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Learn more about respiratory care careers; meetings planned

Deadline for program applications approaching

Jackson Community College’s respiratory care program prepares students for careers helping patients who experience difficulty with their heart or lungs. JCC launched the program in January 2007, and students have already been active in the community with service projects, including helping out at Camp Michi-MAC for children with asthma at YMCA Storer Camp in Napoleon.

Anyone interested in learning more about a career in respiratory therapy is invited to attend one of several informational presentationsat JCC in Justin Whiting Room 176, at 11 a.m. Aug. 27 and Sept. 10, or at 6 p.m. Aug. 28 and Sept. 11. The deadline for applications to the program is Sept. 28.

A respiratory therapist is a health professional who works in a hospital with patients who experience difficulty with their heart or lungs.  Respiratory therapists are primary health care providers in the intensive care unit because they operate the life support equipment (or ventilator). They also provide care for premature infants, persons injured in automobile accidents, asthmatics, chronic lung patients and heart attack victims, as well as work for home care companies and in many other locations where patients need their expertise.

Currently there is a shortage of therapists nationwide, including our local South Central Michigan area, said Ann Flint, respiratory care instructor and program coordinator. Respiratory care graduates who have passed their credentialing exams have been entering the job market with starting salaries up to $40,000 a year in our area.  Because the demand is so great, many students have even secured employment earning up to $14 per hour while still enrolled in the Respiratory Care program, Flint said. 

If you would like information on a career as a respiratory therapist, please attend one of the upcoming presentations. If you are interested in seeing first hand what a respiratory therapist does on the job, there will be hospital tours scheduled soon. Please call Flint at the below number or send an e-mail flintannm@jccmi.edu to reserve your spot.

With the deadline for applying to the program being Aug. 31,anyone interested in discussing entering the program may contact Ann Flint at 517.796.8684 during the day or leave a message with the best time to return your call. Also, feel free to look over the program requirements on the web at www.jccmi.edu/healthcareers/alliedhealth/resp. Respiratory care is a second-admit program, which means students first enroll in classes at the College and complete certain requirements before being admitted to the program. Therefore, students may want to look into enrolling now for the Fall term in any prerequisites note yet completed.