Careers

Discover all the reasons working at Rady Children's Hospital is the best choice for your career.

Respiratory Therapy Careers

Since Rady Children’s first opened its doors in 1954, respiratory therapists (RTs) have been caring for the children of the San Diego area. Today, a staff of more than 120 RTs cares for patients ranging from the critically ill infant to trauma patients in the Sam S. and Rose Stein Emergency Care Center to asthma patients in the clinics. Rady Children’s RTs pride themselves on being an integral part of the healthcare team, providing their expertise of the cardio-respiratory system and respiratory equipment to all areas of the Hospital.

Respiratory therapists provide care in the following areas:

• Emergency Care Center
• Pediatric intensive care
• Neonatal intensive care
• Intermediate care
• Medical/surgical care
• Transport
• Long-term care
• Pulmonary medicine

Emergency Care Center

The RTs who staff our Emergency Care Center receive specialized training in both pediatric and adult emergencies. They use protocols which have created therapist autonomy, decreased wait times and improved patient flow through the center. RTs also assist in the care for the 1,200 trauma patients for whom Rady Children's care each year as San Diego's only Level 1 pediatric trauma center.

Pediatric Intensive Care

When children need intensive care. they are treated in the 24-bed pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Some of the services provided in the PICU include, inhaled nitric oxide, high-frequency oscillatory ventilation, helium gas, sub-ambient oxygen and continuous medication administration. Children who undergo cardiac surgery also have a dedicated place in the unit. RTs participate in research studies and contribute to the development and implementation of pathways that improve the course of the patient’s hospital stay.

Neonatal Intensive Care

The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is a nursery for the most critically ill newborns. Rady Children’s is the destination for the treatment of patients referred to us from other NICUs in the communities we serve. There are more than 600 admissions to the unit every year, and many are surgical patients. The unit can accommodate up to 32 patients. Rady Children’s is the only facility in the San Diego area to provide extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support. Other services include inhaled nitric oxide, ventilator protocols, sub-ambient oxygen and helium gas.

Intermediate Care

Intermediate care offers a 30-bed unit for the patient whose needs fall between an intensive care environment and a medical/surgical unit. Therapists work closely with the medical staff and families of chronically ill patients to develop care plans and decide on the most appropriate modality of care. The patient population includes asthmatics, neuromuscular patients and bronchiolitis, as well as post-operative patients. Services offered on the IMU include home ventilator management, non-invasive ventilation, continuous nebulization, and a variety of chest physiotherapy techniques.

Medical/Surgical

The medical/surgical unit is divided into six pods that can accommodate a total of up to 60 patients. Education of asthma and cystic fibrosis patients and families is a priority of the floor. Services include continuous nebulizer therapy, a variety of chest physiotherapy techniques and pneumocardiograms. There are protocols that drive therapy for bronchiolitis treatment that have received national notoriety.

Transport

RTs at Rady Children’s Hospital are an integral part of Rady Children's Emergency Transport Team (CHET), serving both the neonatal and pediatric population of Southern California, Arizona and Hawaii. The team provides 24-hour emergency pediatric and neonatal critical care transport to more than 1,000 pediatric and 900 neonatal patients per year. The teams can be mobilized within minutes to respond by ambulance, helicopter or airplane. RTs are responsible for complete initial and on-going physical patient assessment and documentation.

RTs on the transport team complete both a didactic and hands-on training. The specialized training includes, but is not limited to, airway management, intravenous/intraosseous catheter placement, trauma management, x-ray interpretation, and needle thoracentesis. Transport members are also members the resuscitation team for the Hospital and the Trauma team.

Long-Term Care

There are opportunities for RTs at the Helen Bernardy Center for Medically Fragile Children. This is a pediatric long-term care facility that provides appropriate developmental services for medically fragile children. With the assistance from the respiratory therapy staff, the Hospital is able to accommodate children who need chronic ventilator support.

Pulmonary and Outpatient Clinics

The Pulmonary specialist performs various pulmonary function studies, including basic spirometry and carbon monoxide diffusion capacity, exercise-induced bronchospasm testing, methacholine challenge testing, and body plethysmography testing. The Specialist also assists with flexible bronchoscopies and scores pneumocardiograms. The specialist is instrumental in teaching cystic fibrosis, pulmonary and asthma patients about airway clearance techniques and respiratory therapy.

In our cystic fibrosis, asthma/allergy, and pulmonary clinics, therapists have the opportunity to teach various airway clearance techniques and respiratory therapy modalities to our patients.