Eight Master's degrees to advance your career in Healthcare!
So, if you have your Bachelor's degree in Respiratory Therapy and want to continue your education, there are several fields you can go into.
MSRC - M.S. Respiratory Care
This is the obvious choice for people who want to advance their career in Respiratory Care. This is a good option if you are interested in doing RT research, teach in RT education, or pursue managerial opportunities at the hospital you are currently employed at. This might be a good choice. One other word of advice is if you are planning to stay in the field of Respiratory Care, then this is a good choice for you. If you would like to expand into another field, then this would not be the best choice for you. Below are a couple of links to schools that have a one year masters program in RC.
APRT - Advanced Practice Respiratory Therapy
This is a new program that recently opened up at Ohio State University in the past few years. The APRT credential is a masters program designed to prepare an Advance Practice Respiratory Therapist to fill the roll of an advanced practice provider such as a Nurse Practitioner, or Physician Assistant. Many of the classes they take are with the nurse practitioner students and they take courses that do not only apply to the cardiopulmonary system, but the body as a whole, because they will be treating and managing care for the entire patient, cardiopulmonary system included. Read this article from the AARC about the first graduating class of APRT students.
Note, this is a new profession that will definitely move our profession forward, however, make sure you get all the information you need to make sure you will be able to get reimbursed for your services, just like any other advanced practice provider. I don't know enough about this specific program to speak on it myself, but I will drop this YouTube video here so you can watch one of the students in the first graduating class give her firsthand experience of being in the program, and the prospects of finding a job she loves.
MSPA - Master's of Science in Physician Assistant Studies
This is the degree most healthcare workers are more familiar with. If you are looking to advance your career in healthcare, this may be an option for you. To become a Physician Assistant, you need to have a completed bachelors degree and specific prerequisite courses completed within a certain timeframe of graduation. Many of these courses are heavy into the biological sciences, so if you don't have them built into your respiratory therapy degree, you may need to go back to school to satisfy these prerequisite courses. These courses also expire, so be mindful of the timetable. Also, some PA schools have different prerequisite courses than other schools. You're basically going to have to make an excel sheet! But, again, this is another good option for advancing your career in healthcare if you choose to do so.
MSAA - Master's of Science in Anesthesiology Assistance
So, most healthcare workers have heard CRNA degrees, well this degree is similar. So, to my knowledge, the job is very similar if not the same as being a nurse anesthetist, however, the manner in which you go about getting your degree and certification is a little bit different. So, I had a friend get this degree after she graduated with her Bachelor's in Biomedical Science, (one of the smartest girls I know!) She completed this degree in two years and now is an AA in the Dallas area. They do require that applicants take the MCAT before entering the program.
The link below is the school she went to. Now the student loans are tremendous, however, just look into it if you're interested.
Cardiovascular Perfusionist
This degree is good if you want to make money and work in the OR where the patient's are getting surgery all day. The cardiovascular perfusionist is the person who mans the bypass machine during cardiopulmonary surgeries and/or transplants. The bypass machine is what keeps pumping the blood throughout the body while they are operating on the heart or lungs.
How to become a Perfusionist: If you want to be a perfusionist, then you need to become an ECMO specialist first. This is going to give you your best shot at getting into the program. These class sizes are very small, maybe 6-10 people and that's why they want someone who has experience with the concepts of bypass, which would be ECMO specialists. Some programs have student loan options, but other programs do not have student loan options. It is important to look into the programs before you start down this career path.
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