisor, brought in special treats to celebrate a Happy Respiratory Care Week with her staff in Akron, OH! — Christine Cunningham, RRT
Children’s National Health System, Washington, DC
This was no ordinary Respiratory Care Week at Children’s National! The week started off with a proclamation from Mayor Muriel Bowser for National Respiratory Care Week. Not to be outdone, the DC City Council issued a resolution declaring the fourth week of October as “National Respiratory Care Week.” These were supplemented by a Senior Service Appreciation Breakfast and the now legendary “Respiratory Care Department BBQ.” Fun, food, awards, prizes, and CEUs — can’t wait for next year! — Cherise Wilson, BS, RRT
Colorado Society for Respiratory Care
The CSRC hosted an AARC member appreciation celebration for RC Week. We had a costume party with raffle prizes that included one state conference registration, a costume contest, and a Sputum Bowl exhibition tournament. We wanted to celebrate our renewed licensure and give back to our members. We had approximately 70 people in attendance, and fun was had by all. — Damian Solorzano, RRT-NPS
Catawba Valley Community College, Hickory, NC
The students set up a booth in the student center to give out information about smoking cessation and about respiratory therapy as a career. — Cathy Bitsche, EdS, RRT-NPS
Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX
We celebrated Respiratory Care Week with a week-long series of educational opportunities, including lectures on high frequency oscillation ventilation with demonstrations from Penny the Pig Lung. We shared fun activities that showcased teamwork, the encroaching financial impact on health care organizations, and how the respiratory therapist can impact the bottom line by driving outcomes. — Valerie David, MHA, RRT-NPS, AE-C
UMMC, Baltimore, MD
We began our celebrations by hosting a fundraiser for The Christopher Reeve Foundation to hopefully assist in continued research for spinal cord injury patients. The management team also prepared breakfast and served it from 5:30-8:30 am for both of our shifts. Each day we offered various educational lectures to our staff via webinars provided by ICON, Mallinckrodt, Vapotherm, and many more. — Maria Madden, BS, RRT-ACCS
New England Institute of Technology, Warwick, RI
This year we held our first ever open house event! We invited guests from hospitals and medical facilities, along with our students’ families, to take a tour of our respiratory lab and meet our future respiratory therapists. We had refreshments, door prizes, projects the students had completed, and all sorts of information on the field and the diseases we treat. Our students manned equipment stations to explain what the equipment was and why we use it. It was a wonderful night! — Alyssa Dessler, RT student
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
I spent two days with fellow RTs in Rochester, MN, at the Mayo Clinic. I was most impressed by the strong history of the Mayo Clinic, the roles of RTs, and current leadership. I also had a chance to meet with a great group of RT students from Mayo. It is gratifying to see the future leaders of the profession. I spent a couple of hours in conversation with them. — AARC Executive Director Tom Kallstrom, MBA, RRT, FAARC
Email newsroom@aarc.org with questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you.
Steve Bowden is AARC’s Internet Coordinator. He has been designing and developing websites for the association since 1996.
