Advanced Degrees and Competencies Matter

The UAMS College of Health Professions offers bachelors and masters degrees in respiratory care. A recent study demonstrates evidence that respiratory practitioners with bachelors and masters degrees have positive impact on patient outcomes.

Do patients cared for by RTs with higher degrees and greater competencies have better outcomes than those treated by RTs without those credentials? That’s the question researchers from Rush University asked in a study that compared outcomes among COVID-19 patients mainly treated by RTs with a bachelor’s degree or higher and adult critical care competencies and those mainly treated by RTs with an associate degree and no adult critical care competencies. Among the findings –

• 260 subjects (median age 59 years; 166 males) received clinical care from 132 RTs.
• RT median professional experience was six years, 70.8% had an advanced degree, and 70.8% had completed adult critical care competencies.
• The time-to-event multi-state regression model showed that patients with >85% exposure to RTs with advanced degrees transitioned 3.72 times more frequently to good outcomes than RTs without advanced degrees.
• Similarly, patients with >85% exposure to RTs with adult critical care competencies transitioned 5.10 times more frequently to good outcomes than RTs without adult critical care competencies.

The authors conclude, “This preliminary work suggests that advancing education for the respiratory therapist workforce may improve the discharge quality of patients with acute respiratory failure and should be further explored.” The study was funded by an AARC Vision Grant was published by the Canadian Journal of Respiratory Therapy on Sept. 8. READ FULL PAPER

Program Accreditation

The MSRC program (#220176) in Little Rock, Arkansas holds Provisional Accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (www.coarc.com). This status signifies that a program with an Approval of Intent has demonstrated sufficient compliance with the Standards (through submission of an acceptable Provisional Accreditation Self Study Report (PSSR) and any other documentation required by the CoARC, as well as satisfactory completion of an initial on-site visit), to be allowed to admit students. It is recognized as an accredited program by the National Board for Respiratory Care (NBRC), which provides enrolled students who complete the program with eligibility for the Respiratory Care Credentialing Examination(s). The program will remain on Provisional Accreditation until it achieves Continuing Accreditation.