Burned out RRT of 7 years looking for a change, thinking about vent rep but don’t know where to start
Tl;dr Burned out RT that is absolutely done with bedside care and the state of the respiratory profession and how seemingly the vast majority of hospitals (bordering on this being universal from what I’ve seen and heard from all my former classmates and coworkers) and how other healthcare professions treat us and I want to become a vent rep but don’t know how to find such positions or where to start. Also open to alternative suggestions as I am just starting this “exit RT” journey!
Hello r/respiratorytherapy!
I am a currently traveling respiratory therapist with 7 years of experience who has realized/reached the point that I know I need to leave bedside RT, likely healthcare in general. I am incredibly burned out and done with the profession and our “healthcare system.“ (it’s such a joke it’s hard to call it that). Ive tried a number of different hospitals both in regular FT positions, PRN positions, and traveling (multiple hospitals across 5 states) and the issues I have with the profession/the work environment for RT is present at every one of them to a very high degree. I have run into hospitals (okay a single hospital personally, my current contract) that were far better than typical while traveling and 100% of the time in my experience and the experiences/what ive been told by other RTs that I keep in contact with, if a hospital is better for RTs and they actually let us practice anywhere near our scope, every single time they view being allowed to actually do the job as it is described on paper and in the schooling, and not treating us like absolute dogshit as a form of compensation and not a basic expectation one can have for a job.
The hospital I am currently working a contract is actually awesome. Yes there are a number of issues still and they get about 2/3rds towards what I am looking for, but still fall short. They are, however, hands down by far the best hospital I’ve worked at in how it is for RT and it’s not even close. I thought I finally found the kind of place I was looking for where we had respect, autonomy, were actually consulted and listened to, and I asked them about going full time. They do not negotiate on salary and their offer to me was 12/hr or 27% less than I made with 1 year or experience in a far lower cost of living state. Thatmakes it so this isn’t a matter of me not being willing to make less money to be happier either. It’s such a large pay cut that I actually wouldn’t be able to afford it. Frankly I don’t understand how any of the RTs here are able to work here because it’s legitimately not enough for me to provide for my family.
I acknowledge that there is almost certainly a hospital that is what I’m looking for both in work environment AND compensation but at this point, the fact that every hospital either utilizes and treats us like shit, or pays us like shit because they see good treatment as a form of pay, I’m just done and do not want to continue searching and hoping. The hatred I have for the system and how hospital administration, and management I’ve had, behaves is too far gone and I am too burned out, bitter, and done with it all to be reversed.
I cannot afford to put myself back through college and my relatively unique circumstances from my time in college make me ineligible for financial aid anyways, so it’s all private loans or out of pocket and I’m in my 30s and don’t really want to have to go back to school but I would if I absolutely had to. Reallh would rather not though. I am however entirely open to a trade apprenticeship (ie I would weigh it as a possibility even if it’s not strictly necessary whereas school I will only do if it is somehow strictly necessary). But what I actually want to do is be one of the vent reps that comes around our departments and familiarizes us with the vents and brings us lunches lol. I just have no idea how to do that or even what the job title is to put in applications for such a role in the first place. I was recently told that there was an open position to be such a rep in the exact region I want to go back to because I view it as my home and didn’t leave by choice as I was forced by circumstance, but I cannot find such a position on the website of the company.
My experiences have left me admittedly angry, bitter, and filled with regret for choosing to become an RT when my original healthcare career plans didn’t work out (really they were actually. straight up taken from me but I’m not getting into that here, certainly does enhance the anger I feel though especially when I’m constantly told that I “should have been X“ all the damn time and what is meant as a compliment is a unknowingly a painful reminder) instead of either going to nursing school, because it has 100x the flexibility and advancement opportunities and IME they get treated way better and get way more respect even though they’re not what I’d call well treated either (compared to us IME they are though) or not entering healthcare entirely and I have little interest in finding a good hospital that isn’t like the ones I’ve worked for thus far after 7 years and multiple attempts at finding one only to, at best, have the rug pulled out from under me. I’ve also been lied to by my interviewers about at least one major thing in 100% of cases. Nursing school is on the table but I have a deep loathing for the American healthcare system at this point and think it’s probably a better idea for me to leave it entirely.
So my two questions are, firstly, how do I start making moves towards becoming a rep? What job titles do I search for? Is this a possible move for me or is there some absurd requirement like “we only take people that have done bedside care for 10 years” or anything along those lines? Lastly, what other career moves can I consider making that are not bedside care but that I can utilize my experience and education to do? Thank you guys in advance for your help!
Edit: spelling, grammar