Every breath you take
Upper Valley Medical Center

Profile: Jane Dwenger, Registered Respiratory Therapist
By KEN MOSIER
For Health Care Today

Her mother was a nurse. But Jane Dwenger decided that medicine was not really the field for her. "I was dead set on not going into the medical field," she said. "My grandpa had emphysema and my dad smoked and I was just like, 'just keep me away from sick people.' I decided to go into architecture and interior design.

"I finally surrendered and said, 'All right.'"

In hindsight she realizes that was a good move. She received an associate degree from Sinclair Community College and became a Registered Respiratory Therapist.

"I like helping people and I like the feeling I get — (for example) when you have an asthmatic in the emergency room and they are working so hard to breathe. You give them the medicine that opens them up and that first sigh of relief — nothing is better than that. You can just see the wave of calm go over them."

After graduation, Dwenger did a stint at Ohio State University Hospital in Columbus.

Besides respiratory therapy, Dwenger is currently assigned to the noninvasive cardiology floor at UVMC. "I do like the floor work but respiratory is my background."

She said RRTs can work in a variety of places from sleep labs to specializing in neonatal care.

"You can do the geriatric patients, you can do home health care — just anyone that needs to take a breath from day one to their last day. Anytime someone needs to breathe, you could be working with them," she said. Respiratory therapists respond to any hospital emergency calls.

Dwenger works day shift — although it wasn't always so.

"I worked nights here earlier when I first got out of college, and that has its pros and cons to it," she explained. "At night it is pretty much on your shoulders — there are two respiratory therapists for the whole hospital. So, if someone is having a baby or someone is in a car accident, you have (only) two people."

She said a typical day would be coming to work and discussing the patients with the outgoing shift during the half-hour in which the shifts overlap. "Then we give our treatments, we check the beds, we check our BiPap machines. Then we begin our second round of treatments.

She added that there is a Certified Respiratory Therapist designation but that both therapists would be doing the same work. "The CRT is more book-smarts, more facts, figures and equations. The RRT is more applied — like 'what do you do when a kid falls off a truck?'" she explained.

	Sue Kern does a bedside check on a 1-month-old Lance Richmond.

"You can do the geriatric patients, you can do home health care — just anyone that needs to take a breath from day one to their last day. Anytime someone needs to breathe, you could be working with them," she said. Respiratory therapists respond to any hospital emergency calls.

Dwenger works day shift — although it wasn't always so.

"I worked nights here earlier when I first got out of college, and that has its pros and cons to it," she explained. "At night it is pretty much on your shoulders — there are two respiratory therapists for the whole hospital. So, if someone is having a baby or someone is in a car accident, you have (only) two people."

She said a typical day would be coming to work and discussing the patients with the outgoing shift during the half-hour in which the shifts overlap. "Then we give our treatments, we check the beds, we check our BiPap machines. Then we begin our second round of treatments.

She added that there is a Certified Respiratory Therapist designation but that both therapists would be doing the same work. "The CRT is more book-smarts, more facts, figures and equations. The RRT is more applied — like 'what do you do when a kid falls off a truck?'" she explained.