The Santa Fe Respiratory Care Class of 2012 would like to invite Santa Fe students and the general public to the Respiratory Care Open House, 9 a.m.- 6 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 4 and 5, at the Northwest campus in Building W, room 49/50.
Senior students from the respiratory care program host the event, sharing their experiences and staffing tables and displays. Visitors will move from activity to activity, getting a “feel” for the types of procedures that fill a respiratory care therapist’s work day. Visitors are offered the opportunity to try out the procedures themselves on patient simulators: operating the mechanical ventilators used in intensive care units, drawing blood through an arterial puncture; using intubation tubes.
“It’s very hands-on and will literally give visitors a feel for what this profession is about,” said Paul Stephan, program director. “People who’ve come to the open house sometimes just fall in love with the profession right there. If you enjoy working with people, are interested in science, and you have some mechanical ability, you will be predisposed to like respiratory care.”
Santa Fe’s respiratory care faculty and clinical instructors will be on hand to answer questions and counsel prospective students.
“This event is intended to foster greater awareness of the profession, and to recruit our own students,” Stephan said.
Santa Fe’s 18-month Respiratory Care program prepares students for a career in respiratory therapy which boasts a median annual salary of $52,200. Respiratory care therapists may work in home care, hospitals, critical care, operating rooms, emergency rooms, Life Flight, pulmonary function labs, bronchoscopy labs, asthma clinics, hyperbaric chambers, equipment sales and pulmonary health research.
“The current job market for respiratory care is excellent, and we have greater than a 90 percent job placement rate for students who graduate from the program,” Stephan added.
To apply to the program students must meet academic requirements and have successfully completed six pre-requisite courses. The application deadline is Nov. 1.
For more information, visit www.sfcollege.edu/healthsciences/respiratorycare/, or contact Program Director Paul Stephan at 352-395-5706 or paul.stephan@sfcollege.edu.